Behavior Change 101: Trigger, Incentive, and Ability
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Aug 10, 2025
Explore the transformative model of behavior change focusing on Triggers, Incentives, and Abilities. Discover how effective management isn’t about mandates but understanding what motivates action. Learn why clear incentives are crucial for decision-making and how simplified tasks can foster new habits. Understand the significance of having an explicit Trigger for actions and reducing friction to enhance Ability. The insights provided challenge common management styles, emphasizing a more effective approach to inspire both personal growth and team dynamics.
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volunteer_activism ADVICE
Don’t Rely On Rules Alone
Avoid mandating behavior; it doesn't solve underlying problems.
Jonathan Cottrell says following rules rarely creates lasting habits.
insights INSIGHT
Incentives Must Answer What's In It For Me
Make incentives explicit by answering "what's in it for me?".
Unclear incentives act like no incentive and block action.
insights INSIGHT
Trigger Is The Decision Crossroads
Design clear triggers that create the decision moment for action.
Jonathan Cottrell calls this the crossroads where the choice to act happens.
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This episode delves into a powerful model for encouraging behaviour change, applicable to both managing others and self-improvement, by focusing on three critical factors: Trigger, Incentive, and Ability. It challenges common, ineffective management approaches and provides insights into fostering new habits and desired actions by making the 'right' thing the 'easy' thing.
Uncover why naive management approaches, such as mandating rules or blaming individuals, are ineffective at solving underlying behavioural problems or creating new, lasting habits.
Learn about the Trigger, Incentive, and Ability model, a set of principles that can be applied to encourage specific actions in others or to facilitate self-betterment and incorporate new behaviours into your own life.
Understand that Incentives are the critical factor in deciding what actions to pursue, driven by the question, "what's in it for me?". It's crucial for incentives to be clear and understood; an unclear incentive is effectively no incentive at all. Beneficial incentives tend to be more effective from a scientific standpoint.
Discover the importance of a clear Trigger, which is the cross point or moment at which a decision to act is made. Assuming triggers will be self-generated is often a flawed management practice, especially when encouraging new behaviours.
Explore how Ability goes beyond just skill, encompassing clarity on how to do something and the reduction of friction and variability in the desired behaviour. The goal is to reduce cognitive overload and make the desired action the easiest option, thereby facilitating habit formation.
Realise the interconnection between Ability and Incentive, as a lack of clarity in how to perform a task (Ability) can make the incentive unclear because the reward for completion becomes uncertain.
Learn that the investment in encouraging behaviour change should focus on creating a better trigger, a better (and clearer) incentive, and higher ability (lower friction, higher skill) to ensure people engage in the desired behaviour.
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