What does it take to change behaviour, successfully?

Good question. It’s human nature to rely heavily on habits (what we did last time) and to always seek the pathway of least resistance. We’re efficient like that, or lazy. And when someone tells us to do something different to our norm, we either don’t do it, we do a bad job of it, or we do it once and then return to our old habits.

So what’s the key to making behaviour change that sticks? Well, there are actually three things you need for behaviour change to be successful, and sustainable.

1. Desire. First, you must want to change, put in the effort, and make it a priority.
2. Knowledge. Then, you need to know what to do, when, where and how to do it. ‍
3. Skills. And finally, you need to be able to do it properly, effectively and with confidence.

Now, imagine removing one of these key elements.

If someone doesn't want to change a behaviour, what’s the chance of it happening? If someone doesn’t know how to go about adopting a new behaviour, how will they get started? And if they haven’t got the skills to perform their new behaviour, how will they do it successfully?

To build successful behaviour change, you need a combination of all three key elements. If you’re missing one, then you’ll often not sustain the change you’re attempting.

Supporting change in your team  

Change doesn’t just happen. The Nike catchphrase ‘Just do it’ is fine and well for someone with all the motivation to change, the know-how and the tools to make it happen. For most of us though, we need a bit of support.

So this is where you come in. The manager. The instigator. The behaviour change cheerleader.

When promoting behaviour change within your team, your first job is to work out what key element is missing. Once you've figured this out, you’ll need to provide the missing element (or elements), wrapped in an experience your team will appreciate.

If there's a lack of desire to change, you might want to make a value proposition to get your team’s buy-in. Find out what will motivate them. You know what’s in it for them to change their behaviour?  

If it’s knowledge or skills that are missing, that's where we come in. Working with you, RedSeed will create knowledge-based learning that’s engaging, relevant and designed to give your team everything they need to know to begin the process of change.

Then, to move the knowledge into action, we use a pretty cool tool called RedSeed Coach. This tool guides, reminds and supports the teams managers (instigators, cheerleaders) to coach and support their team to practise and refine their new behaviour until they become skilled and confident in it.

The end result, the new behaviour is now the team's new norm.  

So, if you’re looking to lead change in your workplace, start with identifying what's missing to make it happen. Then, let’s chat.

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