Behavioural Change and how you can measure it?

There are four main factors that affect behaviour:

• People … this is about the way people actually do their work.
• Structure … this is how an organisation is structured and how those structures interact with each other
• Environment … this is related to both culture and to the physical environment in which people work
• Technology … this is specifically about the technology people use for different aspects of their jobs

By understanding how these elements interact with one another, improvements can be made. While some factors are more easily controlled by the organization, such as its structure or people hired, it still must be able to respond to external factors and changes in the economic environment.

BEHAVIOUR MUST BE OBSERVABLE

A key part of behaviour change is to recognise that behaviour, by definition, must be observable in some way, shape or form.?A behaviour can be verbal, non-verbal or physical behaviour.?However, a behaviour cannot be ‘perception’ or ‘thinking’ since these cannot be observed nor displayed necessarily.?

Another feature in behaviour change is that the behaviour is to be changed from the current state to a future state.?The quantum of the change determines the complexity of the change required and the extent to which a series of change interventions is required to achieve the desired future state.?This means, if the behaviour change is easy from the impacted person’s perspective, then the change approach can be fairly light and does not need to be complex.?However, if the quantum of the change is large, then a heavy design of change interventions is expected to achieve the outcome.

MEASURING BEHAVIOURS

Measuring behaviours is absolutely critical because without effective measurement it is difficult to ascertain to what extent the desired behaviours have been obtained and sustained.?It’s the old adage “what gets measured matters”.

So what categories are there in which to measure behaviours? Well there are many considerations or dimensions in measuring behaviours such as:

And what are some of the ways in which to measure behaviours? Here are some common approaches and methodologies (not exhaustive) used to measure Behavioral Change:

Quantitative

• Surveys and Questionnaires ... create surveys or questionnaires with specific questions designed to gauge behaviours before and after the intervention or change.
• Behavioural Observations ... conduct structured observations to directly observe and record behaviuor.
• Diaries and Logs ... ask individuals to maintain diaries or logs to track their behaviors over time.

Qualitative

• Interviews ... conduct in-depth interviews with individuals to understand their experiences, motivations, and perspectives regarding the behavioral change.
• Focus Groups... bring together a small group of individuals who have undergone behavioral change and facilitate discussions to explore their experiences and perceptions.

Successful and fully embedded Behavioural Change is almost up there with the holy grail of Change Management …Usage and Adoption … in achieving successful outcomes but this is not always easy. However if you have the right focus and adopt a structured approach to design behaviour change this will ensure initiative success.?Don’t be afraid of experimenting to test different ways in which to drive Behaviour Change.?Keep iterating with different approaches to drive the full adoption of behaviours, which in turn will then ensure the full achievement of initiative benefits.

FOGG BEHAVIOUR MODEL

The first one is a behaviour change model from a Dr BJ Fogg a Stanford professor who founded the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University.?The Fogg Behaviour Model is incredibly simple and practical. It is grounded and backed up by significant empirical research and not just an ‘opinion’ and it highlights 3 key elements that must converge at the same time for a behaviour to occur.??

1. Motivation – Different motivators have different impacts on behaviour
2. Ability – This refers to how easy it is to undertake a behaviour … some characteristics include time, money, physical effort, brain cycles (or ease of understanding and processing the task at hand), social deviance (the extent to which a behaviour is out of the social norm), and non-routine (behaviour that disrupts an existing routine).
3. Prompt/Trigger – These are reminders of events that prompt a particular behaviour ... it could be an alarm, an associated image/event/person/scent, etc that reminds the person of the behaviour.

McKINSEY'S FOUR LEVERS OF CHANGE

The second one is McKinsey's four levers of influence model of which the four cornerstones are role modeling, understanding and conviction, talent and skills and formal mechanisms which goes something like this... I will change my mindset and behaviour if …

1. Role Modelling … I see my leaders, colleagues and staff behaving differently
2. A Compelling Story … I understand what is being asked of me and it makes sense
3. Reinforcement Mechanisms … I see our structures, processes and systems support the change
4. Skills Required for Change … I have the skills and opportunities to behave in the new way

That’s it again … not all my own work but then sometimes you have to bow to a greater authority for some things. It’s called learning and I still do that even at my tender young age.

As always I am happy to entertain questions, provide clarification etc. And of course get the usual reactions, comments and shares.