Why people don’t do what you want them to do

​What behavioural science can teach us about behaviour change, and how organisations can turn good intentions into lasting action.

Every organisation wants people to do something.

• Buy the sustainable product.
• Adopt the new technology.
• Follow the safer process.
• Complete the training.
• Become an ally.
• Embrace a new way of working.

Most organisations invest a huge amount of time and money trying to make that happen. They launch campaigns. Build business cases. Deliver workshops. Produce videos. Send emails. Explain the benefits.

And then wonder why very little changes.

Here's the uncomfortable truth.

Behaviour change has never really been an information problem.

It's a human one.

Good intentions aren't enough

We've all experienced it. You promise yourself this is the week you'll finally get back to the gym.

You'll eat better. Stop scrolling before bed. Have that difficult conversation.

By Thursday, at least one of those intentions has quietly disappeared.

Not because you don't care. Not because you lack willpower.

Because being human is messy.

Behavioural scientists have a name for this: the Intention/Action Gap. It's the gap between what people genuinely intend to do and what they actually do.

Organisations experience exactly the same thing.

• Employees fully support a new initiative but never quite adopt it.
• Customers say sustainability matters, then choose the cheaper option.
• Leaders believe in inclusive cultures but struggle to change long-established habits.

The problem isn't usually intention. It's turning intention into action.

We spend too much time talking to the wrong part of the brain

Most change programmes assume people make rational decisions.

Give them enough information and they'll change.

Explain the benefits. Answer the objections. Provide the evidence.

Job done.

Except that's not how people make decisions.

Daniel Kahneman famously described two ways of thinking.

One is slow, deliberate and logical. It's the part of us that makes plans and sets goals. The other is fast, instinctive and emotional. It's the part that relies on habit, context and experience to make decisions with very little conscious effort.

Most organisational communications speak almost exclusively to the logical brain. But most everyday behaviour doesn't begin there.

It begins with habit.

With emotion.

With whatever feels easiest in the moment.

That's why awareness campaigns often succeed in raising awareness without changing very much else.

Why change programmes stall

Over the years, we've found four barriers that appear again and again.

Information isn't the answer

One of the biggest misconceptions is that people don't know enough.

In reality, they often know exactly what they're supposed to do.

Ask almost anyone whether they should exercise more, recycle more, save more or spend less time looking at their phone.

They already know.

Knowing isn't the difficult bit.

Doing is.

We misunderstand motivation

Organisations naturally focus on organisational goals.

People don't.

People are motivated by their own ambitions, pressures and priorities.

If a behaviour helps someone become a better leader, a more trusted colleague or a more confident professional, they'll pay attention.

If it only helps the organisation, it's much harder to sustain.

Understanding what genuinely motivates people is often the difference between a campaign that lands and one that's quickly forgotten.

Friction matters more than we think

Sometimes people don't change because we've accidentally made the desired behaviour just a little too difficult.

An extra form. An unclear process. Too many clicks. Poor timing.

Behavioural economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein showed just how sensitive people are to effort. Tiny increases in friction can dramatically reduce participation. Tiny reductions can transform it.

The lesson is simple.

If you want people to do something, make it easy.

Really easy.

People follow people

Human beings are social.

We're constantly looking for cues from those around us.

• What do people like me do?
• What's considered normal here?
• What gets recognised?

If the culture quietly rewards one behaviour while communications encourage another, culture wins every time.

That's why successful behaviour change isn't just about changing individuals.

It's about changing the environment around them.

So what actually works?

Behaviour change isn't about shouting louder. It's about designing better.

We've found four principles consistently make the difference.

Design for action

Most organisations design communications. Fewer design behaviour.

Map the journey someone has to take.

• Where do they hesitate?
• Where do they lose momentum?
• Where do they abandon the process altogether?

Those moments matter far more than another email reminding people why change is important.

Remove friction

Every unnecessary step reduces participation.

• Can the form be shorter?
• Can the decision be simpler?
• Can the desired option become the default?

Small improvements often have surprisingly large effects.

Make positive behaviour visible

People are reassured when they know others are already doing something.

That's why social proof is so powerful.

It's not about manipulating behaviour. It's about making positive behaviour visible.

People like to know they're moving with the crowd, not against it.

Speak to identity

Perhaps the most overlooked principle of all.

People don't simply ask, What should I do?

They ask, often without realising it, What would someone like me do?

The most successful behaviour change helps people become the kind of person they already aspire to be.

That's a far more powerful motivator than another instruction.

Behaviour change in practice

This is more than theory.

It's something we've seen repeatedly in practice.

Take our work with IBM.

The original brief was straightforward. Create a film encouraging senior leaders to become allies for employee resource groups. It sounded entirely sensible. Except our research suggested awareness wasn't the issue. Leaders already understood why allyship mattered.

What they lacked was an easy way to become involved in a way that aligned with their own ambitions.

So instead of creating another film, we built an exclusive networking platform that connected leaders directly with employee resource group experts.

The intervention wasn't bigger.

It was smarter.

By designing around existing motivations rather than trying to replace them, allyship increased by up to 167%.

We saw something similar in our work with Gas Safe Register.

Most homeowners don't actively choose an unsafe engineer. But when making a decision, convenience, familiarity and cost often outweigh distant risks. The challenge wasn't explaining why gas safety mattered. People already knew that. It was making safety feel personally relevant at the moment of choice.

By connecting gas safety with one of our strongest human motivations — protecting the people we care about most — the campaign made safer decisions feel both more immediate and more meaningful.

In both cases, behaviour changed because we designed around human psychology, not against it.

Small changes beat big campaigns

When organisations think about change, they often look for a silver bullet.

One campaign.

One workshop.

One inspirational speech.

Behaviour doesn't usually work like that.

The most successful change programmes are built through lots of small improvements that reinforce one another over time.

• Reduce a little friction.
• Celebrate positive behaviour.
• Improve the experience.
• Learn.
• Refine.
• Repeat.

Those small changes compound.

Eventually, the new behaviour simply becomes the normal behaviour.

The real challenge

Most organisations don't have an awareness problem.

They have an action problem.

People usually know what they're supposed to do.

The real challenge is helping them do it.

That means moving beyond communications that simply inform and towards experiences that make the desired behaviour easier, more rewarding and more natural.

Because lasting behaviour change doesn't happen when people understand what to do.

It happens when doing the right thing becomes the easiest thing to do.

And that's the gap worth closing.