Change and the COM-B model (3)

Change is often sequential, and each step is necessary for transformation.

This is the third of our series of articles exploring the COM-B model of behaviour change and applying it to the Mindful Business Charter. The model is sequential, as are our articles, and so if you haven’t seen the previous one we’d recommend taking the time to read them — Article One and Article Two.

In our second article we left Anika and Tom having decided upon the behaviour (the B of COM-B) they would like to change — people sending fewer emails outside of normal working hours. In this article we will look at the Capability, Opportunity and Motivation elements which are key to unlocking successful behaviour change.

This stage is about identifying both the barriers and enablers to people adopting the desired behavioural change, which in turn will then help identify the interventions you may want to make to reduce the barriers and enhance the enablers — we will look at those interventions in the next article.

(When considering the COM-B approach it is important to note that this is a process which requires involvement from all levels — to properly make your COM-B diagnosis of where the issues are, and therefore what interventions are needed, you need to involve the people who are operating within the organisation. While managers and HR teams will have excellent insights into how their organisation is working, in order for a COM-B process to be successful it needs to be collaborative, not authoritative.)

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The more involved your workforce are in a change process, the more likely it is to succeed.

Capability

This refers to our psychological and physical ability (or our perception of the same) to carry out the desired behaviour. Like the other elements, whether this is a key factor in any situation will vary. As it suggests, it is about whether we have the understanding, skills and mental stamina to do it as well as whether we have the physical strength and skills.

If the desired behaviour were, for example, to cycle to work then one might be thinking about the ability to ride a bike, a certain level of physical fitness, knowing a safe route, feeling safe in following the route, and so on.

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There may be various factors at play and those factors may vary from person to person. It may therefore be necessary to do some fact finding to understand what are the relevant issues in your case.

Opportunity

Opportunity is subdivided into social and physical opportunity. Physical Opportunity relates to whether it is actually possible. In our cycling to work example one might think about having safe bike storage facilities at work and a place to shower and change, as well as store clothes. It might also include having time in the day for what might be a longer time commuting.

Social Opportunity relates to social cues and cultural norms. If lots of my colleagues cycle to work, and better still if senior leaders do it and espouse the virtues, then this will be an enabler. If, however, the cultural norm is for people to be on their devices on their way in to work, if I get glared at when I walk through reception in my cycling gear and so on, then this is likely to be a barrier.

One of the Opportunity barriers we often hear about from professional service providers is that they cannot possibly talk about working more mindfully to their clients for fear this may put the clients off, and detract from the impression of being a committed provider of services. This would be an obvious thing to explore, perhaps through asking questions around what it means to be that committed provider, what the client actually wants in terms, perhaps, of quality work done by engaged and energised people who are interested, fresh in their thinking, and done efficiently and cost effectively. There is also clearly something clients can be doing here to help provide the Opportunity for change, by clearly communicating and demonstrating what they want and don’t want, and empowering and giving permission for open dialogue about working practices, expectations of delivery and so on.

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Clear communication with open dialogue enable more social opportunites for change.

Motivation

Motivation is divided into two elements, reflective Motivation which one can think of as our conscious thinking, and automatic which is more about our unconscious thinking or our emotions. It will be heavily influenced by Capability and Opportunity. If I have a nice bike, feel fit, the sun is shining, my best friend is going to join me, I haven't exercised for a few days and feel the need to burn some calories, and there’s a lovely shower waiting for me when I get to the office, then I am much more likely to be motivated to cycle to work. That might be reflective Motivation. If I have been cycling to work for years then what motivates me this morning is likely to be automatic as it is now an ingrained habit.

We know that so much of our behaviour is ingrained and it takes time, reflection and effort to alter some of our less helpful habits or behaviours. Some reflective Motivation might come from thinking about what sort of culture we want to have and create around us, the impact of our individual behaviours on others and so on, which of course is central to MBC.

Once you have carried out your research, perhaps through surveys, interviews, or discussion groups, and carefully considered these areas to form a clear picture you can make your “diagnosis” of which factor(s) — Capability, Opportunity, or Motivation — is (or are) the biggest inhibitor(s) to change. This will be crucial in determining which interventions you select.

Applying this to Example Org

How might all this apply in the context of what Anika and Tom are working on, wanting to reduce the volume of emails unnecessarily sent outside of normal working hours? There might be a number of factors that currently act as barriers to change. We have listed some of them below but there will be others at play in any work context, which is why doing the exercise in your own context, and involving people at all levels, is critical:

• people not feeling like they can get through their work without emailing outside of hours — this could be thought of as a form of psychological Capability, which might be as much about perception of Capability as actual Capability. Equally this could be viewed as having at least an element of Opportunity — there just isn’t the physical (or perhaps social) Opportunity to do everything that needs to be done within normal working hours. While it will normally be helpful to pin down which of Capability, Opportunity and Motivation is in play in any situation, as this will help define the appropriate intervention, the nature of real life is often that things are less easy to pigeon hole and a degree of flexibility may be needed;
• people feeling that their work is too time sensitive to avoid sending emails at all hours. Again this could be a form of perceived psychological Capability as well as one of Opportunity;
• people feeling that emails from a client need to be responded to immediately. Again this could be a form of perceived psychological Capability as well as one of Opportunity. It might also touch on automatic Motivation — that ingrained belief that quality client servce requires immediate response;
• people not having a clear sense of what “normal working hours” actually means in the context of their particular workplace and culture. This would be an issue of social Opportunity;
• people feeling like they are not allowed to switch off and must always be on. Again this would most likely be social Opportunity but might also touch upon automatic or even reflective Motivation;
• people not knowing about the functions on email systems to work offline and/or delay the delivery of emails. This would be Capability;
• I may know about the functions to work offline and/or to delay the delivery of emails but if these have been disabled on my organisation’s system then this would be physical Opportunity. The same would be true if the way the system works is that delayed emails will only be sent when I logon the following morning and I am going to be away from my desk then — this might present a physical barrier.

Anika and Tom, through their research and discussion have highlighted that the areas they need to look at most closely are Opportunity (as nothing in the current environment is enabling people to carry out the desired behaviour) and Motivation, as it was felt that client demands and perceived expectations were currently impeding any attempts at reduced out of hours email use. As such their COM-B diagnosis will lead them to look for intervention types which are effective when tackling Opportunity and Motivation.

In our next article we will look at the different intervention types and how these flow from the diagnosis of the issues in play.

The COM-B model was developed and devised by Susan Michie, Maartje van Stralen, and Robert West in 2011 at University College London. We thank all at UCL who have worked on this behaviour change model, and especially those who have assisted us in learning about it, and discussing its implementation within the work the MBC does.

To find out more about the MBC and the work we do, visit our website or contact us directly — richard@mindfulbusinesscharter.com or charlotte@mindfulbusinesscharter.com