5 Ways to Use Social Influence to Facilitate Behavior Change
70% of organizational changes fail. I feel strongly that almost every training project is a change project. So, how do we successfully facilitate change?
One essential element is social influence.
We have to create the environment and the relationships to help our audience create and sustain the change. But how do we do that? I'm sharing five ways to use social influence to facilitate behavior change in this episode.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
00:58 Why most changes fail
03:00 Getting clear on the change you are trying to make
04:09 5 Ways to use social influence to facilitate behavior change
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5 Ways to Use Social Influence to Facilitate Behavior Change
I'm not a morning person, but I love getting an early start to my day.
I know it's contradictory.
I want to get up and get going, but when the alarm goes off in the morning, I never feel rested enough. I never pop up just eager to start my day. So I'm reflecting on what I may need to change to get there, to make this change.
They say about 90% of New Year's resolutions fail.
Why do they fail?
James Clear, behavior change expert and author of Atomic Habits (which I recommend reading if you haven't), shares five reasons we're often unsuccessful. One of these reasons is we haven't created the right environment for success.
What does he mean by environment?
People
Things
Systems
“Our behaviors are often a simple response to the environment we find ourselves in.” - James Clear
This is why people who turn away from drugs and alcohol often find a new friend group in the process. It's hard to continue to be around the thing you're trying to avoid and successfully avoid it.
And when it comes to my morning wake-up, the hardest part for me is getting out of bed when I know my husband is still in bed sleeping peacefully. It just makes me want to curl back up, pull the covers over my head, and snooze that alarm for a little bit longer.
It's my environment. The social influence.
How can we use social influence to create behavior change in our organizations?
If you've been around for a while, you’ll know that I feel strongly that almost every training project is a change project.
So, in this blog post, I'm sharing five ways to use social influence to facilitate behavior change:
But before we get there, I just want to point out that you have to be really clear on what that change is.
You'll need to work closely with your subject matter experts, internal decision-makers, and your intended audience to determine that. And you'll need to break it down to the smallest, most achievable habit you can. And that, in and of itself, is not an easy feat.
But once you feel good about the change, here's how you can use social influence to help your audience create and sustain the change:
1) Form Relationships During the Learning Experience
When you create a learning experience, you are actually creating a mini-community.
I don't know if you've ever thought about it that way, but your intended audience has come together in person or virtually to learn something new. And you're going to put them in uncomfortable situations where you expect them to grow.
They aren't the expert at this specific thing, or they wouldn't be in a training. And that means they might stumble and they might fail. They won't want to do that unless they trust the people they are with.
So forming those relationships is essential.
It's essential to learning, but those relationships also go with them back onto the job.
They know that 10 other people who were in that group are making the same change and may be struggling with the same things.
They know those 10 other people have just been hit with the realities of their day-to-day as they re-enter their existing environment.
They know those 10 other people who need encouragement.
They know those 10 other people who can encourage them.
And this is huge. But it only happens if we are intentional about building those relationships and establishing that trust during the learning experience.
2) Provide a Learning Community That Goes Beyond the Training
Similar to the people they build relationships with during that learning experience, your intended audience can join a community of people who have already made the change.
If your learning experience already has alumni, you are sitting on a gold mine of support.
These are people who have already faced the challenges your learners are facing.
They have already had to solve the problems your learners are trying to solve.
They have already had to face failure and continue working toward their goals.
They've overcome a lot of what your learner is about to face when they go back to their jobs.
And you can leverage this by forming a learning community that brings these people together to ask questions, to share, and to learn from each other.
3) Connect Learners to a Coach or Mentor
Another option you have is to connect your learners to a coach or a mentor.
Maybe you don't have a learning community that you can create. Find someone who can:
Help your learners see the progress they've already made, the results of that progress, and the possibilities if they continue.
Cheer them on and hold them accountable.
Give them the time and the space to reflect and plan.
And that is a coach or a mentor.
I've never known anyone who regretted having a coach or mentor on their side.
4) Involve Your Learner’s Supervisor in the Behavior Change
Your learner's supervisor can be a hindrance or an asset to their success.
It's incredibly hard to make a change if your supervisor isn't supportive. So get the supervisor involved early.
If possible, bring them into the conversation before the learning experience even begins.
Make sure they know what their staff person will experience and what the goal is.
Help them see how they can support their staff and what their role is in the process.
Have them sign a contract to support their staff if you need to.
This supervisor is essential to this behavior change.
5) Leverage the Role of the Training Facilitator to Help Sustain Behavior Change
Follow up…
Don't underestimate the role of the facilitator. We often think about the facilitator as the one who brings all the learners together, fosters those relationships, and leads the discussions and activities that support the learning.
And that's true.
But once the training ends, the facilitator doesn't have to just move on to the next cohort. It doesn't have to be that way.
Include the facilitator in some follow-up. Design it into the learning experience.
Can the facilitator send 10 emails to those 10 learners three days after the training ends?
Can the facilitator hold a follow-up group coaching call three weeks later just to check in and to help brainstorm some solutions?
How can you leverage the role of the facilitator to help sustain that change?
Get creative.
That facilitator has already built that relationship.
They already have social influence with your learner.
Social influence is imperative to change.
If you don't create the right environment for people to change, they most likely won't. And while you can't control the environment in most nonprofits, especially large federated funds or industry associations, you can create social influence to help support the change.
For more information on creating behavior change, take a look at these past episodes:
Episode 85: Two Ways an L&D Leader Can Make Sure Their Training Is Creating Behavior Change
Episode 32: 5 Coaching Questions to Spark Behavior Change in Your People Managers
Episode 16: Use THIS Process if You Want to Create Behavior Change with Training
To hear the full conversation I had on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 104.
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