Why nudging doesn’t work to clinch desired behavior
Behavior does not change overnight. At least, if you want to bring about sustainable behavior change. There are numerous techniques and examples that seem effective in the short term by subconsciously influencing people. For example, look at nudging, where small adjustments are made to the choice architecture to elicit the desired behavior. An example of choice architecture is placing healthy snacks at the counter and unhealthy snacks at the back of a school cafeteria. Out of convenience, visitors choose the most obvious option, the healthy snacks. Interventions like these change the visible behavior and lead (only) to temporary behavior change. After a time, the effects will fade as one returns to her initial habits and preferences. To sustainably change the behavior of yourself, your colleagues or your employees requires an integrated approach.
SUSTAINABLE BEHAVIOR CHANGE BEGINS WITHIN AND CARRIES OVER INTO YOUR ACTIONS.
- First of all, you have to want it from within. If you are not motivated to change your behavior, then your best efforts and the best interventions will have no effect on you.
- You have to be able to do it. Knowing alone does not lead to doing, but it is the trigger to doing. Having knowledge of and skills to exhibit the desired behavior are the basis for eventually exhibiting that desired behavior. In today’s cyber security climate, we are increasingly seeing companies employing awareness training to provide their employees with their capabilities. In terms of learning knowledge, that’s fine for the short term. What lags, however, is the skills part. You hardly apply the skills you learn in training in your daily work. As a result, that knowledge and skills fade and employees are not advanced in ability. The challenge for companies is figuring out how to strengthen their employees in knowledge and skills and ensure that newly learned behaviors stick.
- You have to catch the right moment. Has your organization stipulated that all employees must change their passwords quarterly? Then provide employees with the tools to create a strong password at that very moment. (Want to know what tools are out there to strongly encrypt your accounts? Then let us know in the comments and who knows, maybe this will be the topic of the next blog)
To get you started, we have listed four pieces of advice for you
- Think simple. Make sure that the behavior you want to see is easy to perform by your target audience. The less effort it takes, the easier it becomes to exhibit the desired behavior. If it takes a lot of effort, then your colleagues will have to be much more motivated to perform the desired behavior.
- Make it fun and interesting for your audience. Grab attention and reward your audience. “Join in and win!“
- Do it together! Changing behavior is easier when you do it together.
- Stimulate your target audience at the right time. People like quick and immediate impact and not long-term expectations. Make them aware of the immediate benefits they will experience on top of the future ones.
How do we change sustainable behavior among our clients? Through our integrated approach
- Customers want to change. Municipalities and other social institutions are noticing the need to improve their employees’ cyber security behaviors. This motivation is fueled, on the one hand, by feelings for compliance with security and privacy guidelines and, on the other, by striving for self-development.
- Customers can change. As part of our integrated approach, we measure the current behavior of all employees in a baseline measurement. After all, measuring is knowing and repeated is better. The Cyber Barometer charts your employees’ top behaviors, trends and development points, among other things. With this understanding, we work with the client to determine where the most impact can be made that leads to a secure security culture. In creative and thoughtful ways, we create interventions focused on the people of the company and turn this “weakest link” into a human line of defense.
- Customers seize the right moment. Together with the client, we develop a strategy for the coming years, in which we leave part open in order to respond flexibly to current developments (learn more about the usefulness of a flexible information security policy, click here). In annual planning, activities focused on personal customer needs are planned in a timely manner and proclaimed throughout the organization through a communication strategy.
- Simple. Nice. Together. The activities we organize are always simple to do and especially fun to do together. Our Cyber Escaperoom, for example, you play out in a team of five colleagues at your office within an hour, practicing with it for an hour.
- Activate the organization from within. Create the culture from the interns to the mayor/director by making everyone accountable for behavior change. From consciously changing your own behavior, securing it and openly addressing colleagues when they have forgotten the desired behavior, to inspiring your colleagues and initiating your own ideas. Everyone plays a role in preventing, recognizing and acting on unsafe situations.
Changing unwanted behavior to desired is one thing. The challenge for any organization is to make the newly learned behaviors of employees stick. Stand still with each other regularly and make it discussable, measure repeatedly and activate your employees. Want to learn more about our integrated approach or are you interested in one of our events? Follow us on LinkedIn or contact us.
