“Ugh, why won’t they use what they learned?!” If you’re in L&D, you’ve probably asked this a hundred times. We roll out training, people seem to learn… and then real-world behavior barely budges. It’s a common frustration: traditional training (mostly dumping information) often fails to drive actual change on the job. And it’s not just you. Research shows giving people facts or even incentives isn’t always enough.
So what’s missing?
I recently dove into a guide from Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment meant for environmental change, but it’s full of insights for L&D pros. It breaks down the psychology of behavior change into six practical “levers” that L&D can also leverage when designing organizational behavior change.
This resource is recommended for its value and is not an EDU Fellowship original work. All rights belong to the original creators.
In a nutshell, Rare’s framework says we influence behavior through six primary behavior change levers.
- Information: Providing people with the knowledge they need to take action, including the what, why, and how of a behavior. But information alone isn’t enough—it must be timely, relevant, and actionable to drive real change.
- Rules & Regulations: Establishing clear policies, guidelines, or mandates that encourage or restrict certain behaviors. These create structural accountability, ensuring that behaviors align with organizational goals and expectations.
- Material Incentives: Using tangible rewards, benefits, or reduced effort to make a behavior more attractive. Incentives can take many forms, from financial rewards to perks or even removing friction that makes an action easier to adopt.
- Emotional Appeals: Leveraging human emotions like pride, hope, fear, or empathy to inspire action. People are more likely to change their behavior when they feel personally connected to the outcome.
- Social Influences: Harnessing peer pressure, cultural norms, or role models to encourage adoption. When people see others engaging in a behavior, especially those they respect, they’re more likely to follow suit.
- Choice Architecture: Structuring options, defaults, and decision-making environments in a way that nudges people toward better choices. Small shifts (like simplifying a process, setting defaults, or providing timely reminders) can make a significant impact.
💭 Storytime: The Tale of Two Training Programs
A manufacturing company needed to implement new safety protocols across two similar plants.
At Plant A, the safety manager distributed comprehensive manuals and held required lectures. Six months later, compliance remained below 40%.
At Plant B, the manager took a different approach. She installed visual cues at decision points (choice architecture), recognized teams with perfect safety records (material incentives), shared stories of how proper protocols had prevented injuries (emotional appeals), trained peer safety champions (social influences), and clearly communicated both the mandatory aspects and their enforcement (rules & regulations).
Within three months, Plant B achieved 90% compliance using the exact same safety information. The difference wasn't the content, but how they leveraged multiple pathways to influence behavior rather than relying solely on information transfer.
How to apply behavior science levers in L&D
Shift from info dumps to targeted knowledge
The resource highlights how most of us default to loading learners up with information, thinking that facts alone magically shift behavior. They call out that “information” needs to be specific, relevant, and timely if you want anyone to actually use it. I couldn’t agree more. And in L&D, there’s a persistent assumption that volume of content equals better learning. We flood people with slides or modules, and then wonder why their actions don’t change.
Rather than just piling on facts, filter what truly matters for the learner’s day-to-day. This might mean distilling a 100-page manual down to a one-page job aid or a quick video demo. Once you identify the core knowledge—the stuff that helps people do their jobs right now. Spotlight it in ways they can instantly apply. If everything is urgent, nothing is urgent.
How to make knowledge usable by learners:
- Pinpoint the single biggest “pain point” learners face. Craft a short, straight-to-the-point resource that addresses it, skipping all the fluff. for instance, if they’re struggling with performance reviews, send a quick reference card with 3 conversation tips rather than a 30-slide deck.
- Offer clear how-tos and checklists. set up “micro skill” videos or infographics so people see exactly what “good” looks like. Help them focus on a smaller chunk they can master quickly.
- Align feedback loops with actual practice. Instead of generic quizzes, create brief reflection questions learners can answer after they try new approaches on the job. If you can capture and share that feedback in real time, even better.
- Bake in self-efficacy boosters. emphasize that the knowledge is totally doable, not some lofty ideal. A simple line like, “this script helped other managers move from awkward 1:1s to open conversations,” goes a long way.
Tap into emotional appeals to transform learning engagement
The Levers of Behavior Change framework highlights something that many L&D programs overlook: emotions are powerful drivers of action. We often focus on the rational "why" behind learning but neglect the emotional connections that actually motivate people to change their behavior. The guide specifically mentions six emotions that drive behavior change: pride, hope, fear, anger, the prospect of shame, and interest.
Each of these emotions serves a specific purpose in behavior change. For instance, pride motivates people to demonstrate valued behaviors to others, while interest drives exploration and learning. By deliberately designing emotional elements into our learning experiences, we can create programs that people genuinely want to engage with and apply.
How to incorporate emotional appeals into your learning programs:
- Match specific emotions to your learning objectives. Use pride when you want to showcase success and spread positive behaviors, interest when introducing new concepts, and hope when you need to motivate people through challenges.
- Replace generic program descriptions with emotionally resonant language. Instead of "Leadership Skills Training," try "Building Your Leadership Legacy: Creating Teams That Thrive."
- Incorporate authentic stories that evoke emotional connections. Real examples of challenges, failures, and successes from peers within the organization create emotional resonance that generic case studies never will.
- Personalize learning materials with references to your specific organizational context, challenges, and wins. When content feels personally relevant, emotional engagement soars.
- Create opportunities for learners to connect learning content to their own values and aspirations. Simple reflection questions like "How would mastering this skill help you achieve your most important goals?" can dramatically increase emotional investment.
- Test different emotional approaches with your audience. Some organizational cultures respond better to hope and pride, while others might need a touch of fear or the prospect of shame to drive change.
Leverage social influences to make behavior change contagious
The Levers of Behavior Change framework confirms what we intuitively know but often forget to design for - humans are profoundly social creatures. We're constantly looking to others for cues about what behaviors are normal, expected, and valued. This means the most powerful learning happens not in isolation but within social contexts that shape and reinforce behaviors.
The guide emphasizes three key social influence strategies: making behaviors observable, highlighting others who are doing the target behavior, and sharing social expectations. By strategically incorporating these elements into our learning programs, we can create the social conditions that make behavior change much more likely to stick.
How to harness social influences in your learning initiatives:
- Create visible indicators of participation and progress in learning programs. Digital badges, team progress boards, or even simple participant lists make engagement observable and tap into our natural desire to conform to group norms.
- Identify and showcase early adopters within your organization. Rather than generic success stories, highlight specific colleagues who are successfully implementing new behaviors and the impact it's having.
- Facilitate peer-to-peer learning exchanges where employees can observe others demonstrating target behaviors. This could be through job shadowing, practice communities, or recorded examples from high performers.
- Incorporate social proof in your communications. Statements like "73% of managers have already completed this program" or "Teams that apply these principles are seeing 30% higher engagement scores" leverage our tendency to follow what others are doing.
- Design learning programs with built-in accountability partners or learning cohorts. The social commitment to others dramatically increases follow-through compared to solo learning journeys.
- Train leaders to verbalize expectations about applying learning. When a respected leader says, "I expect everyone to try at least one technique from this program in the next week," it creates powerful social pressure to act.
- Create spaces where learners can discuss their experiences implementing new behaviors. These conversations naturally reinforce social norms around the importance of applying what was learned.
Redesign choice environments to make the right behaviors easier
The Choice Architecture lever in the framework provides a fascinating insight for L&D professionals: the environments in which people make decisions significantly influence their behavior. Rather than simply telling people what to do or providing information, we can redesign the context in which they make choices to naturally guide them toward desired behaviors.
The guide outlines several powerful principles: directing attention, simplifying decisions, providing timely prompts, and facilitating planning. By applying these principles to our learning programs and the work environments we influence, we can make desired behaviors the path of least resistance rather than requiring constant willpower or recall of training.
How to implement effective choice architecture in learning:
- Audit your organization's physical and digital environments for barriers to desired behaviors. Something as simple as how information is organized in your systems can make or break behavior change.
- Create visual cues in the workplace that trigger memory of key learning points exactly when needed. A small poster near a decision point or a digital prompt within a workflow can be more effective than hours of training.
- Simplify complex processes by creating decision aids, checklists, or templates that reduce cognitive load. The easier you make a behavior, the more likely people will do it consistently.
- Design default options that align with desired behaviors. For example, set meeting agendas to automatically include the coaching questions managers should be asking, making it the default rather than an extra step.
- Leverage "moments of transition" for learning interventions. New role, new project, new team - these natural disruptions to routines create perfect opportunities for establishing new behaviors because habits are already in flux.
- Create implementation intention prompts that help learners plan specifically when, where, and how they'll apply new skills. Simple questions like "When will you first try this technique?" dramatically increase follow-through.
- Provide timely reminders at the point of performance rather than relying on recall from previous training. Email nudges, calendar reminders, or system notifications can all serve as effective prompts.
- Test different environmental changes with small groups before scaling. What seems intuitive may not always work in practice, so gather data on which adjustments most effectively guide behavior.
Balance rules and incentives with intrinsic motivators
The Material Incentives and Rules & Regulations levers in the framework offer important tools for L&D professionals, but they come with nuanced considerations. While traditional L&D often gravitates toward compliance requirements or completion incentives, the guide reveals that these extrinsic motivators work best when carefully balanced with other levers.
The research shows that material incentives can either "crowd out" or "crowd in" internal motivation depending on how they're implemented. Similarly, rules can create clarity and accountability but may generate resistance if not complemented by other motivational levers. This balanced approach recognizes that sustainable behavior change comes from a combination of external structure and internal drive.
How to effectively use rules and incentives in learning programs:
- Design incentives that signal value rather than control. Recognition and advancement opportunities often work better than purely financial rewards because they reinforce the importance of the behavior.
- Create clear, concise guidelines for critical behaviors where consistency is non-negotiable. The simplicity and transparency of rules increases their effectiveness and reduces resistance.
- Pair compliance requirements with meaningful context. When people understand the "why" behind rules (through emotional appeals or information), adherence significantly improves.
- Use group incentives to strengthen social influences. Team-based rewards activate both material motivation and peer accountability, creating a powerful combination.
- Design incentives that reward the learning process, not just outcomes. Recognize effort, experimentation, and progress to create a growth-oriented learning culture.
- Remove material barriers to desired behaviors. Sometimes the most effective "incentive" is simply eliminating costs (in time, effort, or resources) associated with the right behavior.
- Consider non-monetary rewards that connect to intrinsic motivators: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Opportunities for increased responsibility, skill development, or meaningful contribution often drive stronger behavior change than traditional incentives.
- Test the timing of incentives and regulations. Immediate incentives and clear rules may be needed initially, with a gradual shift toward more intrinsic motivation as behaviors become established.
- Create accountability systems that combine formal rules with peer feedback. This leverages both the clarity of regulations and the power of social influences for maximum impact.
Design multi-lever learning interventions for lasting impact
Looking at the Levers of Behavior Change framework as a whole reveals perhaps the most powerful insight for L&D professionals: successful behavior change rarely comes from pulling just one lever. The guide emphasizes that these levers work best in strategic combinations, addressing different aspects of human motivation and decision-making simultaneously.
This explains why so many well-designed training programs fail to create lasting change – they're often relying on just one or two levers, typically information and perhaps material incentives. By intentionally designing multi-lever interventions, we can address the full spectrum of factors that influence whether learning translates to actual behavior change.
How to create powerful lever combinations in your learning programs:
- Map the complete behavior change journey for your target audience, identifying potential barriers and motivators at each stage. Different levers may be needed at different points in the journey.
- Create a "lever analysis" for failed or underperforming programs. Identify which levers were missing and how adding them might transform results.
- Develop signature combinations that work for your organization's culture. For example, some organizations respond best to social influences paired with choice architecture, while others might need emotional appeals combined with rules and incentives.
- Start small with focused experiments testing different lever combinations. Use the results to build organizational knowledge about what works in your specific context.
- Create learning transfer checklists that prompt program designers to include elements from at least 3-4 different levers in every significant learning initiative.
- Design complementary lever strategies where one reinforces another. For example, social recognition (social influences) can strengthen the impact of achievement badges (material incentives).
- Involve cross-functional teams in learning design to naturally incorporate multiple levers. Operations teams often think about rules and processes, marketing understands emotional appeals, and IT can help with choice architecture in digital environments.
- Build lever diversity into your learning evaluation framework. Rather than just measuring whether information was delivered and understood, assess whether your program effectively engaged all relevant levers.
- Create a "lever map" for your L&D ecosystem, identifying where your overall approach might be overweighted toward certain levers and underutilizing others.
Measure lever impact to optimize your learning approach
The Levers of Behavior Change framework provides a powerful structure not just for designing learning experiences, but also for evaluating and optimizing them. Traditional L&D measurements often focus narrowly on completion rates, satisfaction scores, or knowledge checks – metrics that primarily assess the information lever. By expanding our measurement approach to examine all six levers, we gain much richer insights into what's driving behavior change and what's missing.
This comprehensive measurement approach helps solve one of L&D's biggest challenges: proving impact and continually improving our interventions. Instead of simply tracking whether a program "worked," we can pinpoint exactly which levers are creating change and which need strengthening in our specific organizational context.
How to implement lever-based measurement in your L&D strategy:
- Create a lever effectiveness scorecard for major learning initiatives. Rate each lever on a scale of 1-5 based on evidence of impact, highlighting where to focus improvement efforts.
- Develop specific metrics for each lever. For example, track emotional engagement, social reinforcement activities, environmental supports, clarity of rules, and incentive effectiveness alongside traditional information-based measures.
- Conduct lever-specific follow-up assessments. Instead of generic "how did you like the training" questions, ask targeted questions that assess the impact of each lever: "Did the stories emotionally connect with you?" "Are you seeing peers apply these behaviors?" "Have the visual reminders been helpful?"
- Use behavioral observation to assess which levers are actually influencing performance in real work settings. What's actually driving behavior may differ from what participants self-report.
- Implement A/B testing for different lever combinations. Run parallel versions of programs with different emphasis on various levers to determine the most effective approach for your context.
- Track lever effectiveness over time. Some levers (like emotional appeals) may have immediate impact but fade, while others (like social influences) may build strength gradually.
- Build a lever impact database specific to your organization. Document which lever combinations work best for different learning objectives, audiences, and organizational contexts.
- Share lever insights across the L&D team to build collective expertise. Regular discussion of which levers are working for different programs builds everyone's capability to design more effective interventions.
- Partner with business stakeholders to identify impact signals for each lever. These collaborative conversations help stakeholders understand the multiple pathways to behavior change beyond just information transfer.
Common questions about implementing behavior change levers in L&D
Q: I work in a traditional organization that expects formal training programs. How do I start shifting to this more lever-based approach?
A: Start by enhancing existing programs rather than replacing them entirely. Add one or two additional levers to your current training to demonstrate improved results. For example, if you normally run a leadership workshop (information), add a peer coaching component (social influence) and weekly email prompts with specific application challenges (choice architecture).
When you get positive results, share them with stakeholders using their language. Frame it as "increasing training ROI" or "improving learning transfer" rather than introducing an entirely new methodology. Show how these enhancements address existing pain points, like the common complaint that "people come back from training and nothing changes."
Demonstrating small wins builds credibility for bigger shifts. Document specific examples where adding behavioral levers improved outcomes that stakeholders care about. Even traditional organizations are open to evolution when they see concrete improvements in metrics they value.
Q: How do I balance the need for quick iterations with our compliance and quality requirements?
A: This is a common tension, especially in highly regulated industries or when dealing with critical skills where mistakes could have serious consequences. The key is to distinguish between what truly needs strict compliance control and what doesn't.
First, create a simple risk assessment for your learning programs. Categorize content into "high risk" (must be compliant, no room for iteration) and "lower risk" (can be more flexible and iterative). For high-risk content, maintain your rigorous standards but look for lever opportunities that don't compromise quality – like adding emotional appeals through relevant stories or improving choice architecture around the compliant behaviors.
For lower-risk areas, adopt a "compliant core, flexible application" approach. Ensure the central requirements are met consistently, but allow for experimentation in how people apply these principles in their specific contexts. This maintains standards while creating space for the iteration that behavior change often requires.
Organizations successfully use "learning sandboxes," designated projects or teams where more experimental approaches are permitted within boundaries. These controlled environments allow you to demonstrate the value of a multi-lever approach while managing legitimate compliance concerns.
Q: We don't have sophisticated analytics tools. How can we still make data-driven decisions about which levers are working?
A: Sophisticated tools are helpful but absolutely not required to gather meaningful insights about behavior change levers. Some of the most valuable data comes from simple, targeted observation and conversation.
Start with lightweight measurement approaches that focus on behavior rather than just opinions. For example, create simple before-and-after checklists where managers or peers observe specific behaviors targeted by your learning program. These structured observations provide direct evidence of change that's often more valuable than complex analytics.
Implement "learning journals" where participants document which aspects of your program (mapped to the different levers) they found most helpful in changing their behavior. Look for patterns in these qualitative responses to identify which levers are resonating.
Use targeted micro-surveys instead of lengthy evaluations. Ask just 2-3 questions specifically about lever effectiveness: "Did seeing others use this approach influence you to try it?" (social influences) or "Did the reminder emails help you apply what you learned?" (choice architecture).
Create simple tracking mechanisms for visible behaviors. For example, if your program involves managers giving more recognition, have a simple way to count recognition moments before and after the intervention.
Remember that imperfect data is better than no data. Even simple methods consistently applied will reveal patterns about which levers drive behavior change in your organization, allowing you to continuously refine your approach.
Q: My team is already stretched thin. How do we manage this more comprehensive approach without burning out?
A: Using multiple behavior change levers doesn't necessarily mean more work—it means more strategic work. The key is shifting resources rather than adding to your workload.
Start by evaluating your current initiatives through the lens of efficiency. Most L&D teams spend disproportionate time creating information-heavy content that rarely drives behavior change. By redirecting even 25% of that effort toward other levers, you can often achieve better results with the same resources.
Focus on "lever integration" rather than treating each lever as a separate project. For example, when creating a learning video (information), take an extra 30 minutes to also design a follow-up email with implementation prompts (choice architecture) and a simple peer discussion guide (social influences). These additions require minimal time but dramatically enhance impact.
Leverage existing organizational systems rather than building everything from scratch. Your company likely already has communication channels, recognition programs, and management practices that can be aligned with your learning objectives. These existing systems can activate emotional, social, and material incentive levers without creating new work.
Finally, the multi-lever approach actually reduces work over time because it creates more sustainable behavior change. When programs drive real results, you spend less time on "refresher training" and rework. I've seen teams that initially worried about capacity ultimately save significant time by getting behavior change right the first time.
Q: How do you recommend handling stakeholders who want to see a detailed project plan before starting? The multi-lever approach seems more fluid?
A: This is a common challenge when introducing a more dynamic approach in organizations accustomed to waterfall project planning. The solution isn't to abandon planning but to restructure it in a way that provides both the certainty stakeholders need and the flexibility behavior change requires.
Create a "lever-based roadmap" that outlines the overall strategy while allowing for adaptation. Instead of detailing every activity upfront, define clear phases: discovery, design, implementation, and optimization. Within each phase, identify which levers you'll activate and the key milestones, but maintain flexibility about specific tactics based on emerging data.
Frame your approach using language stakeholders already value. Instead of presenting it as "more fluid," position it as "more responsive to business needs" or "designed to maximize ROI." Show how traditional fixed plans often deliver training that doesn't actually solve the problem, requiring costly rework.
Provide examples of comparable successful initiatives. If possible, reference other respected teams or functions that have adopted more adaptive approaches, or share case studies from similar organizations. Social proof is powerful with stakeholders too.
Propose a phased approval process where stakeholders sign off on each major stage rather than the entire plan upfront. This gives them appropriate control points while allowing for necessary adjustments as you learn what works.
Remember that most stakeholder resistance comes from legitimate concerns about risk and accountability. By acknowledging these concerns and building appropriate governance into your approach, you can gain support for a more effective process without triggering organizational anxiety.
Q: We're getting pushback that focusing on emotions and social influences feels "manipulative." How do we address these ethical concerns?
A: This is a thoughtful concern that deserves serious consideration. The distinction between influence and manipulation lies in intention, transparency, and respect for autonomy - and it's important to address this directly with concerned stakeholders.
First, clarify that these behavioral approaches aren't about tricking people into doing things against their interests. They're about aligning learning with how people naturally process information and make decisions. When we ignore emotional and social aspects of learning, we're not being "more ethical" - we're just being less effective at helping people develop skills they need to succeed.
Share the research showing that pure information transfer rarely creates behavior change, even when people genuinely want to change. By addressing emotional and social dimensions, we're actually helping people bridge the gap between their intentions and their actions.
Be completely transparent with learners about your approach. Explain why you're incorporating stories that create emotional connection or why you're creating peer learning communities. Most people appreciate understanding the design principles behind their learning experiences.
Focus on choice-enhancing rather than choice-restricting applications. The most ethical use of behavioral science expands people's capabilities and options rather than narrowing them. Make this distinction clear in how you frame your work.
Create clear ethical guidelines for your team. We should never use emotional appeals to promote behaviors that don't benefit learners, misrepresent social norms that don't exist, or design choice environments that remove informed consent. Having explicit boundaries demonstrates your commitment to ethical practice.
Finally, invite the concerned stakeholders to help monitor implementation. Often, seeing these principles applied respectfully in practice alleviates theoretical concerns about manipulation. Their perspective can actually strengthen your ethical foundation.
Q: How do we know which levers to prioritize for different types of learning challenges?
A: This is where the art and science of behavior change design comes together. While there's no universal formula, I've found several practical approaches for determining which levers will have the greatest impact for specific learning challenges.
Start with behavioral diagnosis rather than solution design. Spend time observing and interviewing your target audience to identify what's actually preventing the desired behavior. Is it lack of knowledge (information), absence of motivation (emotional appeals), social barriers (social influences), environmental obstacles (choice architecture), unclear expectations (rules), or insufficient incentives? The primary barriers point directly to your priority levers.
Look at the behavior change journey. Different levers often work best at different stages. Emotional appeals and information typically drive initial awareness and interest, social influences and choice architecture support implementation, while material incentives and rules often help with sustainment. Map your levers to where your audience is in their journey.
Consider the nature of the behavior itself. Complex behaviors requiring significant effort often need stronger emotional and material levers, while simple behaviors mainly need choice architecture and social influence. High-visibility behaviors respond well to social levers, while private behaviors typically need stronger personal motivation.
Test lever combinations with small groups before scaling. I've seen many situations where our assumptions about which levers would work best were completely wrong. Run small experiments with different lever combinations to gather real data about what moves the needle for your specific challenge.
Learn from adjacent behaviors in your organization. If you've successfully changed similar behaviors in the past, start with the lever combination that worked before, then adapt based on the specific context.
Remember that in most cases, using at least 3-4 levers in combination produces significantly better results than trying to perfectly optimize just one or two. The power is in the complementary effect of multiple levers working together.
Q: How do we measure the ROI of implementing multiple levers when our organization is very focused on traditional learning metrics?
A: Connecting behavior change levers to ROI requires a strategic approach that bridges traditional learning metrics with business outcomes. The key is creating a measurement framework that captures both the effectiveness of each lever and their collective impact on results your organization already values.
Start by maintaining the traditional metrics your stakeholders expect, but enrich them with lever-specific indicators. For example, alongside completion rates, measure emotional engagement, social reinforcement activities, and behavioral application. This creates a more complete picture without abandoning familiar metrics.
Link your measurement directly to business KPIs your organization already tracks. If leadership cares about sales, customer satisfaction, or error rates, design your measurement to show how behavior changes influenced by your learning program directly impact these metrics. This connection is far more compelling than isolated learning metrics.
Create visual dashboards that show the relationship between multiple levers and outcomes. For example, demonstrate how participants who engaged with both the information components AND the social reinforcement activities showed significantly higher application rates and better business results than those who only completed the information portion.
Use control groups whenever possible to demonstrate impact. Compare teams that experienced your multi-lever approach against similar teams that received traditional training or no intervention. The differences in performance provide powerful evidence for the ROI of your approach.
Capture qualitative impact stories alongside quantitative metrics. Brief testimonials from participants and their managers about how specific aspects of your program helped change behavior are invaluable in translating data into meaningful narratives for stakeholders.
Finally, calculate the efficiency gains from the lever approach. When your programs create sustained behavior change, you avoid the costs of rework, refresher courses, and failed initiatives. This "cost avoidance" is a legitimate part of your ROI calculation that often resonates with financially-focused stakeholders.
🌎Case Study: How behavioral levers transformed a struggling onboarding program
Sarah, the L&D lead at a growing tech company, stared at her screen displaying yet another concerning email from HR. Three more new managers were struggling with basic team challenges, despite completing the company's comprehensive 3-day manager training just two months ago. She thought back to the countless hours her team had spent building what they thought was the perfect program – detailed slides, expert speakers, role-plays, the works.
"There has to be a better way," she muttered.
That's when she remembered reading about the Levers of Behavior Change framework. Instead of adding more content to the program as her stakeholders were suggesting, she decided to try a different approach.
First, she spent a week simply watching and listening. She shadowed Maya, a new engineering manager, and noticed something interesting. Maya wasn't struggling with the leadership theories they'd covered in training – she was having trouble with immediate challenges like giving feedback on code reviews while maintaining team morale.
Sarah saw similar patterns with other new managers. They weren't lacking knowledge – they needed support in the moment, when real situations emerged.
Rather than revamping the entire program, Sarah decided to experiment. She identified the most pressing challenge (running effective 1:1s) and created a solution using multiple behavior change levers:
For the information lever, she distilled the key concepts into a simple digital guide with practical examples.
For emotional appeals, she collected stories from respected senior managers about how effective 1:1s had transformed their teams, creating emotional connection to the practice.
For social influences, she created a peer community where new managers could share experiences and normalize the challenges of implementing new skills.
For choice architecture, she designed a 1:1 template that made it easier to follow best practices and created calendar prompts to remind managers of key talking points before each meeting.
For material incentives, she worked with HR to incorporate team engagement metrics (directly influenced by 1:1 quality) into the performance review process.
For rules and regulations, she established a clear expectation that all new managers would conduct weekly 1:1s with direct reports in their first 90 days.
"This feels too simple," Sarah thought as she presented the scaled-down approach to her stakeholders. But she stood firm, explaining how this would let them learn and adjust quickly based on real usage.
The breakthrough came three weeks later. During a check-in, Maya shared how she'd used one of the template questions to handle a difficult conversation with a team member. "The best part?" Maya said, "I could quickly reference the example scenarios right before my meeting. In the old program, I would have had to dig through a 100-page manual to find that information."
Sarah's team kept iterating based on feedback. They noticed managers were spontaneously sharing tips in their Slack channel, so they nurtured this community. When managers asked for more examples, they added short video clips of effective conversations. They created "office hours" where experienced managers could share recent wins and challenges.
The results surprised even Sarah. Not only were new managers more confident, but their teams reported better 1:1s and clearer feedback. HR escalations dropped significantly. Best of all, managers started contributing their own tips and examples to the toolkit.
Six months later, Sarah presented the impact to her leadership team. "By starting small and focusing on real needs, we actually achieved bigger results than our comprehensive program ever did," she explained. "We're not just training managers anymore – we're building a community of practice where learning happens naturally."
The biggest lesson? Sometimes less really is more, especially when that "less" is strategically designed using multiple levers to drive behavior change exactly when and where people need it.
Note: This is a fictional company, and this case study is a hypothetical example created for illustrative purposes only.
💡Other ideas for applying behavior change levers in L&D
- 🔄 Learning Experience Design Labs: Set up quarterly design sprints where L&D teams partner with business units to redesign specific learning experiences using all six levers. Start with one high-impact program per quarter, document the approach, and publish internal case studies on the results. This builds organizational capability while delivering immediate impact.
- 🔍 Behavior Change Detective Program: Create a rotating program where L&D team members shadow employees in different roles to observe behavior change barriers and enablers. Look specifically for moments where learned skills aren't being applied and analyze which levers might bridge the gap.
- 🤝 Cross-Functional Lever Teams: Form small, cross-functional teams specifically designed to activate different levers. For example, partner with Communications for emotional appeals, IT for choice architecture, and HR for material incentives. These partnerships extend your team's capability without requiring additional L&D headcount.
- ⚡ Quick Win Workshops: Conduct targeted two-hour workshops focused on solving one specific performance challenge using multiple levers. The tight timeframe forces practical thinking and generates immediate action rather than elaborate program designs.
- 🔄 Behavior Change Playbooks: Create simple reference guides for common L&D challenges with suggested lever combinations for each. For example, a "Manager Development Playbook" might outline effective lever combinations for improving delegation, feedback, coaching, and other key skills based on organizational experience.
- 📱 Lever Technology Assessment: Evaluate your learning technology stack through the behavior change lens. Does your LMS support social influences? Do your digital learning tools enable effective choice architecture? This assessment helps identify technology gaps preventing you from activating key levers effectively.
- 🎯 Email Prompt Library: Build a collection of effective email templates designed to activate different behavior change levers at key moments. For example, messages that trigger emotional connection, provide social proof, or prompt specific actions. These ready-to-use templates make it easy to extend learning beyond the classroom.
- ⚡ Manager Support Toolkits: Create simple one-page guides for managers that outline specific ways they can support behavior change before, during, and after training. Include conversation starters, observation guides, and recognition prompts that activate multiple levers through the manager relationship.
- 🔄 Learning Environment Walkthroughs: Conduct physical and digital environment assessments to identify ways to make desired behaviors more visible and easier. Look for opportunities to add visual cues, simplify processes, or remove friction that prevents application of learned skills.
📚 Dig deeper: Resources for exploring behavioral science in L&D
- Designing Training Programs That Drive Behavior Change: Authored by Dr. Geoff Cox and Graham Cook, this article discusses the importance of aligning training programs with desired behavioral outcomes. It emphasizes the need for performance-oriented objectives and offers guidance on creating learning interventions that translate into observable workplace behaviors.
- The COM-B Model for Behavior Change: The Decision Lab provides an overview of the COM-B model, which identifies Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation as key components influencing behavior. Understanding this model can help L&D professionals assess and design interventions that address these factors to facilitate behavior change.
- Learning Strategies to Drive Behavior Change: This article explores various strategies to foster lasting employee behavior change in the workplace. It highlights the role of experiential learning, feedback, follow-up, and nudges in creating an environment conducive to behavior modification.
- The MAP Framework: The Science Behind Effective Behavior Change: Maritz discusses the MAP (Motivation, Ability, Prompt) framework developed by BJ Fogg. This framework outlines how these three elements interact to drive behavior change, offering practical insights for implementing lasting change within organizations.
