Forces of (Human) Nature: BARRIERS.
Mapping the forces of sustainable change.
It’s amazing how things come full circle in life.
Many moons ago, at the dinner table with my parents, I was expressing frustration with something I was trying to achieve. I don’t remember the exact context, but I assume it was related to career advancement aspirations during my early days in advertising.
My stepmom, a social worker who often delivered trainings on professional goal setting, drew a picture of a soccer goal on a notepad with a stick-figure player trying to advance toward the goal.
Working against the player was a series of arrows preventing the individual from achieving their goal ←←←. To counter those headwinds, a powerful set of drivers →→→ would be needed to propel the player to the goal (or the finish line, if you’re up for mixing sports metaphors).
Little did I know, she was introducing me to the Force Field Analysis, which was developed by psychologist Kurt Lewin in 1951 as an organizational change management model.
The visual memory of players, forces, and goals came flooding back to me years later when I was creating the Making Moves course.
It felt so simple, yet so incredibly insightful and useful. It felt so relevant to the sustainability and conservation behaviors I was working on. It felt like the perfect tool to organize our thoughts around barriers and motivators so that we can design audience-centered action plans.
I researched the origin of the diagram, how it has been used since the 50s, and created an adaptation for the course.*
*The complete version includes specific deterrents and motivators tailored for conservation and sustainability programs. Join the course this October to receive the full diagram and learn all 22 forces.
A brief explanation of the force field analysis.
When a person attempts to do something new or different, they face numerous factors that may prevent them from following through. I call the factors that prevent action deterrents.
On the flip side, there are also numerous factors that can help motivate this person to overcome challenges and stay dedicated to achieving the behavior change goal. I call these motivators, as you are well aware.
Motivators and deterrents can be further divided into external forces and internal forces. External forces exist in the social environment surrounding the audience over which they have little to no control. In contrast, internal forces are more psychological and emotional factors related to motivation and change.
Overall, our goal is to increase internal & external motivators and decrease internal & external deterrents. This blog series will explore all four forces to understand what drives and blocks sustainable behaviors.
External deterrents = behavior roadblocks.
External deterrents prevent the audience from taking action or adopting a behavior, and are typically outside the audience’s direct control.
Using the soccer example my stepmom shared with me, external forces would make it impossible for the player to reach the goal. The player wants to achieve the goal and is trying to get there, meaning the motivation exists, but something is making it extremely challenging or impossible to complete the task.
In many programs, these factors are referred to as barriers.
There are real-world examples of sustainability programs promoting behaviors that contain external deterrents, even if we hate to admit it.
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We ask people to drive less, but there are no public transportation options for them.
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We ask people to compost, but their buildings don’t have the infrastructure for it.
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We ask people not to litter, but there are no garbage bins anywhere nearby.
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We ask people to install solar panels, but they can’t afford them, or their homeowners’ association won’t allow them.
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We ask people to adopt different livelihoods, but there are no other forms of work available to them, or they don’t have the skills needed for those jobs.
I always recommend starting the force field analysis process with external deterrents, because they can be deal breakers with the potential to undermine a project’s success.
If your audience cannot access the required equipment, tools, skills, or resources needed to perform the desired behavior, then no amount of marketing, communication, or outreach about doing the behavior will overcome those barriers.
Breaking down barriers
Don’t fret if you find some external forces in your program. Knowing which barriers are preventing action helps us address them.
Consider taking one of the following steps to reduce or remove the barrier and create a smoother path to action.
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Remove the barrier entirely so it no longer impacts the audience.
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Reduce or lower the barrier so it doesn’t impose as strong a force.
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Identify a way for the audience to avoid the barrier by using a workaround or taking a different path to achieve their goal.
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Have the program provide the tools, resources, or skills the audience needs to overcome the barrier.
If you read through the above list and thought, “yikes, we can’t do these,” try one of these alternatives.
» Pivot by prioritizing a plan to remove or reduce the barriers before asking the audience to adopt the desired behavior. In the meantime, you can promote initial engagement activities or ask the audience to help advocate for removing the barriers, if relevant and appropriate.
» Pick a more viable behavior for the audience to adopt. The more realistic behavior can be in place of the original one, or it can be a barrier-free step on the behavior journey you focus on, while the barrier issues are being addressed.
Bringing it back to the Behavior Change Trio.
Actions, routines, and habits may encounter various types and levels of barriers.
The external forces preventing your audience from joining a webinar (action) will differ from the barriers they face when implementing composting at their restaurant (behavior).
Behavioral journeys that articulate each step in the change process can make it less overwhelming to identify when and where external forces exist for the audience. The details also help uncover any unforeseen barriers that have caused the audience and the project’s trajectory to stall so that they can be addressed.
External forces are just the beginning. Next, we’ll take a peek inside the minds of our audience to explore the internal deterrents that prevent action.
→ Check out the next force: internal deterrents, a.k.a. inertia.
Do you want to identify motivators and deterrents for your audience? Then join the Making Moves course! We start designing journeys in lesson 1 and refine them throughout the 8-week course, so you walk away with a clear, structured plan for motivating audiences to protect the planet.