Forces of (Human) Nature: SPARKS.
The Forces of (Human) Nature.
This blog series explores the Force Field Analysis tool (see below) to identify the forces that drive and block sustainable behaviors. In the first two posts, we explored the right side of the force field: external deterrents (i.e., barriers) and internal deterrents (i.e., inertia).
Now that we’ve thoroughly explored deterrents that may prevent audiences from taking action, we can move on to identifying which motivators we can leverage to jump-start action among our audiences and sustain their momentum towards change.
*This is a simplified version of the Force Field Analysis. 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.
External motivators = inertia busters
Like external deterrents, external motivators tend to occur in the social environment around the audience. The audience is exposed to these forces and feels prompted, nudged, encouraged, and (potentially) excited to get engaged and involved in a new initiative.
Think of them as catalysts for jump-starting people out of status quo bias and moving them towards action.
In the previous post on internal deterrents, I shared some reasons why an audience member may not take action. These justifications included sentiments like, ‘I don’t have time for that,’ ‘I’ll think about it’ (a classic procrastination technique), and ‘that’s not for me.’
The external motivators you use should be designed to overcome those psychological deterrents. We want to spark sentiments of:
Woah, what’s that all about?! I gotta look into this. = Curiosity.
That looks interesting. I want to know more. = Piqued interest.
That sounds fun. I wanna join. = Excitement.
What are they doing? Should I do that, too? = FOMO.
I can do that, too! Count me in. = Participation.
I need or want that. = Desire.
The goal is for the audience to see or hear something that sparks them to do something.
That “something” is not yet a big ask, like completely changing their lifestyle.
Rather, it simply asks the audience to take the first step in the process. Think of it like the “invitation” stage of engagement.
Creating sparks.
External motivators are great for starting a new movement and engaging new audience segments who are not yet involved.
They are also great for actions, especially steps like attending workshops and meetings, which are not hard to do and are easy to skip.
Sparks can include, but are not limited to:
→ Events that appeal to the audience’s interests, but open the door to getting engaged on the topic. Brew at the Zoo is a good example of this.
→ Activities that invite the audience to participate in a social engagement related to your work, such as a Trivia night about whales. Consider if your organization can do an activity “take-over” to introduce your environmental topic to an existing audience, like those Trivia Night fans!
→ Experiences where new audience members become actively engaged on the topic right away, such as joining clean-up events, nature walks, workshops, or community feedback sessions. Involving the audience in part of your program’s process can increase their attachment to the cause, which is related to the IKEA Effect bias.
→ Interaction opportunities where the new audience member has the chance to meet members of the organization and other individuals like themselves. This approach can be incorporated into events, activities, and experiences, or stand as its own initiative through webinars, online forums and groups, and community talks.
→ Exposure to the cause, the people getting involved, and the events mentioned above through communication channels like social media, news articles, advertisements, and more.
Some of these forces already exist, and our job is to amplify them so that they reach a wider audience and capture their attention. To draw more people in and overcome inertia, we should ensure the invitations to join these events are relevant, engaging, and compelling for the new audience segment.
It’s also valuable to explore whether your program can create new external motivators that excite and engage the audience, such as hosting more activities and experiences.
The limitations of external motivators.
It can be a lot of fun to develop, promote, and host various sparks to engage our audience.
Unfortunately, we can’t live in the world of external motivators forever, especially if we need to achieve larger, longer-term behavior changes.
Sparks can get people started on their journey, but they are not powerful enough to sustain the audience’s momentum through an entire journey of change.
This is partly because the benefits of external motivators diminish over time.
Sure, the event, activity, and webinar were fun and interesting the first few times, but then the newness factor wears off. How do we sustain the audience’s engagement when the initial excitement wanes?
We can continue to create and offer new sparks to keep them coming back for more, but that can become a drain on our resources. It also means we have to stay in the driver’s seat of creating change, rather than passing the baton to the audience and supporting them along the way.
Therefore, we should supplement or replace external motivators with internal motivators after the first few steps of the behavior journey. A combo of external and internal motivating forces working together is the special sauce for starting and sustaining momentum.
More on internal motivators in the next post!
If you’re looking for additional ideas for external motivators to use, check out these two “This or That” posts about social proof, influencers, and tangible benefits.
If you’re thinking of using fear or shame as sparks, here are my arguments against going that route:
→ Coming up next is internal motivators, a.k.a. drive.
Do you want to create behavior journeys and identify motivators and deterrents for your audience? Then join the Making Moves course! We get into all the details during the 8-week course, so you walk away with a clear, structured plan for motivating audiences to protect the planet.