You may have read about the passing of Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist and Nobel Prize winning economist. His work—and the larger field expanding what we know about behavior change— is deeply relevant to how we design and deliver learning programs in the social sector space. Our goal is to influence how people do things over time. We can draw on psychology and behavioral science to create solutions that honor the wonderfully irrational human beings we all are.

Cognitive biases: Why people do what they do

Kahneman and research partner Amos Tversky introduced the concept of cognitive bias in 1972, capturing ways in which people aren’t always rational. When we know why people are behaving as they are, we can adjust how we respond.

One of my favorite activities with boards and others wondering why people are doing what they are doing is to share the Cognitive Bias Codex. In one graphic, you can click around the circle to explore 188 cognitive biases, grouped by how they impact thought and action.

I recently spent time with UNICEF’s excellent Behavioural Drivers Model, worth digging into if you want a more comprehensive resource on behavior change.
A GIFT FROM ME: Download a list of cognitive biases and how they relate to the nonprofit sector.

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How to help people get unstuck

So how do we respond better?Julie Dirksen, author of Talk to the Elephant and Design for How People Learn, gives us practical ways to design for behavior change. I particularly find helpful this change ladder as we sleuth out why someone might get stuck. Which of these might be true? They…

1. Don’t know about it (the behavior)
2. Knows about it but doesn’t really get it (doesn’t understand why it is important)
3. Gets it but doesn’t really believe it (aren’t convinced)
4. Believes it but has other priorities
5. Prioritizes the behavior but doesn’t know how to change it
6. Prioritizes it but thinks it’s too hard
7. Priorities it but isn’t confident
8. Is ready but needs help to start
9. Has started but isn’t consistent
10. Has been consistent but is struggling to maintain

(Cognitive biases can show up at any level.)

I love this list because it showcases how behavior has little to do with knowledge alone. (This is particularly important for experts to consider– your knowledge won’t necessarily move them to action.) As many of my instructional design clients will recognize, this list invites as to ask:

• Who are we trying to move to action? Tell me about them.
• What is holding them back? (The context or environment? A tool? Their emotions about the content or themselves? Information?)
• What do they need right now to take the step most relevant to them?
• How do we need them to feel to keep making progress forward?

Take a moment to consider someone you are trying to move to action. Which of the statements in the change ladder most describes them? How would you answer these questions?

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Giving Daniel Kahneman the last word

In Noise and Thinking Fast and Slow (among his other writings), Daniel Kahneman gave us an abundance of quotes to challenge our thinking about how we engage with the world. Each one contains a lesson that we can apply in our nonprofit/social sector work. I’ll share a few that resonated with me. Which one resonates with you?

“The test of learning psychology is whether your understanding of situations you encounter has changed, not whether you have learned a new fact.”
 
“Independence is the prerequisite for wisdom of crowds.”
 
“What you see is all there is.”
 
“The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs depends mostly on the quality of the story they can tell about what they see, even if they see little.”
 
“If there is time to reflect, slowing down is likely to be a good idea.”
 
“It’s a wonderful thing to be optimistic. It keeps you healthy and it keeps you resilient.”

And finally for my courageous nonprofit colleagues who have stepped forward to make the world a better place:

“Courage is willingness to take the risk once you know the odds. Optimistic overconfidence means you are taking the risk because you don’t know the odds. It’s a big difference.”