As soon as I saw it, I knew it was genius. It was the epitome of an effective behaviour change strategy, and it was stunningly simple.

It answers this question: How do you get people to look up from their phones and look at the pedestrian crossing signals?

Short answer. You don't.

One of the struggles I deal with in my work is helping leaders influence the behaviour of others. And one of the big topics is often some form of ‘how do I get X person to do Y behaviour?’ This might be about following a new policy or a new procedure, but whatever it is, we usually have a way that we want people to enact that new behaviour. And it can get in the way of getting our outcome.

Now, sometimes, you can effectively influence that behaviour and that's great, but other times, it’s a real mission, especially if it’s a group of people.

Wherever possible I counsel my clients to ‘go with’. Find out about their current behaviours and try to insert your change into those behaviours, instead of getting those people to change their behaviours to fit your outcome.

The traffic light scenario is the perfect example. The goal is to prevent accidents and injury by getting people to look up from their phones and follow the traffic signals. But, is it really?

Isn’t it really about getting people to follow the traffic light signals, regardless of where they are and how they might find them. Do they really need to ‘look up’, or can we find a way to place the signals where their eye balls already are? That’s the key.

Behaviour change is ultimately about the outcome – does it really matter how we get there?

Where might you be forcing your pathway onto your people? How can you ‘go with’ their pre-established preferences and proclivities to make the change easier, more accessible and ultimately more likely to occur?