Behavior Shaping: A Scientific Approach to Organizational Change

One question I hear a lot is "How do you know your strategy will work when we've tried change initiatives before and they never last?"

I get it. You roll out a new initiative with great hopes, everyone is initially excited and three months later....nothing has changed.

The reason? There's a scientific explanation for this - and even better - a solution. It's called behavior shaping, and it's about to change how you think about organizational change.

Let's Get Real About Change

Think about teaching a child to ride a bike. You don't start by putting them on a two-wheeler and giving them a push. (Maybe you do, but let's assume you want to avoid those immediate wipe outs, tears, and scraped knees!)

Instead, learning to ride a bike typically starts even before you purchase the bike. A tricycle helps the child learn to balance. You then transition them to a bike with training wheels, gradually raise them, then remove one, then finally take them both off. Each step builds confidence and skill.

This is exactly what behavior shaping is about - but instead of learning to ride a bike, let's do it for your organization.

Why Your Current Approach Might Be Backfiring

I recently worked with a CEO who was frustrated because her team wasn't adopting a new patient-centered care model. "I've explained it a thousand times," she told me. "We've trained, we've repeated. It just isn't sticking!"

The problem? They were trying to go from zero to one hundred in one big leap. It's like expecting someone to learn to ride the bike with no training wheels the first time they get on. What's more, the training we do in organizations is more like showing the child a video of someone riding a bike and then saying "you got it?"

The Secret: Small Steps, Big Impact

To turn things around we broke the final goal into small steps.

Week 1: Ask one patient their preferences during session.

Week 2: Incorporate these preferences into their treatment plan.

Week 3: Collect patient feedback on this change.

Week 4: Incorporate patient's preferences into additional treatment decisions.

Week 5-7: Repeat with a second client.

Week 8: Repeat with all clients.

We also provided a weekly check in to ensure they remained on track. If they didn't meet the goal for the week, we repeated it.

In 6 months, we analyzed how many patients felt they had a collaborative role in their treatment. The result? Over 90% of clients felt their concerns and preferences helped direct the treatment they received.

Making It Work For Your Organization

Hopefully now you see the secret is that transformation occurs in small steps towards the goal.

What is the change you are working towards? Can you break it into smaller steps? The key is that you want the steps to be too easy - to almost feel as though you aren't moving forward enough. The reason? People can make small changes that don't feel like a lot of new work more easily, making it more likely you will get the targeted change.

Here's another example. One team needed to improve their communication and were relying too heavily on email.

Week 1: At the beginning of the work week, the team leader prepared a 5-min video with necessary updates.

Week 2: An email with important points was added to the video.

Week 3: A 5-min week review meeting was added at the end of the work wee.

The Game-Changing Question

The key to making this work is to determine the smallest possible step that can be taken to move towards the goal.

Create your steps, then ask "is there a smaller step we could take?"

If the answer is yes, make the step smaller. Repeat this until you can't make it any smaller.

Reality Check!

I can see you rolling your eyes or saying to yourself "We don't have time for baby steps. We need change now!"

The truth is: You can spend six months trying to force immediate change that doesn't stick, or you can take six months to systematically shape the behavior change and ensure it lasts. Either way, you've invested six months. The decision is whether you want to be exhausted and without real change or to feel empowered and satisfied the change occurred and is lasting.

Try It Out

Ready for an organizational change? Here's how to do it:

1. Pick one change you are working on
2. Break it down into the smallest steps possible
3. Decide how you'll recognize and monitor progress at each step
4. Implement step one
5. Measure progress
6. When mastered, implement step two
7. Continue until change has occurred!