Why people do what they do (and don’t do what they don’t do)

How to understand better what motivates people’s behaviour — in organizations and elsewhere — and how this can help us manage behavioural change, in others and in ourselves

People don’t always do the right thing. It sounds like (and arguably is) a truism, but isn’t it a bit baffling? If employees know that they need to file critical paperwork on time, why are they not doing it? If a boss continually proclaims to the importance of meeting 1:1 with her team members at least once per month, why is she barely managing three such meetings in a year? If we know that it would be good for us to snack less and exercise more, how come we still polish off a packet of biscuits every evening and laze on the couch watching Netflix, rather than have an apple after dinner and go for a jog?

People usually know very well what the right thing is, and yet they don’t do it. Why don’t people do the right thing — for their teams, for their company, for their families and for themselves?

Perhaps this is the wrong question — or at least the wrong question to start with. We should first understand why people do what they do, not why they don’t do what they ought to do. We should seek to understand why…