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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Discover practical and relevant insights from behavioral science you can apply immediately to manage change in your organization In The Dynamics of Business Behavior: An Evidence-Based Approach to Managing Organizational Change, cognitive neuropsychologist Philip Jordanov and entrepreneur Beirem Ben Barrah deliver an eye-opening new treatment of how to create organizational change with an evidence-based approach. The book includes interviews with more than 40 industry professionals across 15 sectors from companies like Johnson & Johnson and the three biggest Dutch banks discussing change approaches, challenges, and interventions to help bridge the gap between theory and practice. Readers will find useful step-by-step guides on eighteen interventions for six change areas, including psychological safety for stakeholder engagement and re-anchoring for leadership support. This book also discusses: * The importance of strategic planning and risk management in DEI efforts through surveys and focus groups, yearly health scans, and qualitative and quantitative data * The most common myths that leaders accidentally buy into as they guide their organizations * Case studies of contemporary companies overcoming challenges using brain and behavior science A startlingly insightful and, at times, counterintuitive guide to implementing behavioral science in real-world organizations, The Dynamics of Business Behavior: An Evidence-Based Approach to Managing Organizational Change will earn a place on the bookshelves of managers, executives, directors, entrepreneurs, founders, marketers, department heads, salespeople, and other business leaders.
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Seitenzahl: 408
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Notes
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Who Is This Book For?
Why Behavioral Science Matters in Change Management
The Challenges of Applying Science
Behaviorally Informed Change Management
The Academic, Practitioner, and Entrepreneur
Unique Insights from 40-Plus Interviews
How to Read This Book
Notes
PART I: Bridging Two Disciplines
1 Managing Organizational Change
A History of Organizational Change Management (OCM)
The Evolution of OCM
The Drivers of Change
The Audio Technician
The Success Rate of Organizational Change Projects
Six Change Areas
Recurring Challenges in Change Management
Conclusion
Notes
2 Think Like a Behavioral Scientist
A Brief History of Behavioral Science
BeSci Explained
Use Cases of BeSci
Mindset: BeSci as a Lens
Frameworks: BeSci as a Tool
Methodology: BeSci as an Approach
Conclusion
Notes
3 Behaviorally Informed Change Management
What Is Behaviorally Informed Change Management?
Cultural Change as Behavioral Change
Use Cases of Behaviorally Informed Change Management
Conclusion
Notes
4 Evidence-Based Change Interventions
What Are Evidence-Based Change Interventions?
What Is an Intervention and What Makes It Evidence-Based?
The Role of Evidence in Selecting Effective Interventions
Experimentation, Testing, and Iteration
The Emergence of a Shared Underlying Framework
Conclusion
Notes
PART II: Eighteen Interventions for Six Change Areas
5 Planning and Risk Management
Planning and Risk Interventions
On Biases in Planning and Risk Management
Mitigating Unseen Risks with a Premortem
Reducing Cost Overruns with Reference-Class Forecasting
Calibrating the Desired Degree of Risk
Using “Whole System in the Room” for Strategic Risk Management in Change
Conclusion
Notes
6 Narrative and Communication
Narrative and Communication Interventions
The Importance of a Strong Narrative and Open Communication
Current Approaches to Narrative and Communication
On Biases in Narrative and Communication
Engaging Storytelling with the Public Narrative
Collecting Information and Feedback on Your Narrative
Tailoring and Communicating Your Narrative with the 30-3-30-3
Strategic Focus in Change Communication
MINDSPACE: An Evidence-Based Tool for Communicating Change
Conclusion
Notes
7 Leadership Support
Leadership Support Interventions
Current Approaches to Leadership Support
On Biases in Leadership Support
Real-World Challenges in Leadership Support
Facilitate Role-Modeling (or Anything Else) with If-Then Plans
Interventions for Senior Leaders
Conclusion
Notes
8 Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholder Engagement in Change Management
The Importance of Psychological Safety
Understanding Your Stakeholders Beyond the Org Chart
Navigating Resistance
Engaging Resistance Through Constructive Conflict: Red-Blue Team
Conclusion
Notes
9 Measuring Change
Measuring the Impact of Change
Measuring Change Interventions
Measuring the Hard and Soft Sides of Change
Good Metrics Follow the Use Case
On Biases in Measuring Change
Beyond the Net Promoter Score
Measuring Behavioral Change
Watermelon Project Dashboards
Applying Scientific Rigor: A/B Testing Your Change Initiatives
Conclusion
Notes
10 Learning and Development
What Is L&D?
The L&D Journey of dsm-firmenich
Learning and Development Interventions
The Importance of L&D in Change Management
Current Approaches to L&D
On Biases in Learning and Development
Enhancing Learning Agility Amid Change with a Growth Mindset
Going to the Gemba
Integrating Developmental KPIs: A Learning-Driven Approach
Conclusion
Notes
Conclusion: Toward Behaviorally Informed Organizations
Notes
About the Authors
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 1
Table 1.1 Six change areas for applying behavioral science.
Chapter 8
Table 8.1 Gibbon's holistic model of resistance.
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Figure I.1 Neurofied's process for applying behavioral science.
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 Anderson and Ackerson's Drivers of Change model.
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 Kahneman's System 1 and System 2.
Figure 2.2 COM-B.
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 Eighteen evidence-based interventions in six areas of change mana...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Public narrative Venn diagram. Original idea by Marshall Ganz....
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Organizational network analysis (ONA) visual.
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Growth mindset versus fixed mindset.
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Conclusion: Toward Behaviorally Informed Organizations
About the Authors
Index
End User License Agreement
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THE DYNAMICS OF BUSINESS BEHAVIOR
AN EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACH TO MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
BEIREM BEN BARRAH
PHILIP JORDANOV
Copyright © 2024 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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ISBN 9781394196562 (cloth)ISBN 9781394196579 (ePub)ISBN 9781394196586 (ePDF)
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To the ones who raised us between cultures, teaching us the nuances of human behavior.
Foreword
OUR PATHS CROSSED about a year ago through a social media platform. Beirem and Philip, two young entrepreneurs and experts in the field of behavioral science, inspired me to explore how behavioral science can make us better as the change management team at Johnson & Johnson. More importantly, we shared our joint belief that change management holds elements of art and science.
The change management organization within Johnson & Johnson supports complex and global transformations initiated by our global functions and/or business. The portfolio of initiatives consists of a combination of digital, technology, process, and cultural transformations and are project or systemic by nature. Through our human-centric model, the change management team always works within and for the business, delivering end-user and customer outcomes.
But is change management more an art or a science?
In different ways, this question comes up in conversations I have with people about change management. To grasp: what is change management, why does it matter, who drives it, what activities does it involve, how does it work, and how can we ultimately influence and change actions people take?
What about the art? Over centuries, art has been used as a means of expression and a vehicle for social commentary. Artists throughout history have used their creative works to shed light on societal issues, challenge norms, and advocate for change. Art extends this idea by intentionally harnessing artistic endeavors to raise awareness, provoke thought, and drive action around pressing global challenges. An artist creates art using conscious skills and creative imagination.
An example is the “Inside Out Project.” This global participatory art project was initiated by French artist JR. It involves people taking large-scale black-and-white portraits (pictures) of themselves and pasting them in public spaces to help individuals and communities to make a statement. Through their “Actions,” communities around the world have sparked collaborations and conversations about topics that matter to them. Since 2011, over 500,000 people across 152 countries have participated in the Inside Out Project. Thanks to participants' portrait donations, the project has reached all the continents, with over 2,500 actions created.
These actions have a range of topics: diversity, community, feminism, racism, climate change, education, children's rights, and art are just a few of them. This is an impactful example where creativity, skills, and imagination are used to raise awareness about common issues people around the globe face and to mobilize groups to stand up for these issues by actions. This is also what we do in change management.
The art side of change management does something similar. It involves the creative and human-centric aspects of guiding individuals and organizations through periods of transition. Just as artists use their creativity to convey emotions and provoke thought, change management professionals can employ artistic approaches to inspire, engage, and navigate change in ways that resonate deeply with people, providing meaning about the current and future state. Think about storytelling at different levels and in different ways, or visual maps to help people understand why to change, what it means, and how it works, and more specifically what it means for an individual.
Embracing the art side of change management means that you as a practitioner tap into the emotional and creative dimensions of individuals and ultimately teams and groups, fostering a more holistic approach to navigating change. This approach recognizes that change is not just a rational process but mostly a deeply human experience that can be enriched through room for (artistic) expression, different perspectives, purpose, meaning, and engagement.
What about the science? Is there any science to change? Sometimes we tend to believe there isn't because there is no one recipe we can use as practitioners or those leading change. Neither can we accurately predict or plan the outcomes of our interventions.
Could we say, “The science side of change management involves understanding the psychological, neurological, and behavioral aspects that influence how individuals and organizations respond to change”? By drawing on scientific principles and research, wouldn't it be impactful if change management practitioners could develop strategies that are evidence-based and tailored to the way the human mind and behavior work? My strong belief is that this is essential and will strengthen the art side of your change management interventions. This will enhance the predictability of the outcomes. This will make the conversation about the what, why, and how of change management with stakeholders more robust and help you as practitioner or leader in change to assess your interventions to learn.
This book brings together both the art and the behavioral science of change management. You will embark on a voyage that brings together the art of change—where creativity, meaning, and imagination are leveraged—with behavioral science, unlocking the secrets to transforming our responses to change on both personal and professional levels.
As the book dives into this synergy of disciplines, it uncovers the profound impact neuroscience has on our ability to adapt, learn, and embrace change. The human brain, an intricate web of connections and synapses, is a marvelous instrument that holds the key to our resilience and transformative potential. With a profound understanding of how our brains process and react to change, we can chart a course that steers us toward growth and success.
So is change management an art or a science? I strongly believe it is both, with you as a leader of change or a practitioner as the unique orchestrator. By understanding and applying behavioral science, you will be able to make more impactful interventions and embed behavioral science in everything you do daily. In all this art and science, it is you as a change “artist” who will always make the difference. The unique personal “toolbox” of characteristics, experience, intuition, creativity, and imagination, combined with your knowledge of behavioral science, will make the impact a transformation requires.
Enjoy The Dynamics of Business Behavior and allow yourself to study the (behavioral) science, learn about certain interventions and why they make the impact they make, and apply your new learnings.
Let's continue to evolve the change management practice by exploring the breadth and depth of the science and art of change management!
—Bas Zwart
—Global Leader, Change Management, Johnson & Johnson
Preface
I AM FRUSTRATED and disappointed. Behavioral science entered the public imagination almost 15 years ago, perhaps starting with Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge,1 and gaining more traction and credibility with Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow2 12 years ago.
When those books appeared, I had been working in the fields of leadership development, and change, for nearly three decades. While I would like to think I produced more concrete and sustainable moments for clients than most, in my quiet moments I had doubts. I always suspected that we could do much better.
In private conversations with peers, I would ask, “What percentage of what we teach clients in our programs do we think they use in their work as leaders?”
The answers we whispered to each other (away from clients' ears) hovered around 25% percent. Academic research on “training transfer” suggests that it may be worse, sometimes as low as 10%!3
Every change practitioner reading this book will have had their share of such disappointments: the workshops where participants leave inspired and committed but do little differently the following week; the carefully crafted vision and value statements that appear beautifully on walls, but rarely in leader behavior as they walk the halls. I'm of course talking about the intention-action gap, the gap between thinking and doing, the gap between mind and behavior. In change, behaviors matter most. (Has anyone ever lost weight by thinking about losing weight?)
Yet the change practitioners, coaches, leadership consultants, and organizational development (OD) consultants that I know are passionately committed to making a difference to their clients.
What to do?
In 2011, I wrote The Science of Organizational Change, my first book. In it, I tried to adapt findings on choice architecture, cognitive biases, nudges, and decision science into a book on change management. While the book remains a change best-seller, it is fair to say that the treatment of behavioral science was far too abstract—there were no change “use cases” to point at. The work of pioneers in the field, such as the UK's Nudge Unit, was aimed at public health and civic behaviors, not commercial enterprises, not organizational change.
Things haven't changed much. At IBM, a company I left just a few months ago, I tried to introduce behavioral science into a client proposal. My change colleagues insisted we use ADKAR (debunked in one of my other books).
Why? “The client uses ADKAR!” Despite our passion for making a real difference (behaviorally) to clients, our conservatism as a firm and our unwillingness to challenge clients' thinking meant we proposed a same-old, same-old approach to change.
In 2023, as someone who still travels the conference circuit, I can say with some authority that very few change experts have integrated the best behavioral science tools into their methodologies. And, because there are behavioral science boutiques popping up every month that are bringing behavioral science into leading businesses, the change management expert unschooled in behavioral science risks getting left behind.
The Dynamics of Business Behavior is a huge step in the right direction and the best book to date on behavioral science and organizational change. It is a book aimed squarely at change professionals, and the managers who lead change day in and day out at their companies. Philip and Beirem have written a book that explicitly tries to link behavioral science and organizational change management. They start with an excellent conceptual treatment that, as a bonus, includes another new area, evidence-based change management.
They then get practical in a way that I could not in 2011, offering use cases in areas such as Planning and Risk Management, Communications, Leadership, Engagement, Measurement, and Learning and Development. In each area, they offer case studies from business pioneers (such as Microsoft and ING) and insights from fellow behavioral scientists (such as Katie Milkman) breaking new ground in the field.
Between the lines, the careful reader will find other tools rarely found in orthodox change methodologies, for example, Large Group Interventions (or Whole System in the Room) or habit change methods (implementation triggers).
I do not recommend that you read this book; I recommend that you study it. Make notes in the margins and return to it often. If you are courageous enough to try what it suggests, I believe that the results you produce for clients will follow.
For the change community, this book promises to help us make our passion for change a behavioral reality.
—Paul Gibbons
Author of The Science of Organizational Change, Impact, and Change Myths
Notes
1
. Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein,
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008).
2
. Daniel Kahneman,
Thinking, Fast and Slow
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011).
3
. Robert Grossman and Eduardo Salas, “Training Transfer: An Integrative Literature Review,”
Human Resource Development Review
6, no. 3 (September 2007): 263–296.
Acknowledgments
IT'S REMARKABLE HOW many people are involved in creating a book like this, and we are deeply, deeply grateful to all of you. Words cannot fully express this, but let's make an attempt.
Maarten Bronkhorst, the hero linchpin who got us in touch with most of the interviewees. Peter van Gorsel, the trusted advisor who was always there if we had any questions. The brilliant people on Neurofied's team who helped us develop the foundational knowledge in these areas over the years and for their patience with us during the writing process. The many wonderful clients who trusted us over the years, gave us the opportunity to turn these ideas into real-life experiments, and continue to teach us invaluable lessons. Onwards!
Wiley, thank you for asking us to write this. Without you offering us this opportunity, there would only be Capability and Motivation but no book. Kezia Endsley, you are an amazing editor and at least as good a communicator. Sally Baker, thank you for spotting us in Amsterdam all the way from New York. And Deborah Schindlar, we appreciate you for guiding us through the Wiley publication process. A special thanks to Bas Zwart (and the extended J&J team) for your continued trust, proactive attitude, positive energy, and eloquent foreword.
We also raise our glass to all the people we interviewed. Thank you for trusting us, contributing your views, ideas, and real-life examples. These insightful conversations have leveled our thinking on this topic and your words have brought this book to life. In order of the interviews, here's to Thomas Mulder, Floor Huizer, Judith Peters, Wies Wagenaar, Kati Terza, Michael Hallsworth, Kiki van den Berg, Martin Sitalsing, Bas Kersten, Inca van Uuden, Gwen Burbidge, Natasja van Rens, Raymond van Hattem, Dominique Dingjan, Jeroen van der Brugge, Kenneth Kirindongo, Maarten van Beek, Tessa Peetoom, Pieter Versteeg, Marjon Kaper, Michiel van Meer, Wieke Scholten, Roger van Lier, Julia Wittlin, Diana Chiang, Tijs Besieux, Kristel Buitink, Barbara Lammers, David Hulsenbek, Marco Mullers, Clim Parren, Gerard Penning, Nadine Beister, and Meike Salvadó-de Reede.
Finally, none of this would have been possible without our families and especially our parents. You made us into who we are. You helped us navigate this, at times confusing, world. You gave us the strength, mindset, and discipline to embrace big projects like this. And you gave us the confidence to be ourselves, whether that be in the Netherlands, Tunisia, or Bulgaria. Thank you Ingrid and Salem. Thank you Straschimir and Karin. And the same goes for the continued support and love of our brothers and sisters, Ramy, Timo, Katja, and Mina. Finally, Luna and Lisanne, thank you for enduring us during this intensive writing process. We'll be more fun in the upcoming period, we promise.
Introduction
HOW CAN WE leverage behavioral psychology and neuroscience for organizational change? This book is about humanizing change management for managers, executives, project managers, and change professionals in areas like HR, L&D, and DEI. It combines scientific research, management consulting experience, and insights from 40-plus interviews with industry leaders and scientists to provide you with a behaviorally informed toolkit to drive positive and lasting change with step-by-step guides on 18 evidence-based interventions.
Behavioral science can, and should, significantly improve the success rate of organizational change initiatives while making it more human-centric. This bold claim is the core hypothesis behind our quest for knowledge. Why do so many organizational change initiatives fail? Why are so many employees disengaged? And what can you do to leverage scientific insights for better answers to these and other questions?
This book is not an all-encompassing approach to change management and is not intended to replace existing change management theories or practices. Neither does it claim to provide plug-and-play solutions to complex organizational challenges. Rather, it will provide you with the knowledge, tools, and strategies to identify behavioral challenges and tackle them with evidence-based interventions for positive and sustained change.
This book combines three main components to ensure practical value: behavioral insights, evidence-based interventions, and insights from industry leaders. The behavioral insights help you understand why things happen and what drives this behavior. The 18 evidence-based interventions—the core of this book—are tools that help you solve behavioral challenges, and each comes with a detailed, step-by-step guide to enable you to enhance your change management skills across the discussed six change areas.
But the leap from academic insights to organizational reality is often more complex and dynamic, with outcomes influenced by countless variables, including the organization's culture, the sector it operates in, structure and governance nuances, and the people involved. To ensure that the book's content is not only scientifically robust but also broadly applicable within an organizational context, we interviewed more than 40 leaders across a diverse array of sectors, including telecom, finance, retail, consultancy, the public sector, energy, tech, construction, mobility, recruitment, facilities, and healthcare. Their insights on change approaches, challenges, and interventions help bridge the gap between theory and practice, and navigate the complex dynamics of business behavior.
Who Is This Book For?
This is a book for managers and executives who are responsible for driving change across the organization. These people go under many flags but some of the most common names include change management, people and organization, human resources, organizational design, internal communications, and learning and development. This book will be just as valuable for managers of teams undergoing changes, regardless of whether they're in HR, tech, sales, support, or any other department.
Whatever your role, we assume that you continuously drive change in your organization, both directly through planning, implementing, or reinforcing change initiatives, and indirectly by, for example, role modeling and contributing to your organizational culture. Your ability to effectively drive organizational change depends on your ability to deal with situations as they arise. Often there is a large behavioral component and, as a manager or executive, you strongly benefit from a better intuitive grasp on the behavioral drivers behind change, as well as evidence-based tools to deal with recurring challenges.
We also wrote this book with two other audiences in mind, both of whom we consider our colleagues. The first is the broader organizational change management community, whether that is in the public or private sector, freelance, or at a large consulting firm. With your knowledge and experience in managing organizational change comes a strong intuition, and we aim to provide you with a more in-depth understanding of behavioral science. This will empower you to better understand and explain why some approach is more likely to drive the results you need. And from experience in working with a variety of organizational change management (OCM) teams, we know that many of you will benefit from the evidence-based interventions.
And of course, we wrote this book to give back to the behavioral science community that is the giant upon whose shoulders we stand. Experienced behavioral scientists who want to learn how to apply their expertise in an organizational context should find many actionable pointers. And young, aspiring behavioral scientists who are exploring career opportunities should find inspiration for use cases and examples of skill-building exercises. For other behavioral practitioners in the field, we salute you and hope you find this helpful in optimizing your approach and expanding your toolkit.
Why Behavioral Science Matters in Change Management
It's worth asking why the field of change management that has its own tried and tested methods and frameworks needs to be enhanced with behavioral science in the first place. We would argue that it's not about viewing behavioral science as an optional add-on to change management; rather, it's about recognizing it as a fundamental part of the process. This perspective holds across many of the challenges we face today.
Let's look at climate change as an example. Hard sciences provide clear guidelines on how to tackle this global issue. Yet the real challenge lies not in the scientific recommendations but in motivating individuals to adapt their behaviors in line with these solutions. The same is true in the medical field. Even though professionals know how to handle diseases like obesity, the real struggle is to incite changes in health behaviors.
In organizational change, a similar argument applies. No matter how well-structured or comprehensive a change plan is, it's still set to fail if individuals in organizations don't adapt their behaviors. Here's where behavioral science steps in. It helps us not only to identify but also to understand and influence human behavior for better outcomes.
In the last 15 years, applying behavioral science beyond academia has started to show real-world results, both in business and in society. One example of how a small behavioral science intervention can have a big impact comes from the public sector. To address long-term retirement saving, the UK government introduced automatic enrollment in workplace pensions, implemented between October 2012 and February 2018.1 This policy mandated employers to automatically enroll eligible employees into a qualifying pension scheme and make minimum contributions. Employees aged 22 or over and under the state pension age earning over £10,000 annually became part of this scheme.
This behavioral intervention resulted in the number of eligible employees participating in a workplace pension rising from 55% in 2012 to 87% by the end of 2019. Moreover, the annual total amount saved in pension funds stood at £90.4 billion in 2018, an increase of £7 billion from 2017.
These types of behavioral interventions have shown a big impact in the private sector too. A satisfying example could be seen in Facebook's response to Apple's iOS privacy changes, which led to a significant shift in user behavior and a substantial financial impact on Facebook.2 In 2021, Apple introduced the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature on its iOS operating system, enabling users to opt out of being tracked when using apps. This behavioral shift drastically reduced the ability of advertisers like Facebook to target specific demographics, resulting in a predicted $10 billion decrease in Facebook's ad revenue for the year. By simply giving users the choice of whether to be tracked, Apple initiated a minor shift in online behavior with major business impact. We explore these interventions further in Chapter 2.
As seen in these examples, behavioral science offers potent tools for change, but it's not a cure-all. Small behavioral interventions alone won't solve massive organizational issues. However, this book's essence isn't about seeking a silver bullet. We focus on a mix of intervention strategies—from minor tweaks to systemic changes—and tailoring them to your context.
The Challenges of Applying Science
In the daily grind of getting things done, we often forget that many of the problems we encounter have already been solved by others. This is where scientific insights could and should make organizations more human-centric by imbuing organizational processes with scientific insights.
Science is such an essential asset for societies that its core institutions are generally funded by the state. Their mission is to develop a network of scientists who help us solve the unsolvable questions. If much of the most important research is in the public domain, why don't we—meaning corporate professionals—all fully leverage this? As it turns out, there are many reasons. There is too little time. There is too much information. It is hard to ask the right questions. The information is too fragmented. General models do not apply to unique problems. We need action, not theory. Key info is behind a paywall. And so on.
In addition, behavioral science has its own challenges. There is no one truth like in physics. Neither is there a commonly agreed-upon overarching theoretical model. Not all research is reliable (or can be replicated). Behavior is extremely context-specific, so the value of models depends heavily on the user's experience and expertise. It is equally important to be aware of these challenges and to know they can be solved, or at the very least significantly improved.
That is why the practical interventions in this book are not proposed as plug-and-play solutions to managing change. Instead, you learn how to test, evaluate, tailor, and implement them step-by-step to find out whether they work for your organization and its unique context. This is what behaviorally informed change management is about. Let's build this concept from the ground up.
Behaviorally Informed Change Management
We start with change itself, the process of moving from one state to another. In the same vein, organizational change refers to the process of changing the state of an organization, such as its culture, internal processes, or the underlying technologies or infrastructure it uses to operate. Organizational change management (OCM) is the process of guiding this organizational change to a successful resolution, a big part of which has to do with people. You can view OCM as a framework and toolkit to drive organizational change forward, and for the purposes of this book, change management and OCM will be used interchangeably.
As you can probably imagine, this involves a lot. OCM activities can range from the executives' strategic restructuring plan to the managers' tactical shift in team responsibilities all the way to changes in the frontline employees' operational daily workflow. Large organizations often have dedicated change management teams responsible for driving a coherent, effective, and lasting change strategy while empowering all stakeholders.
Then we get to the behaviorally informed side of things. Think about data-informed decision-making, considered the holy grail by many organizations, especially in tech, where data is abundant. In essence, it simply means making decisions based on data. Similarly, behaviorally informed means “informed by behavioral science.” Here, you make decisions grounded in an understanding of human behavior and what is driving it.
As an organization, why would you want to make your approach behaviorally informed? Since people are at the core of (almost) any business, making things more human-centric tends to drive better results and higher employee engagement. And personally, would you rather work for an organization that improves its processes based on financial results only or also takes into account the psychological impact of changes on its people?
So let's bring it all together: behaviorally informed change management is a methodology that successfully drives organizational change informed by insights from behavioral psychology and neuroscience. It is a framework that helps managers and executives approach organizational change in a human-centric way and a toolkit with evidence-based change interventions that can drive effective and lasting change.
The Academic, Practitioner, and Entrepreneur
How did we end up doing this? It turns out we both ended up with the same mission from opposite directions. Beirem Ben Barrah is an entrepreneur at heart who voraciously reads books on business, psychology, and technology. In 2018, he founded Neurofied with the mission to harness behavioral psychology to address business challenges. Meanwhile, Philip Jordanov, a behavioral scientist trained in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, kept asking himself whether the insights he learned in college and in the brain imaging labs would ever be actually applied in the real world. Ever since we met, we've been chasing the vision of translating academic insights on human behavior into actionable solutions for real-world problems. Philip has since become a co-founder, and we've built a team of behavioral scientists and a network of industry specialists we trust and admire for their unique qualities.
Since that time, Neurofied has trained thousands of professionals and collaborated with over 100 management, HR, growth, and innovation teams, applying behavioral psychology and neuroscience insights to tackle issues in business and society. We've helped organizations like Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, Deloitte, Novo Nordisk, ABN AMRO, and the Dutch government with behaviorally informed change in areas like business transformation, leadership development, sustainability, HR, and DEI. Throughout our journey, we have designed, tested, and implemented dozens of evidence-based interventions to support these organizations in achieving effective and sustained behavioral change. These projects in our daily work life are one source for the content of this book. (See Figure I.1.)
Figure I.1 Neurofied's process for applying behavioral science.
We see ourselves not just as entrepreneurs, academics, or practitioners, but as ambassadors of behavioral science, striving to democratize its understanding and application. To achieve this, we've produced resources including a blog with 100-plus articles on applying behavioral science and a YouTube channel that offers free online courses and detailed intervention guides. You can find these and other resources at neurofied.com. This book is a major advancement in our mission, representing our biggest effort yet to democratize behavioral science and bring its potential to a broader professional audience.
In writing a book like this, one always has to make tradeoffs, and the best books we read make these decisions explicit. We aim to choose pragmatism over theory and simplification over complexity. The idea is to leverage academic rigor to make change processes more suitable for the ever-faster speed of industry. The other side of the coin is the actual change out there in organizations, happening every day. Even though we have years of experience in consulting and training management, HR, and innovation teams, it's still different from leading this change “from the inside.” So how do we truly make sure the information in this book is actually relevant for you, the reader?
Unique Insights from 40-Plus Interviews
To ensure the behavioral insights and interventions are relevant for a wide range of organizations, we reached out to industry leaders, government officials, and behavioral scientists. This way, we could offer a variety of perspectives, organizational contexts, and field examples that give life to the tools in this book. It also helped us select which insights and interventions to include in this book and has been tremendously insightful for us. Again, thank you to the many interviewees in this book who took the time to educate us and contextualize our thinking so we can pass it on to a global audience of professionals.
You will find all the names and companies throughout this book but we think you'll benefit from a brief discussion around some of the core data points regarding the interviewees. Out of the 41 “official” interviewees, two are from the public sector, five are specialized behavioral experts, and the other 34 are organizational professionals. Of this last group, almost all interviewees represent large enterprises, but we also included three people from small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and one scale-up. They include many of the largest organizations in the Netherlands and beyond, such as the three biggest Dutch banks (ING, Rabobank, and ABN AMRO), healthcare titans like Novo Nordisk and Johnson & Johnson, and organizations you're unlikely to know but that have a global impact, such as the maritime dredging giant Van Oord.
We were pleasantly surprised to see that the interviewees represented a total of 15 sectors and 34 organizations! Six interviewees are active in finance, five in mobility and transport, four in consultancy, and three each in the energy, healthcare, public, retail, and technology sectors. Other sectors represented range from chemicals and construction to telecom and maritime dredging. This was perhaps the most important element for us to have diversity in, because we want the ideas in this book to be relevant for and tailored to any organization, not just one specific kind. Behavior underlies all change, whether that's at the office, in the air, or across the warehouses.
Let's look at the roles and level of seniority that the organizational interviewees represent. Among them were 23 HR professionals, seven change specialists, and a few other related roles. At the time of writing, almost half of the interviewees were executives, 26% were directors, and the remaining quarter was quite evenly divided between vice presidents (VPs), managers, and frontline employees. We're aware of the potential bias here, since HR and executives are heavily represented, so we spent a lot of time making sure to select the insights from these interviews that are relevant for all audiences.
Finally, let's look at the geographical reach of the interviewees. The majority of our interviewees are based in the Netherlands, but that does not mean they do not represent a larger group. About half of the interviewees were responsible for the Netherlands, whereas 7 had roles whose responsibility carried over to (parts of) Europe and 12 interviewees had roles with global responsibility. Since this book has a global audience, we tried our best to make the insights and interventions as broadly applicable as possible, and without all of these interviews that would have been much harder. You will find the interviews insights in this book to capture the fascinating dynamics of business behavior through first-hand experience.
How to Read This Book
We wrote this book in the hope that you can use it as a field guide that is insightful enough to keep close to your desk and come back to throughout projects. It consists of two parts.
In Part I, Chapter 1 discusses the history and fundamentals of OCM as well as recurring challenges mentioned by interviewees. It will provide relevant context, but if you're an experienced change professional, you're free to skip this. Chapter 2 explores the value of behavioral science as a lens, tool, and approach. You learn the relevant behavioral insights and frameworks that are revisited throughout this book. If you're a seasoned behavioral scientist who knows all the concepts, you're free to move on.
Chapter 3 introduces you to the idea of behaviorally informed change management (BICM). It builds on the foundation of and merges the previous chapters. It showcases its value in use cases ranging from managing change fatigue and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and building resilience. This chapter makes the case for BICM, whereas Chapter 4 introduces you to the tools of this craft: evidence-based change interventions (EBCIs). This brings you to real life, where behavioral insights are pragmatically implemented in organizations. Once you see the shared underlying framework of interventions and know what makes them evidence-based, you're ready for the part of this book in which we turn this theory into pragmatic step-by-step interventions.
Part II is all about applying behavioral science and neuropsychology insights into six change areas that any change professional will recognize. Each subsequent chapter looks into the current approach and recurring challenges of one change area and provides behavioral insights and evidence-based interventions you can directly start experimenting with. Chapter 5 is about planning and risk management, Chapter 6 is on narrative and communication, Chapter 7 is on leadership support, Chapter 8 is on stakeholder engagement, Chapter 9 is on measuring change, and Chapter 10 is on learning and development. There will be step-by-step guides on implementing or facilitating the interventions, and we chose this book setup so you can quickly revisit relevant areas, insights, or interventions.
At the end of this book, you'll have an understanding of how to apply behavioral science to organizational change management initiatives. You will have the knowledge, tools, and strategies required to identify behavioral challenges, implement evidence-based solutions, and drive positive, lasting, and human-centric change. We hope that the book provides you with inspiration, insights, and actionable next steps.
Notes
1
. Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), “Automatic Enrolment Evaluation Report 2019,” 2019.
2
. Angelica LaVito and Lauren Feiner, “Facebook Says Apple's iOS Privacy Change Will Cost $10 Billion This Year,” CNBC, February 2, 2022,
www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-privacy-change-will-cost-10-billion-this-year.html
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PART IBridging Two Disciplines
1Managing Organizational Change
WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL change management? How did it evolve over time? Which models and frameworks have impacted the field most? How does organizational change come about? What is the current standard approach to organizational change management (OCM)? What are recurring challenges when driving organizational change? These are some of the questions we answer in this chapter before embarking on the journey of applying insights from behavioral psychology and neuroscience to organizational change management.
A History of Organizational Change Management (OCM)
This is a simplified and nonexhaustive history, but it should provide you with context on how the field was formed, both through research and in practice.
Pre-1960s: “What Do You Mean Change Management?”
You could reasonably argue that change has always inspired people to manage the change. Think of the formation and organization of towns, armies, kingdoms, or religions throughout history. These are no small projects and require a group of people to stand behind a common vision, take on a form of shared identity, and coordinate their behavior. Yet on Wikipedia, the history of change management barely starts until the 1960s, when theorists and practitioners began to lay the groundwork for the field of change management that we know today.
By now, there is a plethora of change models one can ascribe to, so let's explore some of the most influential ones over time. It's worth emphasizing that almost every interviewee mentioned how they do not simply copy the original model but use it as a jump-off point for creating a tailored approach that suits their organizational context.
The first formation of such a formal change process is ascribed to Kurt Lewin, a German-American pioneer in the fields of social, organizational, and applied psychology. He developed change management tools such as Force Field Analysis and Action Research while laying the foundation for the well-known three-step Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze model.1 While these models are historically significant because they form the foundation upon which many subsequent approaches and models have been built, they hold relatively little practical value when it comes to managing continuous change in today's fast-paced, globally connected world. In over 40 interviews, Kurt Lewin was mentioned only once, and that was to state that his method is mostly outdated.
The 1960s and 1970s: “Can We Structure This Process?”
In the 1960s, two important developments made organizational change management more human-centric. First, as it became clear that people's pain of losing things like their old job, team, or way of working correlates to pain from other kinds of grieving, new models were introduced. For example, the Kübler-Ross Change Curve identifies the emotional impact of each phase of the change, which allows for dealing with these emotions more proactively.2 This is also where organizations started paying more attention to how employees engage with the change. Since then, the Kübler-Ross Curve has been partly debunked. Criticism highlights its limitations, such as presupposing change as negative and not distinguishing between intended and unintended changes. Change managers should exercise caution when using this model for managing change because it may not be universally applicable and can oversimplify employee reactions. However, this is still a useful tool for illustrating the range of emotions people can experience based on change and demonstrate the importance of acknowledging grief, as mentioned by four interviewees.
The second big development was the introduction of Everett Roger's Diffusion of Innovation theory,3
