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“But I wasn’t properly trained!”

It’s a familiar excuse when people are found in breach of some sort of requirement. 

• During Covid it was protective equipment protocols.
• In restaurants, food handling standards.
• In organisations, security or privacy regulations.

But what does properly trained actually mean?

To be properly trained means behaviour needs to change.

We need to influence people to do X instead of Y.

Yet most training programs are based on...

"You can't change an organisation by just talking about why change is necessary...You have to integrate people's desire for money, influence, and power..." Rishad Tobaccowala

These desires are usually unstated, but know that they’re there.

Here's the subtlety, though.

It’s not gaining money, influence and power that really motivates, although that’s nice.

It’s losing these things.

The main reason change initiatives fail is people’s fear of losing...

I've been having serious computer issues recently – repeated crashes and lots of frustrating downtime. 

The immediate cause is iMovie, the video editing software I use. I've been putting up with these problems because I know how to use the software and all my videos are stored there

However, this isn't just a technology issue; it's a behavioural one. 

I'm sacrificing productivity and sanity for the comfort of familiarity. 

By clinging to what I know, even though...

In my experience, changing personal behaviour looks like this:

1. “I should” - recognising the need for change
2. “I will” - resolving to change
3. “I am” - doing something different or differently
4. “I did” - moving from the original intent

Each stage has its challenges.

1. I should

I should exercise more. I should eat differently. I should call my loved ones more. I should work less.

Shoulds can feel exceptionally draining because this type of...

What’s the most fundamental life skill that doesn't get formally taught?

Behaviour.

Would you like to change that?

In a few hours I'm taking to the stage at IntuitMailchimp's From Here: To There sold-out conference, sharing ideas with 400 marketers in how to solve the Click Conundrum. 

Last week I spoke to around 60 web and user experience designers in an ASX 50 insurance company.

A few weeks before that I spoke with a sales and marketing leadership team from one of...

Humans like knowing 2 things:

• What will happen. 
• Why it happened.

Both stem from control. We want to make sense of our world so it doesn’t seem chaotic.

In your business you will wonder:

• What will happen when we send this email out? Release this product? Raise my prices?

And later:

• Why didn’t people open our emails? Buy our products? Pay our prices?

Meanwhile, your customers will be thinking:

• What will happen when I click that button? Take that product...

After Stonehenge, the Roman Baths in Bath is the UK’s second most popular tourist attraction. Making a wish was big business for the Baths, with visitors throwing more than $170,000 worth of coins into the pool annually.

When coins were banned, that all changed.

From March 2022, visitors have instead been asked to make a contactless payment or put money in a cash box.

But most chose not to. Only $4,500 was donated last year.

Now, there are clear reasons why banning coins was...

When an indoor plant is struggling, our instinct is to give it more water.

But that can drown the plant, making it worse.

Some managers are like this, and far too many sales people.

They can tell the person they are engaging with is struggling, but they keep talking anyway.

They share more advice or more information, which only adds to overwhelm.

Overwhelm is one of three core issues when you are trying to influence behaviour, along with Apathy (I can’t be bothered) and Anxiety...

The easiest way to endure an ice bath is to stay still.

A thermal layer forms, protecting you from the cold.

But the lack of movement becomes a problem the longer you stay in because you aren’t circulating blood as well to your extremities.

In business we might feel fine in our thermal layer. Comfortable even.

  But this is a long game. You’ve got to keep moving.

To disrupt the status quo and keep your business moving, see how to influence action.

Change management isn’t really about behaviour.

Back when I worked in corporate, we'd have rounds of Change Management.

Yes, that's Change Management with a capital C and M.

Because Change Management was a program of work. A process to shepherd the workforce from one system to another. This could be new software, new policies or a new management methodology.

That means it's about changing behaviour, right?

We participated in hours of briefings and brain storms to ensure we were engaged,...