Behavioural insights for office improvement

Over the past month I ran a call for ideas in our office, on how we can reduce costs and work smarter. Some very cool behavioural insights application came up! Practical tip – how to change your habits!

We received a lot of suggestions – and the majority required people to change their behaviour. As they were coming from colleagues as opposed to the management very few were relying on heavy-handed traditional measures – like banning flying by the business class, restricting choice of dinner options or making people pay for their phones. Instead, most were, well, nudges – changes in communications and environment to influence choices, but without imposing significant costs for making the “wrong” choice. Smack on for this blog!

Some suggestions are specific to the organisation I work in, but a good share can be applied universally. Here are 3 of my favourites

1. Inform people about their telecom expenses, comparing them with their peers. Once a month people will be getting a “bill” comparing them with an “average” user from their peer group, and also to the “best practice user”. If they are below average they would also get a sad smiley L. The basic psychological principle behind this idea is “social proof” – people do what others are doing. It was brilliantly demonstrated by the UK Nudge Unit to reduce late payments of taxes; and also by an American utility “oPower”. (http://economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/nudge-database_3441.html - see points 5 and 11)

2. Introduce “office miles” system for booking flights. Many times people do not have an incentive to look at the costs of the flight they are booking – and optimise for personal rewards (i.e. points). The idea is to introduce “office miles” for booking cheapest possible flight, and then reward people with token signs of appreciation.

3. Clearly mark the path to stairs. Having a sign indicating the way to the stairs, like footsteps on the floor, will make the option of using stairs more salient. The signs themselves can be done in behavioural-friendly way and follow the cue – action – reward principle of habit formation. Sign will be the cue, climbing up or down the stairs could be action, and you can place a smiley face (or some nice quote) on the inside of the staircase door, to reward the person!

And the tip of the post is exactly on changing your habits. Follow cue-action-reward. Your running shoes by your bed can be a cue, jogging the action, and getting tasty glass of vegetable juice the reward. If you want to know more about it – highly recommend book “The power of habit”