What tools do you need to succeed?
One of the best things about behavior change is how versatile it is. But this strength can also make it really daunting to learn, especially when you’re just starting out. The behavior change toolkit is complex and varies quite a lot depending on who you ask. Someone with a public health background and someone with a retail sales background might both be “behavior change experts” in their own right, but will likely use vastly different tools to support their (also vastly different) behavior change goals. So where does that leave a generalist practitioner who wants to be equipped to tackle many different behavior change contexts? On this page, we’ve put together some of the more context-agnostic tools that a behavior change expert might use.
If you’re just starting out, be aware that behavior change experts tend to specialize in certain tools, and sometimes even over-rely on them. Ideally, you should be proficient in a wide variety of the tools listed below so you can apply the best one to whatever situation comes your way. For example, if you're only familiar with nudges and incentives, you might miss opportunities to leverage social influence or habit formation techniques that could be more effective in certain scenarios. A well-rounded behavior change practitioner should be able to draw from cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, social psychology, and even elements of design thinking, UX, and marketing to create comprehensive strategies.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you’ll often hear about behavior change frameworks—something we cover in full in the next section of this guide. These frameworks aren’t exactly ingredients in the toolkit we’ve assembled below. They’re more like pre-packaged bundles of tools. So, some of them may focus much more on social aspects of behavior change while others are concerned with habit formation or gamification. But before getting into any of that, take a look at the ingredients below as they'll allow you to customize your approach and understand the underlying principles of various frameworks. This foundational knowledge will enable you to critically evaluate existing frameworks, adapt them to your specific needs, and even create your own when necessary.
The toolkit
Some key tools in a generalist's behavior change toolkit might include:
When dissecting research, we’ve got to keep in mind the difference between correlation and causation to truly understand the larger implications of the findings. While correlation simply implies a relationship or association between two variables, causation means that one variable directly produces a change in the other. This article will give you a rundown of both concepts, highlighting when one works better than the other and how they both impact the interpretation of research.
Behavioral Diagnosis Techniques
Before trying to figure out how to change behavior, you first need to figure out what it is you want to change. Through behavioral diagnosis techniques, we can design more effective interventions, creating strategies that address motivators, barriers, and diverse contexts. This article will show you how a targeted approach increases the likelihood of successful behavior change and helps sustain long-term outcomes.
When it comes to behavior change, it can all lie in how you frame it. The way choices are presented—even in the case of equivalent options—can influence our decisions and how we perceive our subsequent actions. As you’ll see in this piece, time and time again, framing has been proven to be a powerful tool in guiding behavior. By carefully considering how we present information, we can impact the choices people make, making it a crucial element in any behavior change strategy.
Choice Architecture Principles
Like framing, choice architecture refers to the environment in which we make decisions. In this article, learn about how cues push us in different directions, causing us to walk paths we might not have taken on our own—and, when used correctly, can encourage people to make better choices.
We’ve established that we don’t make decisions in a vacuum. A lot of our choices are also based on the precedent set by others or the recommendations of our peers. Behavior change strategies can be made even more effective by getting social backing. Read about the science behind why, when we see our friends, family, or even people we admire making certain choices, we're more likely to follow suit.
It’s commonly thought that intrinsic motivation is one of the most powerful forms, but there are indeed extrinsic ways to encourage people to do things. Incentives can be anything from financial rewards for completing tasks to recognition and praise for achievements. Businesses often use incentives to boost performance, and therapists use incentive-based behavioral contracts to help clients stick to a plan. But as you’ll see, behavior change requires a delicate balance between external rewards and personal drive.
This article gives you a rundown on the biggest behavior change buzzword: nudge. Nudging works by subtly tweaking our environment so that the preferred option stands out or is easier to pick. Think of putting healthier snacks at eye level to encourage better eating or setting up default options for retirement savings to get more people to save.
If you want people to do things, you have to make it fun. This is the basic idea behind gamification, where game design elements are used to motivate people to achieve various goals. Think about language learning platforms where you earn coins for completing a lesson, or fitness apps that reward you with badges for reaching a new personal best. As you’ll see, gamification allows you to leverage people’s inherent enjoyment from games while promoting behavior change.
Whether you realize it or not, most of what you do day-to-day is some sort of habit. Brushing your teeth before bed, checking your phone first thing in the morning, and taking the same route to work every day are all examples of habits. These actions feel instinctual, almost second nature, which makes it clear that the habit-forming mechanism is a powerful tool we can harness to drive meaningful behavior change.
Wanting to change is often not the problem—many of us recognize when something is just not working. But finding the motivation to actually change it is another problem altogether. This article will introduce you to motivational interviewing, a counseling technique that aims to boost intrinsic motivation (the stuff you need to really change things in the long run).
