The implementation of digitized intent to effectively reduce the gap between intention and action

We often see a significant gap between intention and action: we may want to act in a certain way, know that we should act in a certain way, and yet we are not changing our behavior.

This gap between intention and action is a central research topic in the field of behavioral sciences: various strategies are being studied to reduce this gap. Among them,”Intent implementation” offers convincing results and interesting prospects for implementation.

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# What is intent implementation?

Let's start by defining this concept. Introduced by Peter Gollwitzer in 1999, intention implementation consists of a strategy aimed at the acquisition of new habits and behavioral change. It's a simple plan “If the Situation A, so I adopt the Behaviour A”, in this sense, it is not the formulation of an intention strictly speaking (“I want to do this”), but the formulation of the plan for its realization (where, when, how). Gollwitzer shows that using such a strategy increases the likelihood that an individual will reach their goal of taking action, as long as the plan is sufficiently precise and detailed.

Ce mechanism aims to make an individual move from intention to action, so it's a Nudge in the sense of Thaler and Sunstein (cf. this blog post to learn more about nudges). In addition, this nudge has the particularity that it is directed towards oneself: the individual using the intention implementation Nudge himself to take action. The objective here is to create an automation: “If the Situation A, so I adopt the Behaviour A”.

To better understand how this nudge works, let's go back to Behavioral model by BJ Fogg (Behaviour = Motivation + Ability + Prompt). The intent implementation acts as trigger from the moment to action (Prompt), the other two factors being insured elsewhere: it can in fact be considered that the factor motivation is ensured by the very fact of using this strategy to take action; as for the feeling of personal effectiveness (Ability), the theory is that it is ensured by the anticipated visualization (mental image) of the realization of the action (research is under way to test the validity of this hypothesis).

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# Why digitize intent implementation?

Digitizing intent implementation involves two things:

• It is first necessary to help the individual to formalize the plan.”If Situation A, then Behavior A” via a digital tool.
  Formalizing the “If - Then” plan digitally means helping the individual to identify precisely where to carry out the action, when to carry out the action and how to carry it out, by offering, for example, to carry out a specific action in a specific context: “During the next meeting that I lead, I start by recalling the objectives”.
• It is then a question of helping the individual to identify the appearance of the”Situation A”, thus helping him to automatically trigger the desired behavior.
  It is possible, for example, to offer an individual to receive a text message or a reminder at a well-chosen time: this approach will help them more easily identify the appropriate situation to trigger the desired behavior (for example, 5 minutes before the start of a meeting).

This is what Fifty offers within its eDoing solution.

Pioneer in the field, Fifty offers a digital approach to the implementation of intentions to help its customers' employees to move from intention to action in the context of training and transformations:

• Through specific functionalities, Fifty's solution allows its customers' employees, after choosing a behavior to anchor, to define when, where and how they want to implement it;
• The solution also offers reminders to help “remember” the context that triggered the desired behavior. Be careful though, it's about active reminders and not passive. What is the difference? An active reminder is deliberately chosen by the employee, for a given situation (such behavior to be experienced at such a meeting), on a given channel (SMS, agenda invitation, smartphone notification, etc.) at a given time. It is much more effective than a reminder that is triggered in a predefined manner, identical for all, on a recurring basis and that you quickly end up ignoring because it loses its meaning.

These features were developed by Fifty's behavioral science R&D team. It ensures the relevance of Fifty's scientific approach and proposes regular adjustments based on the results of the latest research in the field.

Digitizing the implementation of intent in its eDoing solution now allows Fifty to multiply by 3 the rate of implementation of training and transformations for its customers.

‍The Fifty R&D team is continuing its research effort to identify the levers to further strengthen the effectiveness of the implementation of digital intent, and is the subject of regular publications, the latest of which is available hither.