Individual Behaviour Change
Underpinning i2a's approach to behaviour change is the principle that a few key people have a disproportionate affect on the rate and sustainability of any change. These key people can help an organisation reach a 'tipping point' after which the change becomes contagious and unstoppable.
Our work is based around satisfying three necessary and sufficient conditions for individual behaviour change: 1) an individual wants to change, 2) the individual is able to change and 3) the individual is encouraged (or not punished) to change. In order to meet these conditions we work with four distinct groups of people in any organisation:
- Advocates believe in the change and want to share their experience and enthusiasm
- Incubators are thinking about the change
- Apathetics haven't heard about, or don't care about, the change
- Resistors challenge or undermine the change
The ultimate goal is not only to increase the number of Advocates, but to ensure that the number of people joining the Advocate pool is very much greater than the number of people leaving it - this is the tipping point. Conventional approaches often neglect people once they have become Advocates, which leads to large numbers of people dropping out of the Advocate pool (because of frustration, disenchantment, exhaustion, etc.) and creates a state of equilibrium where the change stalls.
To achieve this goal requires a combination of different approaches. For example, we engineer contact between the Advocates and Apathetics to win the Apathetics over to the cause; plan and deliver 'mass exposure' programmes that target Incubator, Apathetic and Resistor audiences; advise on the strategic hiring of Advocates, or removing of Resistors, both of which can be important accelerators.
Change is an opportunity for leadership to lead by example. We coach leaders so that they demonstrate the new behaviours or follow the new process, which has a significant beneficial impact (and the reverse is equally true).
We refine reward and recognition mechanisms, both formal and informal, so that they are aligned with the change goals; this is one key area that if overlooked inhibits change across an organisation.
