Moving the Middle
How do you help large groups of people change their behaviors whether it be coaching, selling, or better customer service?
- Do you stand up and issue an edict in the form of a new strategy?
- Do you build it into their goals?
- Do you change their compensation so they have to make the change in order to make more money?
All those things are what most people do and they have some impact but it is limited.
A better approach is to "move the middle". When you think about the behavior change you want think about the many people who need to change. They will always break down into three groups:
- those who already do what you want and already do it well,
- those who will never do what you want and
- those who would like to but don't know how or need a little nudge. That last group is the "middle" and it is a big group.
Any work you do on the first group will have limited gain – they are already doing all they can. Work on the second group will be time consuming and is unlikely to bear fruit. If you can move everyone in the middle just a little bit, you can make significant change. Move the middle first – but do it one at a time.
Here’s a little reminder of what motivates people from Daniel Pink (hint – not money).
