“Make it easy for me to improve my life”
Stephen Welch, IABC member and Director at Archetypical, reflects on on our first event of the year.
Last week, IABC UK & I held its first event of the year. This is the beginning of a packed agenda for 2023, and it was great to start the year with a bang: Habits, not Resolutions.
Most of us make New Year’s Resolutions; and some of them even last until Epiphany. Why is it so hard to change behaviour – your own or others’? How do you make it easy for people to improve their lives?
Habits, not Resolutions was a great IABC UK & I event to explore these challenges, with plenty of new approaches and solutions.
Image by Drew Beamer on Unsplash
First we heard from Suzanne Ellis of Lansons….
For me, her key message was “purpose inspires, values guide, habits define”, but of course there is much more to it than that. As she says:
“Culture is much more than collective habitual behaviours. If employees don’t feel intrinsically motivated by new habitual behaviours, pushing these onto employees will only ever be a symbolic gesture. And our communications efforts will fall on deaf ears. The Fogg Behaviour model helps a lot here.
Next up, we heard from Ben Caspersz
"One critical aspect of influencing habitual behaviours is the first phase - discovery - by which I mean analysing and scoping what's really going on. In particular, when it comes to habits, using reported data alone is rarely enough to build a complete picture, because so much comes down to automatic (non-conscious) behaviours. We'll likely need to use observation to see what's happening in practice, rather than relying on what people say they do.”
Ben’s focus was around how to help people go from awareness to action. We all ‘know’ what to do to improve our lives, but often don’t get around to doing it. A clear example of this is the UK Government’s ‘5-a-day’ programme, encouraging people to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. This programme has achieved very high awareness but low action. Why?
As Howard Krais, IABC UK&I Past President, says: “The example around working on the '5 a day’ programme was a great example that we could all relate to. The other thing that Ben said that really resonated with me is that change needs to make things easier. That is often not the case - where change might make it easier for the organisation but more complicated for the individual. Many new enterprise wide systems would have that in common!”
“It is often easier to change the environment than to change minds”, Ben continues. Visual prompts, such as road markings or footprints on the floor, can guide behaviour. But these wear off, so need to be refreshed. ‘Environment’ also applies to process, as Martin Gilbraith, an attendee and Certified Professional Facilitator, comments:
“As a professional facilitator, I know well how much difference the choice or venue or online platform, and the room layout or configuration of digital tools, can make to participant engagement and so to the experience and outcomes of an event. As volunteer website manager for my walking group the Gay Outdoor Club since last year, I am finding it much more fruitful to make minor tweaks to the site to enable members to more easily do what they are trying to do, rather than try to explain how they can already do it!”
There are many models of change. Ben mentioned BCOM and the Fogg model. There is of course also the ‘Bushcraft’ IABC model of change which was presented by Mike Pounsford at the IABC World Conference in 2018. (Please get in touch if you want more info.)
Finally Dr Torie Chilcott, who gave us some great examples of how to create impact and behaviour change using the FUBI model: make your work Funny, Useful, Beautiful, and Inspiring.
She reminded us that a lot of organizational communication is Useful and sometimes even Inspiring. Funny is much more common than it used to be (for example airline safety films) such as this link, and of course from my home country .
Let’s be clear: despite recent research, “Mesolimbic dopamine release conveys causal associations” ,
it is generally agreed that we learn more when we are having fun. This is why it is important to have fun at work.
However, Torie suggested that, now we often see humorous communications that tickle your humerus, perhaps organisations need to focus on the Beautiful. How do we create incorporate imagery that meets or exceeds what we see in our private life?
“I really loved hearing from Dr Torie Chilcott, founder of FUBI.AI, about their ‘FUBI’ approach to audience segmentation and how that influences content strategy. It was really interesting to learn how they apply marketing insights to further enhance internal comms.” (Naomi Goodman, Brave & Bolder)
Photo by Prophsee Journals on Unsplash
Where does leave us?
‘Habits, not resolutions’ reminds us that changing behaviour is not simple. You need to make it inspiring, fun, simple, and easy.
“It was such a refreshing start to the year, with relatable examples and solutions shared. I enjoyed conversations about comms campaigns that led to desired attitudinal changes and how this was done. I also loved the new connections made after. Looking forward to future events.” Eduvie Martin, Group Internal Communications Manager, BAT, and IABC UK & Ireland Board member.
“I love IABC events as they bring together brilliant communications professionals from multiple disciplines. The speakers each had a different take on the topic at hand and the breakout session gave me insight into my own preferences. I enjoyed hearing about the use research to inform core messaging - and the power of imagery - to target comms more effectively.” Lisa Riemers, Lisa Riemers Ltd.
