Influence, Persuade, Nudge: the Science of Getting People to Take Action

Influence, Persuade, Nudge: The Science of Getting People To Take Action

California Department of Human Resources Statewide Training

www.calhr.ca.gov

WORKSHOP PRESENTED BY

The Los Rios Community College District’s Government Training Center

Bruce Winner 916.563.3232 [email protected] Influence, Persuade, Nudge: The Science of Getting People to Take Action

Table of Contents Section 1 Overview—What is Behind “Nudging?” 3 Section 2 Where to Apply a Nudge: The Last Mile 14 Section 3 The E.A.S.T. Model for Crafting a Nudge 16 25+ Nudges Using the E.A.S.T Model 21 Section 4 More Cognitive Biases and Ways to Influence or 26 Persuade Section 5 Testing Your Nudges 28 Section 6 Application or My Commitment to Nudging 31 Section 7 Appendices 33 Three Page Summary of Nudging for Reprinting 34 Selected Nudge (Behavioral Economics) Definitions 37 Eight Cognitive Biases Explained 38 Don’t Waste Your Training Efforts: Revisit Transfer of 40 Training Even More Cognitive Biases 43 Section 8 Four Station Exercises 44 References 50 Workshop Leader Bios 52

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2 Section 1: Overview - What is Behind This Thing Called "Nudging"?

“Influence, Persuade, Nudge: Master the Science of Getting People to Take Action” Outcome This course is designed for those who wish to learn and practice a new and science-based approach (Nudging) to influence or persuade others to do what is best for them and their organizations. Nudging is a tool or technique that can be seamlessly incorporated into your current organizational efforts to change the behavior of others. It can also be used as a standalone performance improvement device. Mastering nudging will give you an inexpensive, scalable, and provable method to get people to take action.

Objectives Those who complete the course will: 1. Discover a new way to influence the behavior of employees (and clients)

2. Encounter the cognitive science behind nudging that resulted in a 2002 Nobel Prize

3. Determine which behaviors are most appropriate for a nudge

4. Practice a proven four-part method for crafting a powerful nudge

5. Use the method many times during the day to hone your nudging skills

6. See and experience a second method for maximizing the effects of nudging

Agenda in Brief

• Overview - What is Behind This Thing We Call "Nudging"?

• Where to Apply a Nudge: The Last Mile

• The E.A.S.T. Model for Crafting a Nudge

• Lunch

• More Cognitive Biases and Ways to Influence or Persuade

• E.A.S.T. Meets the Application Reinforcement Model (before, during, after)

• Testing Your Nudges

• What’s Next: Apply the Skills and Tools Learned in the Course

3 What is nudging? At its simplest it is, “The science of getting people to take action.” Bri Williams, author of “Behavioral Economics for Business”

Would you like an alternative definition? “A nudge is a means of encouraging or guiding behavior, but without mandating, instructing… or using financial incentives or sanctions.” David Halpern, author of “Inside the Nudge Unit”

What does this have to do with me?

You can effectively use nudges with your colleagues, team members, direct reports, trainees, or clients. You can use nudges to influence or persuade them to:

• Meet a deadline(s).

• Do more of something you discussed and agreed upon.

• Do less of something you discussed and agreed upon.

• Embrace a difficult change you discussed and agreed upon.

• Be more regular in the habit of doing something.

• Take a step of an agreed upon assignment.

What is cognitive bias? (In plain English)

A bias is a tendency. Cognitive bias is something we are unaware of and happens outside of our control. It happens automatically and is triggered by our brain making quick judgments and assessments of people and situations, influenced by our background, cultural environment, and personal experiences.

Using an awareness of bias to build a nudge

We can use this awareness of bias in others to design ways to influence their behavior (nudges). In fact, nudge theory argues that this knowledge of bias can be used to persuade individuals without resorting to coercion, regulations, or enforcement.

Nudges are simple, inexpensive, science-base, and can be used in conjunction with existing approaches.

What Does Nudging Look Like?

Notes: 1) French and German Wine

2) A Yard Sign

3) A Utility Company

Exercise Notes:

(For more on these books and others, see complete reference section on pages 50-51)

7 Group Exercise Is there something you’ve read, heard, experienced that you would feel comfortable sharing with the group about . . .

• Nudging? • Choice Architecture? • Cognitive Bias? • Behavioral Economics? • Any other associated topic or question?

Notes:

Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman (Book Summary)

Notes:

8 System I and System II (The Metaphor)

• The elephant is System

• The Rider is System

• The rain (umbrella) is

• The mistake many of us make is… we speak to the

• When we should be speaking to the

A quote to remember throughout the day today:

“… the key promise of behavioral economics (nudging) is that we’re irrational, but in H P W ,…”

David Asch, MD and Penn Medicine Center Innovator

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Some common cognitive or unconscious biases *heuristics in the language of behavioral economics

*Heuristics are commonly defined as cognitive shortcuts or rules of thumb that simplify decision making

Framing Bias

Commitment Bias

Social Proofing Bias

11 Status Quo Bias

Endowment Effect

Choice Overload

Loss Aversion

Peak End Rule

Once we have defined the biases or heuristics, is this enough? ______

How can we go from understanding the biases to using them to influence, persuade, or nudge behavior? ______

How can I remember these biases? ______

13 Section 2: Where to Apply a Nudge! What behavior do we want to change or influence?

From the Video

From the first set of examples

Consider using this space to capture some of the behaviors generated by your fellow participants.

15 Section 3: The EAST Model for Crafting a Nudge

The E.A.S.T. Model for Applying Nudges in Your Workplace (The grid below is designed to provide space for your notes) Overcome Cognitive Overload (chunking, ordering, simplification) ______

Overcome the Status Quo Bias – Create a default and force people to opt E______out of the default, if they choose NOT to participate (examples - organ donation, savings plans, health care…) ______

Framing – Frame the best choice attractively ______

A______Salience – Drive the behavior by making the appeal novel, unique, new ______

Commitment (consistency) Bias – We tend to follow through after a commitment (six more ways – really?) ______S______Reciprocity – Our innate desire to assist those who help us ______

Priming – The right nudge at the right time can result in action ______

Implementation Intention - I “intend” to do the following (in some detail) ______T and on the following date… ______

16 The EAST Model

The model seems so simple… What could possibly go wrong?

It seems like “common sense”, but is it? If common sense drove our behavior… • Savings • Diet • Exercise • Change Initiatives driven by our employer

Let’s go a bit deeper (three examples) Commitment/Consistency There is an OPTIMAL WAY(s)

Social Proofing There is a WRONG WAY

With every Nudge There is CONTEXT to consider

Sample – How to Build a Behavior and E.A.S.T. Nudges “Square”

18 Let’s Add Some EAST Nudges (Four Station Exercise)

Notes:

Station One

The Endowment and IKEA Effect

Notes:

Station Two

Loss Aversion

Notes:

Station Three

Present Bias

Station Four Notes:

Using Intention to Overcome Inaction

19 A Review of Some Nudges You Know

(plus several you haven’t yet seen)

E______Many more tools (nudges) see page 21

A______Many more tools (nudges) see page 22

S______Many more tools (nudges) see page 23

T______Many more tools (nudges) see page 24

An in-class exercise

20 25+ Nudges using the E.A.S.T. Model

E - EASY

EASY – If you want to encourage a behavior, make it easy.

HARD (corollary) - If you want to discourage a behavior, make it hard.

• Modify the Environment o Cafeteria food, supermarket checkout – Make fruits and healthy choices easy to see and access. Make junk food difficult to access (high shelves for example). o Reduce the size of the dinner plate or bowl. This has been proven by lab and other practical experiments to assist in dieting. • Simplify letters, forms, and messaging to see marked increases in returns/responses. EXAMPLE / Save a click – A tax letter was changed to take people directly to a web link For a needed tax form (versus to a web site where they needed to search for the form and click to it). Result – a 22% increase in form completion.

• Make it harder to do something undesirable. In a federal government effort to save paper, a team designed an experiment to add a single extra step to print single-sided vs double-sided. They achieved a marked decrease in paper consumption.

• Checklists and Job Aids – What many of us consider simple checklist can be very powerful in changing behavior. They can reduce friction, make tasks easier, and assist in overcoming the status quo bias. More? See Atal Gawande’s “The Checklist Manifesto”.

• Substitution –Substitute cigarettes for E-cigarettes (looking increasingly like a poor substitute) or substitute sitting at your desk all day with standing occasionally.

• Chunking (creating goldilocks tasks) – Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (a famous behavioral scientist who has written extensively for business), says that we are motivated to obtain mastery and mastery comes by sticking to a task over time until we master it. We can maintain our motivation or the motivation of others by breaking complex tasks into chunks or “Goldilocks Tasks” (tasks that are not too easy but not too hard).

• Goal Setting – Setting goals results in better completion rates and better results. EXAMPLE / In one well-controlled experiment, marathoners who decided upon a pre-determined race goal (a finishing and associated split time or time per mile) had six minute faster times in the full marathon, than those who failed to set a pre-race goal. 21 A - ATTRACTIVE

ATTRACTIVE – If you want others to choose an option or adopt a new behavior, make it attractive.

UNATTRACTIVE (corollary) – If you don’t want people to choose the option of engage in a behavior, make it unattractive

• Framing Effect – we react differently depending on how information is framed o 3% fat vs 97% fat free (example from nudge Course) o Framed as a loss is more powerful than framing as a gain (see below) o Frame so that it is important to the person – how? WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) • Scarcity – When something is deemed to be scarce, it is more desirable or attractive to us. Limiting the time to sign up for a government program increased the rate of sign up. • Link an unattractive behavior to one that is attractive – For those who hate to exercise it can be made more attractive by linking it to a desirable activity. (An exercise session can become a walk in the woods or time at the gym can be reframed as a time to get together with a group of friends.) • Personalize – Personalize a letter – even a business letter, tax letter, etc.… o Adding a picture of the person or a handwritten note in a letter can boost overall tax payments, the timeliness of payments, and the percentage of fines paid. • Salience – Make your appeals new or novel. Add a handwritten note to envelope or letter or simply handwrite name and addresses. Add a personal note, congratulations, thanks, etc. to the letter (or email) for increased results. o Adding a stamp to the letter – Stamp said - Pay Now! This stamp resulted in a boost of 14-17% or a 10 million pound increase for a British traffic fine collection effort. o Another tax example can be found on page 89 of Inside the Nudge Unit. The tax letter and envelopes were personalized with a handwritten, “David, you really need to open this!” The experiment resulted in a responder vs non-responder rate rose from 21.8% to 26% It had a cost (the wages of the writers), but had a 200:1 ROI! • Loss Aversion – It is an extremely strong bias that was illustrated many times during the nudge class. This was one of the first heuristics explored by Kahneman, author of Thinking Fast and Slow and winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics. • Endowment Effect - If you are given something, even something you don’t particularly want, and then asked to return it, you are reluctant to do so. If you are given something that has a worth of $3.00, you will be reluctant to sell it or trade for a similar item unless offered at least twice what the item is worth. (Related to loss aversion, this bias has been proven in many lab experiments). • Related to the endowment effect is the Ikea Effect. If you build something, even if your product is substandard, you will value it beyond its intrinsic worth.

S - SOCIAL

SOCIAL – We are social beings who use other people’s behavior to as a cue for our own behavior. If you want others to take action, link those desirable behaviors with social factors or social interaction.

• Social Proofing or Descriptive Norm – We use other people’s behavior to as a cue for ourselves. Apply this by reminding people that others are “doing the right thing” and how many of them exist. Avoid pointing out those who are doing the wrong thing. The WRONG WAY to frame a message socially - The MDs office that says 25% of our patients are not showing up for appointments, nor are they calling to cancel their appointments. This results in MORE no-shows and less cancellations in advance, not less. Instead REFRAME the message the RIGHT WAY to - “Valued patients, Did you know that 75% of our patients show up on time and call in if they want to cancel. We hope you can join this group of valued patients!” Thank You! Dr. Goodnudge and Team. This sort of positive social framing has been proven to drive cancellations down. The border guard example was mentioned in the Nudge course today. When announced that a small group of border guards were selling favors illegally, illegal behavior rose! Again, reframe using the positive behavior you want to encourage and not the negative behavior!

• Relative ranking To drive down over-prescription of antibiotics, high prescribing MDs were made aware that fully 80% of antibiotic prescribers in their area prescribed LESS antibiotics than them. (i.e. they were in top 20% of prescribers) This had a significant effect on reducing their antibiotic prescriptions. Consumers of water and electricity were told 70% of their neighbors used less water or electricity than them. (i.e. they were in top 30%) This had a significant effect on their usage.

• Commitment Effect – Commitment has a huge impact on follow-through. Whether the commitment is oral or in writing, we tend to deliver on what we commit to. Consider combining commitment with other nudges such as: 1) specific goals – SMART goals for example, or 2) social proofing - by dieting as a group and holding each other accountable, 3) a loss - by asking everyone (upfront) to commit to losing a $50 ante to a charity they do NOT wish to contribute to (such as a non-preferred political organization).

• Feedback – Regular, positive, and constructive feedback gets good results (coaching, regular check-ins,...), as opposed to the “annual performance review”.

• Reciprocity – We are inclined to return a favor when we have received one (or something) from someone else. o Gift from a not for profit – small item boosts giving (address labels and such) 23

T – TIMELY

TIMELY – Timing Matters! See many examples below of how to use this bias to get people to take action.

Present Bias - We disproportionally prefer rewards that come now and costs that come later. A famous example is the “Save more Tomorrow” (Schlomo Benartzi and Richard Thaler’s program) from the video in today’s class. Their message is to save more for your retirement, but that one does not need to sacrifice today in order to save. One saves by committing now to take a percentage of any salary increases (a default decision in the future) that is deducted and invested automatically.

Prompts – Prompts can be effective, but they need to come at the right time. • Students were prompted via text in the summer, about the need to complete some forms in order to start community college in the fall. These text prompts proved successful in reducing “summer melt” or students that committed to college at HS graduation, but tended to “melt away” by fall. • Asking people in the process of writing their wills if they would be willing to donate to a charity increased the percentage of their giving. Again, the ask was at the right time.

Implementation Intention – This technique prompts people to commit to something (with detail) and often to do it on the following date and place. Proven experiments included: • Asking people if they intended to vote, when, and where. This increased those who actually voted. • Asking people to write down the time and place they were going to get a flu shot increased the likelihood they would get a flu shot.

Priming – Actions can be influenced by unconscious cues delivered at the right time. o A study found those primed with rude words were more likely to interrupt an investigator than those primed with neutral words. (Those primed with polite words were the least likely to interrupt.) • A Yale study showed that something as simple as holding a hot or cold beverage before an interview could result in pleasant or negative opinion of the interviewer.

Deadlines – people respond to deadlines • Cards or offers with expiration dates are used more than those without an indicated date.

Head start (endowed progress effect) People given a “head-start” toward a goal are more likely to finish a task. Example – A coffee shop loyalty card. A card with 12 holes (but two “pre-stamped” to give users a “head-start”) is used at a higher percentage rate than a card with 10 unstamped boxes. People respond not only to proximity towards a goal but also to “perceived progress”.

Peak End Rule – If you have a relatively difficult or unpleasant extended task or set of tasks for employees, design it to end on a positive note or experience. This last experience (peak-end) is what people tend to remember. (The tend to forget that which came before, even if difficult or unpleasant) 24 Building an EAST Square Need some assistance with nudges? • Easy (Remember there are lots of nudge ideas on page 21) • Attractive (Remember the nudge ideas on page 22) • Social (Remember there are lots of nudge ideas on page 23) • Timely (Remember there are lots of nudge ideas on page 24) Advice • Start by generating a “good behavior” to nudge (the center square). Not too big, not vague, but clear, definable, measurable, and doable. (Remember SMART) • Try to generate at least one nudge for each letter in the EAST model first • Then see if there are additional nudges for a specific letter of the E.A.S. T. model. In the example below (the SETA example) there are probably multiple ways to make this task of communicating more regularly or consistently more S- Social or A-Attractive.

Remember our SETA example and how we construct an EAST Square?

25 Section 4: More Cognitive Biases and Ways to Influence or Persuade

Takeaways from Cialdini Video

This reinforced the lesson(s) on:

I never would have considered the following:

Do you think sales-people use any of these techniques? What should you be aware of with sales-people?

Who else is trying to influence you?

Can you protect yourself? How?

“The FAST FOUR” – An Illustration of NUDGING in Action

1. Commitment

2. Social Proofing

3. Framing/Priming

4. Loss Aversion

Notes

27 Section 5: Testing Your Nudges

Do you test or measure your attempts to change behavior or get people to take action now?

Why or why not?

When might you want to consider testing (or measuring your nudges)?

How might you go about it?

A/B Testing A/B testing is also known as split testing. It is simply a method of comparing one approach (one training intervention or nudge) versus another approach or no approach (a control group). A/B testing is essentially an experiment where two or more variants are used with two audiences. Some basic statistical analysis is then employed to determine if there is a statistically significant variation between the two outcomes. Care should be taken to test only one variable at a time.

More on Experimentation and Measurement Many of us in the workplace are reluctant to experiment and publicly measure the efficacy of different tools and techniques. We believe that we should work on our design and methods until it has reached “perfection” and then roll out our product or service.

This is not how most modern software and technology is developed. Most current models are “agile” or use a “lean startup model’. These models encourage developers to build, measure, and learn in a constant repeating loop on the way to improving the product. Nudges are an ideal candidate for this agile approach. New nudges could be rolled out monthly with any number of your current workplace efforts and measured independently.

Of course, you can nudge without any measurement at all. Some nudges may simply make sense and be accepted by management and participants. But if you want to scale up your efforts and have proven results to take to management, it is always best to test or measure.

Nudges are based on solid empirical findings from the social and behavioral sciences. Why not reinforce the validity of this approach by STARTING with good science and ENDING with good science? This can be done by rigorously testing your results.

29 BONUS PAGE

Are there ethical (or non-ethical) ways of nudging? Yes. See Richard Thaler’s Three Rules of Ethical Nudging Below

The Ethics of Nudging – an academic article from Harvard’s Shared Abstracts https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/16151743/ethics11_20a_2.pdf?sequence=1

A New York Times article “The Power of Nudges for Good and Bad” (a short and succinct look at the ethics of nudging by Richard Thaler) https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/.../the-power-of-nudges-for-good-and-bad.html?...

Seven Ways to Use Commitment to Nudge: 1) Start with a small commitment and then ask for more commitments or stronger ones. 2) An oral commitment (even to ourselves) is stronger than a silent commitment. 3) A written commitment is stronger still. 4) The timing of a commitment can matter. Research has shown that a signature (commitment) at the top of a form can have more effect than a commitment at the bottom of a page. 5) A social commitment (social media, announcement to a peer group, etc.) can increase the likelihood of following through with the commitment. 6) A commitment to do something we don’t like or where we stand to lose (loss aversion) increases the likelihood of follow-through. (For example: It has been found that pledging to give money to a cause one loathe, if we fail to lose weight or exercise, can increase the likelihood to sticking with a task or goal.) 7) Combine commitments with other nudges. Commitments tied to specific goals (S.M.A.R.T. Goals for example) can increase the likelihood of following through with the commitment.

Section 6: Application – How I intend to NUDGE!

MY Commitment I intend to use my newfound nudging knowledge and skills in the following ways:

One Easy Nudge I promise to myself that I will decide upon and use at least one easy nudge following today’s course.

The Nudge

When I will use it and with whom

My “Behavior and E.A.S.T Square” Describe your “square” briefly here or take a picture of it before you go… What one NUDGE of the EAST square will you test in the next two weeks? ______

Behavior: E A S T

Additional notes on application:

Application continued on next page

31 Another Commitment? It’s up to you!

Check any that appeal to you.

Use the Fast Four. (See page 27) Explain nudging to my supervisor. (See the three page summary on pages 34-36) Bring up a behavior to change in a staff meeting and discussing the nudge approach with my colleagues.

Use one of Cialdini’s nudges. (See page 26 or the associated video cited there) Could be a nudge before, during, and after an upcoming “behavior change effort”. Something else?

Notes:

32 Sections 7 & 8: Appendices

Three Page Summary of Nudging for Reprint 34

Selected Nudge (Behavioral Economics) Definitions 37

Eight Cognitive Biases Explained 38

Don’t Waste Your Training Efforts: Revisit Transfer of Training! 40

Even More Cognitive Biases 43

Four Stations Exercises 44

References 50

Workshop Leader Bio 52

33 Many participants have left the course and asked for a short and easily understood means to explain Nudging to their management or others. Consider using the three-page printable summary of “Nudging”.

Influence, Persuade, Nudge: The Science of Getting People to Take Action

“Nudge Theory” (or more commonly called “Nudging”) is a concept in behavioral science which argues that we can use knowledge of bias to influence positive behavior in others. In fact, nudge theory argues that a knowledge of cognitive bias can be used to influence individuals and groups. This technique is thought to be more effective than coercion, regulations, or enforcement.

Ground-breaking findings in the behavioral sciences have fueled a transformative approach to influencing positive behavioral changes amongst consumers of government services. This is approach is being used by: • Local utilities to reduce energy consumption. • The British government to get people to pay their taxes on time • A group under the former Obama administration, informally known as the “Nudge Brigade”, to increase retirement savings and reduce student loan defaults.

This same approach can be used by supervisors, team leaders, or team members to get others to take action! Ethical nudging dictates this approach should only be used to obtain positive outcomes that benefit the person being nudged, your agency or organization, and of course they can benefit you as well.

A “Nudge” approach or method The nudge method is based on an understanding of peoples’ imperfections, irrationality, or biases (which include procrastination, avoidance, a desire to do what our peers do, etc.) and then using that information to positively change people’s behavior.

David Asch, MD and executive director of Penn Medicine's Center for Health Care Innovation says, “…the key promise of behavioral economics is that we are all irrational, but in highly predictable ways…” Dr. Asch mean means we can use this knowledge (the knowledge that we are irrational in highly predictable way) to recognize irrationality in others and then use this knowledge to change the behavior of others. Some call this nudging, or the science of getting people to take action, but don’t let this simplification fool you - this is real science. Dr. Richard Thaler, the author of Nudge: Improve Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2017 for his work with the concept and application of nudging.

The process:

1) Identify a behavior or action: Identify a behavior to change or an action you want to influence. 34 2) The Bias: Use your knowledge of bias to craft a nudge. 3) The Nudge: Apply the nudge to influence decision making. 4) The Test: Then (ideally) you empirically test the result. • If the result is negative, then an alternate approach is developed and tested. • If the result is positive, then tweak the nudge to get even better results.

This four-part effort plays out as follows: 1. The Action or the Behavior: Identify a behavior you want to influence. The behavior should be discreet and easily explained, such as getting someone to make a change, do more of something you want them to do, or less of something undesirable. The action should be concrete and easily described, such as the following: a Write shorter and more concise emails. b Respond to emails within four hours c Use the new accounting software and not the old system for every interaction

2. The Bias: First seek to understand the bias (the unconscious or cognitive bias that could potentially sway someone’s behavior). The goal is to find the specific cognitive or unconscious biases (the irrational behavior) that could be used to “nudge” or influence behavior in some positive way. • Biases that may have the ability to “nudge” behavior includes: o Status Quo Bias – Our desire to keep things the way they are (an aversion to change) o Commitment Bias – An individual’s propensity to be consistent or wish to keep any commitments they make

3. The Nudge: Then the individual uses that understanding of the bias to design a nudge to influence decision making. One example of a tested “nudge” from a public agency is the following. In the Nudge class you attended we used the EAST model. See the next page for some practical examples of Nudges you can use and the bias connected to them. See also pages 21-24 of the Nudge Participant Guide for 25+ nudges arranged under the EAST model that participants in the Nudge course learned and practiced during class.

4. The Test: The test is done to prove or disprove that the nudge is effective. This fourth element (the test) should also be done when the stakes are high, the behavior change is important to you or to management, or you have an intention to scale your solution.

35 Below are a few simple, but scientific, nudges you can use every day!

You can incorporate nudging into almost any activity where you are trying to get people to take action.

 Status Quo Bias - Use a knowledge of the status quo bias as a team leader As a team leader you can nudge your team to change or overcome the status quo bias by making the change as easy or frictionless as possible. The EAST model advocates making any decision for others easy, attractive, social, or timely. All are meant to overcome our reluctance to change. There is a good example of using a nudge to overcome the status quo bias on pages 48-49 of this guide, Station Four – Using Intention to Overcome Inaction.

 Commitment Bias – As a manager, use this bias to gain commitment As a manager in charge of the rollout of a large and complex project that will necessitate a big commitment, consider first asking for a number of small commitments. When people commit to small actions, they are more likely to keep bigger commitments. In fact, there are seven additional ways to secure commitment that are well documented in the nudging literature. See page 30 of this guide for those seven proven ways to increase commitment.

 Loss Aversion – Use loss aversion to make your message stick As a supervisor, in addition to telling those who report to you what they can gain by using a new tool or technique, consider emphasizing what they have to LOSE by not adopting the practice. Loss aversion says we hate to lose and will go to great lengths to avoid loss. There is more information about Loss Aversion and how is can be used to influence of nudge on pages 45-46 of this guide, Station Two – Loss Aversion.

Want to know more about “Nudging” and associated topics?

Consider the Los Rios CCD’s Government Training Academy’s one day course, “Influence, Persuade, Nudge: Master the Science of Getting People to Take Action” and many other courses in the Transformational Skills for the 21st Century Workplace. They all take advantage of empirical evidence from the behavioral, cognitive, and social sciences to offer pragmatic solutions to engage the modern workforce and offer solutions to solving problems, increasing well-being, and being better adapted to the challenges of tomorrow’s workplace.

Bruce Winner, Manager, Los Rios CCD GTA at [email protected] or 916.563.3232 The GTA’s Website is at www.LosRiosTraining.org 36 Selected Terms in Behavioral Economics Defined Choice Architecture

This term coined by Thaler and Sunstein (2008) refers to the practice of influencing choice by changing the manner in which options are presented to people; for example, by setting defaults, framing, or adding decoy options. Some refer to this as simply “changing the environment” in order to influence behavior.

Nudging

According to Thaler and Sunstein, it is “…any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way with-out forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting the fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.”

Heuristic

Heuristics are commonly defined as cognitive shortcuts or rules of thumb that simplify decisions. They represent a process of substituting a difficult question with an easier one (Kahneman, 2003). Heuristics can also lead to cognitive biases. There are disagreements regarding heuristics with respect to bias and rationality. In the fast and frugal view, the application of heuristics (e.g. the recognition heuristic) is an “ecologically rational” strategy that makes best use of the limited information available to individuals (Goldstein and Gigerenzer, 2002).

There are generally different classes of heuristics, depending on their scope. Some heuristics, such as affect, availability and representativeness have a general purpose character; others developed in social and consumer psychology are more domain-specific, examples of which include brand name, price, and scarcity heuristics.

Cognitive Bias

A cognitive bias (e.g. Ariely, 2008) is a systematic (non-random) error in thinking, in the sense that a judgment deviates from what would be considered desirable from the perspective of accepted norms or correct in terms of formal logic. The application of heuristics is often associated with cognitive biases, some of which, such as those arising from availability or representativeness, are ‘cold’ in the sense that they do not reflect a person’s motivation and are instead the result of errors in information processing. Other cognitive biases, especially those that have a self-serving function (e.g. optimism bias), are more motivated. Finally, some biases, such as confirmation bias, can be motivated or unmotivated (Nickerson, 1998).

From “Selected Behavioral Science Concepts”, Behavioral Economics Guides 2015-18. 37 Eight Biases Explained

Framing (or Priming) Bias – People are influenced or persuaded by unconscious clues presented to them. Choices can be presented in a way that highlights the positive or negative aspects of the same decision, leading to changes in their relative attractiveness. Different types of framing approaches have been identified, including risky choice framing (e.g. the risk of losing 10 out of 100 lives vs. the opportunity to save 90 out of 100 lives). Framing - Dieters are more likely to choose a product that is labelled as 97% fat free, than one that is labeled as 3% fat. Priming - Priming is similar to framing. Priming introduces information before one is even considering a decision. This pre-decision framing has an effect on one’s ability to judge subsequent information impartially. (Robert Cialdini calls this “pre-suasion”)

Commitment (or Consistency) Bias – People tend to follow-up or stick to the commitments they make, even oral or informal commitments. Some behaviorists refer to this as the consistency bias, because humans as a rule of thumb seek to be consistent or match their commitments with associated follow-up actions. Commitments are often used as a tool to counteract people’s lack of willpower and to achieve behavior change, such as in the areas of dieting or saving—the greater the cost of breaking a commitment, the more effective it is (Dolan et al., 2010). From the perspective of social psychology, individuals are motivated to maintain a consistent and positive self-image, and they are likely to keep commitments to avoid reputational damage and/or cognitive dissonance. The behavior change technique of ‘goal setting’ is related to making commitments, while reciprocity involves an implicit commitment.

Social Proofing (or Following the Herd) Bias - Individuals look to others for clues about how to act, how to conform, and how to exhibit acceptable behavior. Simply being told that others are engaging in a particular behavior (even when those others are strangers) can have significant effects on our behavior. The influence exerted by others on our behavior can be expressed as being either normative or informational. Normative influence implies conformity in order to be accepted or liked, while informational influence occurs in ambiguous situations where we are uncertain about how to behave and look to others for information or cues. Social proof is an informational influence and can lead to herd behavior.

Status Quo Bias – This bias reflects our desire to keep things the way they are by doing nothing or by sticking with a previously made decision. It is a well-documented bias, even when the transaction costs are low, and the importance of the decision is great. This aversion to change or action can be due to mental or physical exhaustion, cognitive overload, or simply our desire to remain the same. This bias can be overcome with the correct nudge (simplification, building a new default, reducing friction, etc.). Samuelson and Zeckhauser note that status quo bias is consistent with loss aversion, and that it could be psychologically explained by previously made commitments, sunk cost thinking, cognitive dissonance, a need to feel in control and regret avoidance. The latter is based on Kahneman and Tversky’s observation that people feel greater regret for bad outcomes that result from new actions taken than for bad consequences that are the consequence of inaction. 38 Endowment Effect - This bias occurs when we overvalue a good that we own, regardless of its objective market value (Kahneman, Knetsch, & Thaler, 1991). It is evident when people become relatively reluctant to part with a good they own for its cash equivalent, or if the amount that people are willing to pay for the good is lower than what they are willing to accept when selling the good. Put more simply, people place a greater value on things once they have established ownership. This is especially true for goods that wouldn’t normally be bought or sold on the market, usually items with symbolic, experiential, or emotional significance. The endowment effect is an illustration of the status quo bias and can be explained by loss aversion. In our class today, we linked this to another bias, The Ikea Effect.

Choice Overload – Sometimes referred to as ‘overchoice’, the phenomenon of choice overload occurs as a result of too many choices being available to consumers. Choice overload may refer to either choice attributes or alternatives. The greater the number or complexity of choices offered, the more likely a consumer will apply heuristics. Overchoice has been associated with unhappiness (Schwartz, 2004), decision fatigue, going with the default option, as well as choice deferral—avoiding making a decision altogether, such as not buying a product (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000). Choice overload can be counter-acted by simplifying choice attributes or the number of available options. Remember E or Easy from the EAST Model for overcoming bias that we discussed and applied at length in the nudge class.

Loss Aversion - Loss aversion is an important concept associated with prospect theory (one of the original concepts explored by Kahneman & Tversky. The concept is captured in the phrase that “the pain of losing is psychologically about twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining”. As people are more willing to take risks to avoid a loss, loss aversion can explain differences in risk-seeking versus aversion. Loss aversion has been used to explain the endowment effect and sunk cost fallacy, and it may also play a role in the status quo bias. The basic principle of loss aversion can explain why penalty frames are sometimes more effective than reward frames in motivating people. We explored and applied this concept in many ways in the nudge class. A website Stickk, for example, allows people to publicly commit to a positive behavior change (e.g. give up junk food), which may be coupled with the fear of loss—a cash penalty in the case of non-compliance.

Peak End Rule - According to the peak-end rule, our memory of past experience (pleasant or unpleasant) does not correspond to an average level of positive or negative feelings but to the most extreme point and the end of the episode (Kahneman & Tversky, 1999). The rule developed from findings that showed that evaluations of a past episode seem to be determined by a weighted average of ‘snapshots’ of an experience, thus neglecting its actual duration. This is another example of a heuristic that can be leveraged to influence behavior and it is related to timing, the T of the EAST model.

Note: There are over 100 recognized biases. The above are only a few that when understood and combined with the proper nudge provide the means to get people to take action. Much of the language above was taken from “Selected Behavioral Science Concepts”, Behavioral Economics Guides 2015-19. www.behavioraleconomics.com 39 Don’t Waste Your Training Efforts: Revisit Transfer of Training! How would you feel if you found out that most of your hard work in training resulted in no behavioral change or application to the workplace? Some empirical studies over the years have estimated that 60% of training’s effect is never transferred to the workplace and others have estimated that a whopping 90% is never transferred. If you are like most talent development professionals, this is not a fact you would be proud to take to management or post in your quarterly reports. In fact, you probably want to know how you can mitigate these disappointing results immediately. For talent developers concerned with maximizing the application of training, there is nothing like using a structured transfer of training (T of T) approach. This blog will give you some background on T of T, illustrate a simple model for incorporating the model into your training initiatives, and close with information on contemporary approaches to transfer of training, including some ways to leverage technology to boost training’s transfer. So, what is Transfer of Training? Transfer of training occurs when the knowledge, skills, and tools that trainees learn during training is effectively applied back on the jobsite. That’s it!

Why is Transfer of Training (T of T) important? 1. It reinforces your training effort by ensuring that it leads to timely and effective application on the job (increases in desirable or productive behaviors and decreases in undesirable ones). 2. It ultimately results in improved organizational impacts (improved quality, decreased costs, boosts in productivity, sales jumps, or reductions in rework and cycle-time).

Let’s look at a simple transfer of training diagram. This is from Mary Broad and John Newstrom’s seminal book “Transfer of Training: Action-packed Strategies To Ensure High Payoff From Training Investment”, published in the mid-1990s. They have both published extensively on the concept, in the years since. Most talent developers consider this the simplest and most effective way to envision the transfer of training process. The Transfer of Training Model Before During After Supervisor of those being trained 1 4 7 Trainer 2 5 8 Trainee / Participant 3 6 9

The numbers (#1-9) in the T of T diagram above, will be referenced in the three explanatory boxes on the following pages. Each number represents an action(s) that the player (the supervisor, trainer, or trainee) can take at a specific point in the training process (before, during, or after).

40 The T of T model says we have three times when we can influence how much of our training is being applied back on the job after training. Those times are before the training starts, during the training process, and after the training ends. It goes on to say that there are three primary players who influence how much training is transferred. Those players or influencers are the supervisor of the person being trained, the trainer, and the trainee or participant in the training. BEFORE the Training or the “Be Informed” Phase Before the training program begins, encourage all players to “Be Informed”.

#1 Supervisor – In my training practice, we bring supervisors or managers into the training process before the training starts, even if it is only for a short orientation to what trainees will be learning in training. Why? By “Being Informed”, we believe the supervisor can reinforce the training lessons and hold the trainee accountable. We talk to them about the training program, the application objectives, and the positive impacts that could be achieved from the training. We believe that this clear explanation, in the presence of the trainees, encourages and motivates the supervisors to support their trainees and be an active part of the transfer of training process.

#2 Trainer – The trainer works hard during this phase to “keep the end in mind”. He or she should be thinking about how their assessment, design, and program development all need to be focused on what will eventually be applied (back in the workplace) at the end of the training.

#3 Trainee / Participant – We bring participants and their supervisors into the same “be informed” session prior to training. The message to the participants is positive and focuses on what they will learn, be able to do, and how it can have a positive impact for them and the organization. We often ask the question, to participants and supervisors, “What would successfully completing this program do for you? Do for your job skills, your productivity, your chance for advancement, and career?”

DURING the training or the “Be Engaged” Phase During the training process, encourage all the players to “Be Engaged” in the process.

#4 Supervisor – Supervisors may need to be reminded why it is important to remain engaged with their training participants during training. They can hold trainees accountable and show the importance of training, simply by asking trainees about what is happening (during training) and soliciting feedback from the trainees. We encourage supervisors to ask trainees to report out on training during staff meetings or during one on one chats after each training session.

#5 and 6 - Trainer and Trainee/Participant - If the trainer is doing his or her job, training is all about engagement. There should be a minimum of lecture and lots of discussion, exercises, and the opportunity for participants to practice and demonstrate that they are capable of applying what they are learning, before they return to the job.

41 AFTER the training or the “Focus on Application” Phase

After the training there need to be many reminders, aids, and other support to reinforce the importance of “Focusing on Application”. #7 Supervisor – Supervisors should can be given application aids and assistance, including reminders about how to boost application of learned skills and tools. Weekly emails should be sent to both supervisors and their trainees. These emails provide a reminder to “focus on application” and they support ongoing accountability. #8 Trainer – The trainer’s role is to disseminate their post-training tools, aids, and reminders that will reinforce the application of training. The trainer’s role doesn’t stop at the end of training, not if they want to achieve maximum application and positive impact from the program. #9 Trainee/Participant – During the one to three-month period after an important training program the T of T effort goes into overdrive. During this time remind trainees about recent training to keep the messages top of mind. You should provide job aids and tools to assist with application.

This model is as effective today, as in the 1990s, when Broad and Newstrom first wrote about it. But that’s not the whole story. There are new transfer of training practitioners who are making advances to the practice of Transfer of Training today.

Making Training Stick – Barbara Carnes, PhD One person who writes, speaks, and blogs about transfer of training is Barbara Carnes, Ph.D. She is the author of “Making Learning Stick”, “Making E-Learning Stick”, and the “Making Training Stick Field Guide”. Dr. Carnes maintains a robust and helpful website at www.maketrainingstick.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter and blog. Recently, Dr. Carnes wrote an illuminating ten-page white paper on a number of technology solutions, primarily mobile apps that reinforce transfer of training. In the white paper, she reviews the uses, positives, negatives, and how these eight new transfer of training apps could bolster one’s transfer of training practice. Check out this white paper! It will open your eyes to what is possible, when you combine good theory and practice with modern technology. Go to the making training stick website and search for “training transfer technologies”. You can get the white paper free by simply signing in with your name and email. I wish you luck on your path to improving your own transfer of training practices and outcomes.

Author - Bruce Winner/916.563.3232/[email protected]

42 Even More Cognitive Biases

Of course, it would be impractical to go to the chart or the list of biases (as our starting point) every time we wanted to influence a behavior.

What the chart does tell us is that: 1) there are a number of ways to categorize the various biases, and 2) it is probably worth our time to dig deeper into the cognitive bias literature to discover other biases that could be used effectively in our efforts to influence others.

One very credible resource to explore for other useful biases is the work of Robert Cialdini, the author of “The Science of Persuasion” and “Pre-Suasion”. See the next page and the reference section for more on Cialdini’s work.

The illustration below was created by John Manoogian III and organized by Buster Benson, of the blog, Better Humans. The drawing depicts 188 different cognitive biases. The illustration can be purchased as a poster at - https://www.designhacks.co/products/cognitive-bias-codex-poster

Note: This chart is based on a list of biases collected from Wikipedia, and as such should not be considered peer-reviewed science but simply an illustration of the possible universe of biases. The illustration does show many cognitive biases that have been identified and that may play a part in how we may influence the decision making of others (and ourselves).

43 FOUR STATION EXERCISES (from page 19)

Station ONE (The Endowment and IKEA Effect)

Please read the following page individually, and then watch a short video on a similar bias. Finally, please read and discuss the last question (bottom of the page).

The Endowment Effect This bias occurs when we overvalue something that we own, regardless of its objective market value. It is evident when people become relatively reluctant to part with a good they own for its cash equivalent, or if the amount that people are willing to pay for the good is lower than what they are willing to accept when selling it. Put more simply, people place a greater value on things once they have established ownership.

An Experiment Social scientists at Cornell distributed coffee cups to half of a group of students but left the other half empty handed. The former group estimated a selling price and the alter group a buying price. Would the students with coffee cups ask for more? This is exactly what the team of researchers found; the undergrads with cups were “unwilling to sell for less than $5.25,” while their less fortunate peers were “unwilling to pay more than $2.25--$2.75.”

Similar experiments have been conducted with split student groups receiving either a college mug or a bar of chocolate that were worth the same monetarily (and independently determined to be of equal value by the SAME students). No matter which item the group received (mug or chocolate), once the groups “owned” the item, even if only for a few minutes, the items were deemed more valuable to them and they refused to exchange the item or accept an equal monetary offer for the item. The item was now “endowed” with an outsized value!

Do you think you could leverage the endowment effect to get people to take action in your workplace, teams or other situations? Hold this question until you see the video below.

The IKEA Effect A related and fascinating bias is called the IKEA Effect.

Please watch the video on the IKEA Effect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNLWDhl2UXM

NOTE: This was the best short video on the IKEA Effect I could find. It does contain some extraneous goofiness (college level low-brow humor), but the overall concept is captured well, while citing three well known studies from the behavioral science literature.

Now that you are familiar with the Endowment Effect and IKEA effect, how could you use the Endowment Effect or IKEA Effect in your work environment to get people to take action? It can be leveraged to great effect. Please try to generate three situations where it could be used and describe how.

44 Station TWO (Loss Aversion)

--- This is a two-page exercise ---

Loss Aversion Loss Aversion refers to our tendency to prefer avoidance of loss to acquiring an equivalent gain. Imagine this scenario: A friend offers to flip a coin and give you $20 if it lands on heads. If it lands on tails, you give her $20. Would you take that gamble? For most of us, the amount you could possibly win would need to be at least twice as large as the amount you could lose before you would accept the risk. This tendency reflects loss aversion, or the idea that losses generally have a much larger psychological impact than gains of the same size. This was one of the first and most powerful of the behavioral models identified by Daniel Kahneman in the late 1970s and formed the bases of much of the underlying subsequent “nudge” theory. In fact, it has been quantified in the behavioral science lab and in the field; losses are felt twice as powerfully, psychologically, as gains. Some say this in the following way. “The pleasure of a gain is only half as powerful (or less) than the pain of a loss.” How can this fact be used to influence? Loss aversion is an incredibly powerful bias and one that is not recognized or used enough in most people’s efforts to influence. Think about most of your appeals. Be honest. Aren’t most of your appeals to your peers, employees, family, or clients based on potential gains, and not on what could be lost by NOT doing something? But framing a situation in terms of what someone will lose or “miss out” on is often more powerful than a focus on what the person will “gain”. Most of us tend to speak to the “rider” (remember our metaphor of this morning of the elephant and the rider). We make reasonable and rational arguments about all that your peers, employees or clients can GAIN, if only they adopted a newly introduced change, or applied a newly learned skill or tool. Consider introducing loss language into your appeals! Your instructor will guide you through a few group questions:

Q for the group – Do you “buy it”? Do you believe it? Do you think that loss is as powerful as described? If so, would you consider using it? Why or why not? ______

Q for the group – Does loss aversion affect the gambler? If so, how? ______

Q for the group - How is the sunk cost fallacy related to loss aversion ( The businessperson’s belief that if they have sunk lots of dollars into a project, they can’t “afford” to simply walk away from it, they need to sink some more money into the project)

Q for the group - • Have you seen this occur in state government?

• How is this related to loss and the power of loss versus gain?

Q for the group – If loss is powerful, how could you use it to influence in the workplace or beyond? ______

Brainstorm one or two situations where a loss appeal could be used instead of (or in addition to) an appeal based on what could be gained. ______

46 Station THREE (Present Bias) plus a few others

Please go to the web and watch this three minute video on the Save More TomorrowTM Program https://vimeo.com/40184879

What did you see in the video? ______

The Present Bias The present bias refers to the tendency of people to give stronger weight to payoffs that are closer to the present time when considering trade-offs between two future moments (O’Donoghue, &, Rabin, 1999). How does the “Present Bias” play a part in the Save More Tomorrow Program? ______

Discuss as a group and then… Please see if you can describe how the following three biases or tools to overcome a bias were used to formulate the Save More Tomorrow Program.

Loss Aversion (How did this play a role in the program?)

Time Discounting (You may have to google this. We didn’t discuss it yet today.) ______

Default – as a way to overcome the status quo bias – Hint – remember organ donation or small plates

Final but important Can you imagine any situations when you would have a need to recognize and overcome this bias to influence the behavior of your peers, employees, team members, children, partner, or clients?

Final Exercise Please generate three situations when you could apply any/all the lessons of Save More Tomorrow with your peers, employees, team members, children, partner, or clients? ______

47 Station FOUR – (Using Intention to Overcome Inaction)

Intention is closely relate to the commitment or consistency bias. It is a way to use or amplify the commitment bias in order to overcome many other biases including a) the status quo bias, b) the present bias, c) and even time discounting.

In brief, it involves getting people to clearly state their intention to do something in the future.

Flu Vaccination and Intention

• Employees (Group A or the control group) at a large utility firm in the Midwestern United States were sent an informational mailer with available dates and times for workplace vaccination clinics. • Another group (Group B) received a different mailer that prompted them to write down their chosen date and time to get vaccinated.

Impressively, this subtle extra step (in group B) resulted in a 12% relative increase in flu shot vaccinations, compared with the information-only mailer. The CDC estimates that if vaccination rates improved by just 5% in the United States, we would avoid 483,000 influenza illnesses, 232,000 medical visits, and 6,950 hospitalizations. Nudging is a powerful tool!

This is extracted from an interesting Harvard Business Review (HBR) article that cites four behavioral economics (nudge) techniques to boost flu vaccinations. HBR April 2108, The Best Flu Prevention Might be Behavioral Economics.

Using Intention to boost voting

Trials have been done and documented that prove that simply calling and asking people ahead of time, and asking “Will you vote?”, that’s all, “Do you intend to vote?”, increases voting participation substantially.

When you go an extra step and ask people in person to write down the time they will vote and their polling station (or method of voting) the rate increases again.

ACTION – Read and discuss the questions below and on the next page.

Given the success of this nudge, do you think asking people to state their intentions could positively influence the behavior of your peers, employees, team members, children, partner, or clients?

What is it about the nudge that gives it its power? ______

48 Intention and the Commitment or Consistency Bias

If intention is related to commitment, how else might you strengthen your “intention requests” to make them more powerful? ______

(After discussing this for a few minutes as a group, pause and turn to page 30 in your participant guide. Consider if you have captured all the various suggested ways to increase commitment suggested there.)

Final Exercise

Please generate one or two workplace situations when you could apply any/all the lessons of using Intention as a nudge with your peers, employees, team members, children, partner, or clients?

______

49 References from Today’s Nudge Workshop VIDEOS • Short Video - This is the link to the three-minute Nudge video from the Rotman School of Management, which you saw today. Consider this as a way to introduce the concept of Nudging to colleagues unfamiliar with Nudge Theory or Choice Architecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsy1E3ckxlM

• Longer Video – This is the link to the Cialdini Video we saw in the afternoon as an example of other biases to explore in order to increase your ability to influence or persuade. Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini and Steve Martin, can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcTijbnS9_8

BOOKS – Directly Related to Nudging, Behavioral Economics, Choice Architecture • Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness; Thaler and Sunstein; Probably the best place to start for more in-depth nudge or choice architecture information. Thaler and Sunstein continue to be the go-to internationally known consultants and academics in the behavioral economics arena. They have consulted with the Obama administration, the British Government, and many academics in applied nudge experiments.

• Inside the Nudge Unit: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference, David Halpern; This book is the definitive explanation of the British Government’s efforts with Nudge. They originated the E.A.S.T model, used in today’s presentation.

• Thinking Fast and Slow; Daniel Kahneman; Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his groundbreaking work in psychology and behavioral economics, synthesized much of the work of the previous two to three decades into this book that challenges the previously accepted belief that we are all rational decision makers. This best-selling book from 2011 is a bit of a slog to get through, but is considered the “go to” source for a thorough understanding of bias and behavioral economics (the basis of overcoming bias in decision making).

• Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions; Dan Ariely; This is another highly readable and approachable book on understanding irrationality (behavioral economics in action). Ariely also has a very informative website at www.danariely.com and many highly regarded TED talks on the web. (You can find those on YouTube)

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini Ph.D., Influence was first published in 1984 but has been revised and republished many times. Cialdini has sold over three million copies of this book, which has been on the New York Times bestseller list many times and won numerous awards. His six principles of persuasion are reciprocity, commitment or consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity.

50 • Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, Robert Cialdini Ph.D.; Cialdini’s very recent publication (Sept 2016), focuses on priming or the opportunity to influence, even before we begin our efforts at persuasion.

• Behavioral Science for Business: The Science of Getting People to Take Action, Bri Williams; This is a relatively new book by an Australian author who uses Behavioral Economics as a tool for business.

SUMMER MELT Nudges Several references from the nudge literature on reducing “Summer Melt” (College students who sign up to attend college, but “melt” away over the summer or fail to show up for fall registration for numerous reasons.) • 20 Minute Episode on Summer Melt from the Podcast “Hidden Brain” o https://player.fm/series/series-1324366/summer-melt The Nudge here is a chat-bot or automated answerer of questions for students. • Short article/summary on a nudge approach to reducing summer melt from the New England Journal of Higher Education o http://www.nebhe.org/thejournal/can-text-messages-mitigate-summer-melt/

US GOVERNMENT REPORT ON NUDGING • A report from the former Obama administrations Social and Behavioral Sciences Team’s (SBST) September 2015 and 2016 reports on their many efforts to test various nudges. Free 46-page report that summarizes 17 proof-of-concept Nudge tests conducted in 2014-15 by the SBST. Both the successful and unsuccessful nudge experiments are illustrative and good models for reference. 2015 - https://sbst.gov/download/2015%20SBST%20Annual%20Report.pdf 2016 - https://sbst.gov/download/2016%20SBST%20Annual%20Report.pdf

ONLINE COURSE - Free online Nudging (Behavioral Economics) Course If you would like a free and immersive experience in Nudge, consider this MOOC from edX • MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are taught by experts in the field and include video, text, and extra materials. EdX’s course on behavioral economics is asynchronous (anytime in or out). It is taught by Dilip Soman, author of The Last Mile: Creating Social and Economic Value from Behavioral Insights. Go to www.edX.com, sign-up (free) and search for “Behavior al Economics in Action”.

The Behavioral Economics Guides 2014 - 2019 at www.behavioraleconomics.com Go here for a more academic review of what is happening in the world of behavioral economics on an annual basis. In additional to the annual reports, the website has many other resources, including book reviews, an introduction to BE for the beginner, links to TED talks and the latest thinking from BE experts from around the world.

Or call or contact Bruce Winner at [email protected] or 916.563.3232. Bruce will be happy to suggest sources for you to further your journey into harnessing the power of Nudges or Behavioral Economics. 51 About the Workshop Leader(s) Your trainer(s) for this workshop were one or more of the following:

Bruce Winner: Trainer / Developer / Training Manager Bruce Winner, MBA, has been a trainer, program developer, business owner, speaker, and training manager during his professional career of over 25 years. Bruce has been the Director of the Government Training Academy (GTA) and the Training Source within the Los Rios Community College District in Sacramento, California for 20 years. His specialties include measuring the value of training and developing practical training based on using empirical findings from the behavioral and social sciences. Some of his recent courses include, “the New Science of Making Better Decisions”. “Influence, Persuade, Nudge: Master the Science of Getting People to Take Action”, and “The Fundamentals of Well Being in the Workplace and Beyond” Bruce has worked with scores of CA State Agencies including, The Department of Motor Vehicles, CA State Teachers Retirement System, the Department of General Services, and the CA Human Resources Agency. Bruce was the founder and president of the American Brewers Guild, the nation’s first brewing school for the brewpub and micro-brewing industry. Bruce started his training career in West Africa and spent six years there as an agricultural extension agent and project manager who promoted oxen as an intermediate technology development solution. Bruce received his MBA from the University of California, Davis and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Southern Illinois.

Dennis Wade: Trainer/Developer Dennis Wade has been involved in private and public employee development and adult education for more than 20 years, 19 of those with the Los Rios CCD. His experience in Human Resources Development, Information Technology, and Intel Corporation management prepared him to work with Robert Mondavi, Department of Fish and Game, California Public Employees' Retirement System, University of California, Davis, and other Northern California organizations in the areas of change management, team development, customer service, management/leadership, conflict management, and structured on-the-job training. For the Los Rios GTA, Dennis teaches a number of analyst and writing courses including Essential Analytical Skills, Problem Solving, presentation skills, and writing courses including grammar, introduction to writing, writing for analysts. A graduate of University California Davis, he also holds a master’s degree in Human Resources / Organization Development from the University of San Francisco. He is certified in Bob Manger’s Criterion Referenced Instruction, Jeffrey Nelson’s Expert OJT, and Achieve Global’s Leadership for Results. Dennis firmly believes that while training is not always the answer to improving performance, it is a major component. In order to be successful, training must be tied to specific organizational objectives or opportunities.

Nick LeForce: Trainer/Developer Nick LeForce is an internationally recognized trainer and has provided training programs in Australia, China (Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and more), Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Sri Lanka, as well as across the USA. Nick taught extensively in the Sacramento area in the 1990s and 2000s, including many years for the Los Rios CCD Government Training Academy, before embarking on an international training career. He is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) certified through ICF (International Coach Federation), an expert in the area of emotional intelligence, and from 1987 to 1992 he worked as a Rehabilitation Counselor with Mirfak Associates of California working with injured workers. Nick has a BA in Psychology and a BA in Social Welfare from Chico State University. He has published several books, including: I Owe You, You Owe Me (2005), a book on overcoming emotional debts and building abundant relationships; Co-Creation: How to Collaborate for Results, (2009) a mini-book on the power of perceptual positions to create incredible collaboration, and others, including a revised version of a book on Coaching co-authored with Tim Hallbom. He has also published seven books of transformational poetry.

Contact Bruce, Dennis, or Nick at the Los Rios Community College’s Government Training Academy 916.563.3232 / [email protected] / www.LosRiosTraining.org

52 If you liked todays course, look for upcoming NEW Courses from CALHR and the GTA

Transformational Skills for the 21st Century Workplace

• Resilience: Building and Modeling Resilience in the Workplace

• Influence, Persuade, Nudge: The Science of Getting People to Take Action

• The Science and Art of Motivating Ourselves and Others

• The New Science of Making Better Decisions

• The Foundations of Well-Being in the Workplace and Beyond

• Overcome Information Overload: Focus and Thrive in Today’s Workplace

• Learning How to Learn: The Superpower Needed to Succeed in the Modern Workplace

• Habits: A Science-Based Approach for Developing Good Ones and Dropping Bad Ones

• The Transformational Power of Questions

• A Science-Based Approach to Creative and Innovative Problem Solving