Attempts at changing team behaviour or culture often fail, and end up wasting the resources put into those initiatives. So, how can you succeed? Based on my research and experience, here are my ten keys to help to maximise your chances of forging new team behaviours that last.
The 10 keys
- Listen to others. It’s hard to make an effective plan without truly understanding the situation. So, get other’s perspectives – especially the people who will be doing new behaviours. Understanding their perspective is vital, since it needs to work for them. Also, involve outsiders with experience and expertise, since that is what enables people to quickly identify what’s most important.
- Legitimise time for it. Allocate time for the new behaviour, for practice and the long-term. Make sure people know it’s important and feel able to do in instead of their normal pressing tasks. Assign time in schedules, meetings, or processes. Embed time for the new behaviour into how the team operates.
- Highlight it often. Ensure the new behaviour gets attention. Static messaging like posters and notes can be useful, but we quickly adapt to them. So, find novel ways to give it repeated attention. Identify champions who will talk about it with the team – especially ones who are more socially influential. Giving it attention doesn’t mean telling people to do it over and over again, it means getting people to cognitively engage with it.
- Set up good payoffs. As much as possible, set up short-term payoffs for the new behaviour that are clear, certain, immediate, and valuable. In contrast, change the payoffs for the old behaviour so that offers less short-term reward than the new behaviour. Consider the social payoffs (e.g. going with the crowd) associated with the new behaviour.
- Make it meaningful. Change is a kind of adversity – it’s uncomfortable and takes effort at first. Meaning is what makes us willing to go through adversity, so building a sense that the new behaviour is meaningful is critical. Share the vision that the new behaviour steps toward. Incorporate the new behaviour into a larger story, a narrative that makes it purposeful and worthwhile. When it comes to motivation, don’t try to cut corners and simply incentivise, inspire.
- Make it easy. Try to make the new behaviour easier than the old one. The more complex the behaviour, the longer it takes to adapt to it and feel like it’s easy. So, break it up into smaller changes if need be. If you can, make the old behaviour harder. Sometimes, changes in the situation (e.g. a relocation) make the old behaviour impossible, which makes it easier to establish the new one.
- Provide support. Support the new behaviour and facilitate practice with it, especially at first. Offer workshops, one-to-one support, or follow-up groups to help people through the details. Talk with people in person about it to help people with sticking points.
- Celebrate successes. If and when people do the new behaviour, show your appreciation. Thank them in person and in a group context. Use successes as platforms to talk about the benefits of the behaviour, the vision it is working toward, and the story it is part of.
- Create a good fit. Tweak the new behaviour so it connects with what is already established in the team. Find ways that established behaviours can cue or reinforce the new one. If there are not existing behaviours that can help fuel the new one, try to reimagine the form or context of behaviour to give it a better chance of integrating with existing habits.
- Learn and adapt. Suitable behaviours that last tend to emerge in the right conditions – they cannot be planned fully in advance. Don’t set yourself up for failure by planning new behaviours fully in advance and then finding they aren’t quite right. Put effort into clarifying the vision and story, yes, but keep the details of how to reach them flexible. Learn with the team as you go. Successful changes are going to be theirs as much as the are yours.
The more of these keys you can tick, the more likely you’ll succeed in creating enduring changes in behaviour and, in turn, team culture.
Why these keys matter
To see why these keys help with changing team behaviour, we need to look at what underlying factors contribute to successful behaviour change initiatives. As someone who has spent more than a decade researching this topic, I have identified some key principles based on findings from neuroscience and psychology that I’ve outlined in this article and this article.
It all comes down to why people engage in new behaviours. In the moment they engage in a behaviour, three key prerequisites are always met:
- Opportunity – Being able to do it
- Activation – Thinking about it
- Preference – Wanting to do it
To succeed at changing team behaviour, take steps to make each of those become reinforced over time. If those three factors become stronger and stronger, the desired behaviour will ultimately become more ingrained and stable over time. Conversely, if any factors become weaker and weaker, the behaviour will fade away.
The keys I’ve outlined above help to reinforce these three factors, making it more likely that the new behaviour will stick.
Have you seen any of these 10 ideas being implemented? How do they fit with your experience. What are some other important ideas? I’d love to hear your comments!
For a more satirical take on these, see this post.
Drawing on over a decade of research into the science of how individuals, leaders, and teams work best, Reuben is a trusted advisor and partner for navigating complex challenges. His articles distil complex ideas and present practical insights, so you don't have to do the research yourself. With an authentic approach and genuine empathy for his clients, Reuben is a valuable asset to any organisation.
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