Daily Thought for Change

Nudge - don’t push. Step - don't leap.

Helping people change what they do? That’s my thing.

Behavior change isn’t small.
When you change behavior - you change everything else:
Better results. Better habits. Better teams. Better business. Better people.

I’ve been reading another book on change—about turnarounds and transformations.

One thing I loved in it:
It wasn’t about changing minds or fixing beliefs, fixing people.
It was about nudges.
Tiny adjustments that make the right behavior easier. It changed entire organizations without draconian overhauls.

Nudges work because they respect the brain.

Your brain’s main job?
Save energy.
It’s not looking for deep thinking or moral debates, or the biggest change out there.
Your brain wants default settings.
Low effort. Clear path.

Nudges provide that.
They make the desired action easy enough to just happen. No change of beliefs or person required.

There’s a model supported by research that talks to that by Dr. BJ Fogg:

Behavior = Motivation × Ability × Prompt

Nudges increase ability (make it simpler).
They also act as prompts (reminders to act).
So you get more action… with a lot less push.

I’m seeing this in my own work all the time. I stopped trying to change people - I started helping them make new behavior easy. When you change what you do, overtime, YOU change.

I'm working on my sales and offers and I caught myself thinking, perhaps I'm asking too much too fast?
Buy in. Go deep. Decide fast. But maybe, instead of asking for commitment, I could make it easier to take one small step towards the solution?

Lower the lift.
Remove friction.
Let momentum do the work.

When we try to change what we do, or what others do, it’s useful to ask not how do I make them change their mind, or who they are, but how can I make the decision/action I want easy and simple for them?

Coach Angela,