When working on a behavioural challenge, the central question to keep in mind is:
How can I design this so I donβt have to convince them?
When seeking to influence, we have a tendency to rely on explanation. To construct an argument that gets people to move in the direction we want.
That might be part of the solution, but what if it was your fallback, not your starting point?
What if you first imagined not having the opportunity to make your case at all?
Then what?
Placing this constraint on yourself will encourage you to see other paths to influence, such as:
- Reducing real or perceived effort.
- Using norms to infer the preferred action.
- Making the desired action the easiest, most obvious or most attractive.
Trying to convince people is difficult. Influencing them doesnβt have to be.
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