What’s the difference between my family eating all the strawberries from a large Costco container and making another avoidable donation to the compost pile? It is a simple task of slicing those berries up before putting them in the refrigerator. It seems like such a small thing, but sometimes we can take a small step that enables other behaviors to follow. I was reminded of this when my wife shared with me a post from Ralphie Jacob’s Instagram feed called Simply on Purpose. In that post, she shares how kids were willing to eat an apple that had been sitting around once it had been cut into slices – almost as if it were magical. She calls this behavioral momentum, which is a fantastic description of getting things moving. She asks how we can “cut the apple” in other ways. That’s when I remembered our strawberries.
This is a great way to influence others’ behavior. If we want kids to draw or craft, we might have a space and supplies out and ready to go instead of having to gather all the needed items each time. That gathering creates friction that slows us down and makes it less likely to happen. If we want our student employees to stay busy, we might have a “list of things to do when there isn’t anything to do” posted where they can easily find it. If you delegate a task like a phone call, you could include all the relevant information in an email or Outlook task such as the number to call and relevant details, so they don’t have to search for those key pieces of information before doing it. It’s a little like priming the pump.
We can even apply this to influencing ourselves. To read more, you might find a book stand and leave the book out and open to your current page in a place you will see it during the day. Think of a few things you would like others to do and then figure out how you can “cut the apple” to make the desired behaviors easier to do.