The Fogg Behavior Model (or The Fogg Behaviour Model for these of us on this facet of the pond) addresses essentially the most important query in L&D: how are you going to change learner behaviour?

Behaviour change is the final word purpose of any coaching programme. Unfortunately, in a world affected by boring on-line studying, big numbers of learners are disengaged. And in the event that they don’t get pleasure from their coaching, you may’t anticipate them to alter their methods.

Luckily, with the Fogg Behavior Model on the prepared, you may remodel and interact your learners very quickly. While the mannequin is comparatively easy to know, making use of it successfully might be difficult. But don’t fear, we’re right here to assist!

With this in thoughts, on this article, we’ll discover the mannequin intimately!

Who Is BJ Fogg?

Dr. BJ Fogg is a famend American behavioural scientist, researcher and writer. He is a professor at Stanford University and the founder and director of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford.

Fogg is taken into account one of many pioneers within the research of behaviour change. In truth, he has carried out in depth analysis on the subject for over 20 years. 

He has additionally written a number of books on behaviour change, together with ‘Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do‘ (2003) and ‘Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything‘ (2020). It’s secure to say he is aware of what he’s speaking about!

Today, we’re going to discover maybe his most well-known work. This, in fact, is the BJ Fogg Behavior Model. It will allow you to to rework your coaching right into a behavioural change knock-out!

What Is The Fogg Behavior Model?

The Fogg Behavior Model is a mannequin for analysing and designing human behaviour. It states that we are able to solely obtain behaviour change when three parts happen concurrently. These parts are motivation, means and a set off.

People have to be motivated to alter their behaviour. However, they need to even have the flexibility to do the behaviour. Lastly, they should be triggered to do the behaviour. If certainly one of these parts is lacking, we can not obtain behaviour change.

When a mixture of motivation and talent locations a person above the activation threshold, a set off will lead that particular person to carry out the goal behaviour. In flip, if an individual is positioned beneath the activation threshold, then a immediate may have no impact.

Together, these parts create the equation that made Fogg’s mannequin well-known:

Behavior (B) = Motivation (M) Ability (A) Trigger (T)

This equation is usually shortened as ‘B=MAT’. However, in latest occasions, ‘Trigger’ has been swapped out for ‘Prompt’. As such, you may additionally see the components formatted as B=MAP. 

In the mannequin, ‘behaviour’ describes an motion somebody may carry out. As such, the essence of behaviour change is to encourage people to do the correct actions. 

In truth, the mannequin makes it simpler to know behaviour change typically by highlighting its three principal parts, every of which has subcomponents.

Let’s have a look at these parts individually.

The Fogg Behavior Model Explained

Motivation

The first element, motivation, considers the underlying drivers that encourage us to take motion.

As the graph for the mannequin illustrates, the vertical axis represents motivation. It goes from low to excessive motivation. The larger the motivation, the extra doubtless you’re to finish an motion.

However, motivation and talent might be traded off. In different phrases, in case your motivation may be very excessive, your means might be decrease, and vice versa.

Motivation is a big and complex topic in its personal proper. For the needs of his mannequin, Fogg breaks it down into three subcomponents. These are sensation, anticipation and belonging.

As such, you may consider motivation as having three distinct ranges: a bodily degree (sensation), an emotional degree (anticipation) and a social degree (belonging).

1. Sensation

The first subcomponent of motivation is known as sensation. At its core, sensation is pushed by our pursuit of enjoyment and the avoidance of ache.

Sensation is usually the bodily degree of motivation. After all, it may well both drive people in direction of optimistic bodily sensations or push them away from unfavourable ones.

For instance, working or consuming chocolate releases endorphins that make us really feel completely satisfied. On the opposite hand, we could be motivated to keep away from unfavourable bodily sensations, such because the discomfort related to train.

2. Anticipation

Anticipation is a vital subcomponent of motivation. It focuses on the emotional drives that spur us on to finish sure behaviours. 

It is split additional into two distinct classes: hope and worry. Hope considers our anticipation of one thing good taking place. Fear, alternatively, is the anticipation of one thing unhealthy taking place.

Anticipation is a vital driver of motivation as a result of you may encourage people by means of their expectations for the long run. They can sit up for and pursue optimistic outcomes, or they’ll worry and search to keep away from unfavourable outcomes.

Whatever folks really feel in regards to the future will have an effect on how they behave within the current. In truth, anticipation of the long run may also help you to maintain learners hooked and motivated for a very long time. 

According to Fogg, hope is essentially the most moral and empowering motivator. Here at Growth Engineering, we agree! One of the perfect methods to leverage hope as a motivator is by giving learners a way of Epic Meaning. We’ll discover this additional in a while within the article.

3. Belonging

The final element of motivation consists of the social drives that encourage us to pursue sure behaviours. 

Humans are social animals. In truth, we now have an inherent want to really feel like we belong and slot in with others. We additionally search to keep away from rejection the place potential. This is why social acceptance and standing are such highly effective motivators.

When people really feel appreciated and valued, they really feel like they belong. This can encourage them to proceed pursuing sure behaviours that assist to drive additional acceptance or standing enhancements.

Ability

The horizontal axis of Fogg’s mannequin is for means. It goes from ‘hard to do’ to ‘easy to do’. 

Fogg means that all of us tend to be lazy. As such, though we are able to practice folks to hold out a goal behaviour, it’s sometimes extra fruitful to make the behaviour simpler.

This axis focuses on understanding how easy it’s for a person to do one thing at a selected time. As such, it doesn’t merely consult with their competence.

Fogg breaks the flexibility element down into six sub-categories. After all, there are numerous environmental components that affect how straightforward it’s for us to take motion.

Let’s have a look!

1. Time

Time is valuable, and nobody needs to waste it. After all, it’s a scarce useful resource for all of us, and there’s all the time an alternative price related to time.

As such, in keeping with the Fogg Behavior Model, the behaviour needs to be time environment friendly. The much less time it takes to finish an motion, the extra doubtless you’re to do it.

2. Money

Unless you’re Bruce Wayne, you most likely observe how a lot you spend and on what. We all wish to guarantee we spend our hard-earned money on issues that add worth to our lives.

With this in thoughts, when you can’t afford to carry out a sure behaviour, your means to hold out that behaviour might be low. Indeed, the extra money one thing will price you, the extra motivation you’ll have to do it.

For instance, in case your learners work in a task the place they earn a fee, any time they spend coaching represents a possible loss in earnings.

3. Mental Effort

Thinking is effortful and tiring when it’s targeted and aware. That’s why we are likely to construct habits and do acquainted duties on ‘autopilot’. 

As such, any new behaviour shouldn’t enhance your cognitive burden an excessive amount of. Learners are more likely to finish the specified motion if it doesn’t require a lot thought.

4. Physical Effort

No one likes doing pointless work. In truth, we sometimes keep away from bodily effort except it yields some type of profit, reminiscent of an endorphin launch.

With this in thoughts, we usually tend to take motion when it requires much less bodily effort. As such, it is advisable to make coaching as easy as potential to your learners.

5. Social Deviance

People don’t wish to go towards the grain. This is why it’s tough for us to carry out behaviours that conflict with social norms. 

Just like with the ‘belonging’ subcomponent of motivation, this means issue highlights how we’re social beings and wish to slot in with our friends.

The extra an motion includes deviating, the much less doubtless we’re to do it. After all, we not often wish to swim towards the circulate of society.

6. Non-Routine

Everyone has their each day routines. They assist us construction our lives, which is why something that sits outdoors of a each day routine is way much less more likely to get completed.

Typically, you’ll discover it lots simpler to tackle a brand new behaviour when you adapt it into your routine. The similar goes for studying. Learning is more likely to occur if it suits neatly into your learners lives.

Triggers (or Prompts)

When Fogg discusses triggers, or prompts, he’s speaking about exterior components that affect how we provoke a behaviour. 

To put it merely, triggers are cues or call-to-actions. These triggers can come from folks, objects or environments. In a digital atmosphere, this may lengthen into issues like notifications and icons.

Triggers should happen on the proper time to have an effect. In truth, the set off has to happen when a person is meant to carry out the goal behaviour.

Fogg suggests there are three subcategories to triggers, every aimed toward a barely totally different viewers. These distinct triggers affect people with totally different ranges of motivation and talent.

These triggers are:

1. Sparks

Sparks are triggers which can be utilized when a person has excessive means however low ranges of motivation. As such, the aim is to supply a lift to motivation by triggering an motion or behaviour.

You ought to design the set off in tandem with a motivational factor. For instance, it’s straightforward to get up within the morning after an extended evening of sleep, however you will not be motivated to go away your comfy mattress.

In this case, you will get your self an alarm clock and place it distant out of your mattress. This will ‘spark’ you to rise up simply to show the noise off!

As such, sparks are the proper set off for people who’ve the flexibility however lack motivation. 

2. Facilitators

Facilitators are triggers that encourage people to take motion when their motivation ranges are excessive, however their means ranges are low. As such, they immediate motion by making the behaviour simpler for the person to provoke.

Typically, facilitators search to simplify the duty. For occasion, take into account a case the place you wish to begin an train regime however don’t know the best way to. In this instance, you might join a publication that delivers an train plan for the upcoming week straight to your inbox.

As a consequence, the set off will allow you to create an train plan and assist to facilitate you staying on observe.

3. Signals

The final sort of set off, alerts, are utilized when each motivation and talent are excessive. As such, these triggers are sometimes simply reminders and might be one thing so simple as a Post-it observe or a notification.

In truth, alerts are often extra about offering data than rising means or motivation. After all, in some situations, people merely don’t know that the motion is accessible or doable. In this occasion, a sign will provoke motion.

Check out the video beneath to know Fogg’s mannequin in additional element! Our very personal Juliette Denny will stroll you thru the totally different parts of the Behavior Model.

How to Prompt the Components of Behaviour Change

Now that you’ve got a greater understanding of the mannequin, let’s discover the best way to apply it within the context of on-line studying.

Improving Motivation

You can enhance learner motivation with totally different approaches. Let’s break this down for every subcomponent. After all, influencing every of the three underlying drivers requires totally different measures.

1. Sensation

Sensational motivation is about searching for pleasure and avoiding ache. Our thoughts tends to be drawn to bodily pleasure and away from ache, however that is not often related in a web-based studying atmosphere.

With this in thoughts, triggering sensations in on-line studying focuses on tapping into the pleasure seeker inside us. In truth, that is what makes gamification so efficient.

Game mechanics like Badges, Experience Points (XP), Levels and Leaderboards make us really feel pleasure by means of attaining our objectives or ache by means of our failure to take action. As a consequence, learners are pushed to interact in behaviours that assist them to progress alongside this journey and earn recognition.

This will allow you to to create long-lasting motivation that may result in behaviour change. Similarly, sport mechanics assist learners to gauge their progress in direction of a pleasurable end result.

Indeed, having closure is a reward in itself. The want to finish one thing, or acquire the whole lot carries loads of motivational energy. As such, be sure to reward each course completion.

2. Anticipation

Anticipatory motivation considers the hopes and fears that affect our want to take motion. Hope is essentially the most moral and empowering motivator and it talks to our innermost intrinsic motivations.

By tapping into hope, you encourage folks’s want to do or be a part of one thing that issues. Here at Growth Engineering we name this Epic Meaning.

This sense of objective is fuelled by hope and our want to actualise our imaginative and prescient for the long run. As such, when used successfully, Epic Meaning can remodel your learners into hope-filled behavioural change champions.

But how does this work in follow? There are a number of tips that you need to use to cater to your learners’ intrinsic hopes and fears. For instance, you may create a compelling narrative the place your learners assist to progress the story.

As a consequence, they’ll see the aim of their studying efforts. After all, the extra they be taught, the additional the story progresses. This, in flip, helps your learners to remain engaged long-term. 

3. Belonging

Humans search social acceptance and keep away from rejection. As such, your learners might be motivated to win social acceptance and standing.

Your gamification options will assist your learners to really feel like they belong. For occasion, implementing a Leaderboard offers a transparent image of the place they sit and the way a lot worth they’ve contributed to the neighborhood.

Similarly, it is best to introduce social studying to your coaching programme. This will guarantee your learners have the chance to take part in a neighborhood and share their information.

As such, use social performance, like subject-specific dialogue boards, to harness the ability of belonging. When learners belong to a neighborhood, they’ll help one another of their quest for self-betterment.

Improving Ability

There are numerous components that affect our means to carry out an motion. Consequently, there are additionally numerous methods you may enhance your learners’ means to take motion.

Ultimately, the bottom line is to make the behaviour less complicated to carry out. After all, the less complicated the behaviour is to carry out, the upper our means might be. You ought to consider the instruments and methodologies you employ to ship your coaching. Are they as straightforward and environment friendly to make use of as potential?

With that mentioned, there are particular techniques you need to use for every subcomponent we beforehand explored.

1. Time

As explored, no learner needs to waste their valuable time going by means of long-winded, irrelevant or boring content material. 

That’s why approaches like microlearning make a lot sense! As such, to enhance means and restrict any time-related boundaries, be sure to interrupt your studying down into manageable chunks.

These bite-sized studying items ought to take simply 5-Quarter-hour to finish. And allow us to inform you, your trendy learners are more likely to finish a ten-minute unit than a whopping one-hour coaching monolith.

2. Money

If a goal behaviour prices an excessive amount of then our means degree decreases. This is very true in case your learners have restricted monetary sources.

As such, maintain your coaching free or low-cost to enhance accessibility and talent. Similarly, in case your coaching prices cash, be sure it offers good worth to your learners. Keep it related and personalised to fulfill numerous learner wants.

3. Mental Effort

The extra we now have to consider the duty at hand, the much less doubtless we’re to do it. That’s why it is advisable to be sure your coaching isn’t unnecessarily difficult. This will assist to cut back your learners’ cognitive load. 

If your learners should decode your coaching, you’ll lose them earlier than they’ll be taught something. As such, present a transparent construction or studying pathways, share related content material suggestions and information learners throughout your studying platform.

4. Physical Effort

Similarly, it is advisable to take into account the bodily effort wanted to your learners to finish coaching. For instance, making your option to a coaching centre or classroom occasion is more likely to restrict your means when it comes to time, psychological effort and bodily effort.

As such, present coaching in a format that’s handy to your learners. You may, as an illustration, implement on-line studying or cellular studying. As a consequence, you’ll restrict the bodily effort learners have to exert to take part in coaching. 

5. Social Deviance

As explored, people sometimes dislike going towards the norm or breaking the principles of society. For instance, sporting pyjamas to work requires subsequent to no effort, however our social satisfaction would doubtless take successful.

As such, it is best to search to supply alternatives for social studying the place your viewers can be taught from the behaviour of others. This lets you spotlight socially deviant actions. This, in flip, helps your learners perceive the best way to keep away from socially deviant behaviour.

Providing alternatives for position taking part in and different types of interplay is a superb option to perceive social norms in step with your learners’ particular context.

6. Non-Routine

Routine behaviours are simpler to do as we do them over and over. With this in thoughts, it is advisable to be sure studying turns into part of your learners’ on a regular basis routine.

Mobile studying is an effective way so as to add studying to your learners’ each day routines. After all, most of us use cell phones a number of hours per day. 

We now use our gadgets to work, talk, keep updated with world information, play video games, watch movies or movies and extra.

It solely is sensible to increase this into studying. By studying on a tool that learners already know and use daily, it’s simpler so as to add studying to their each day routine.

Influencing Triggers

Without an applicable set off, behaviour won’t happen. This is the case even when your motivation and talent are each excessive.

Successful triggers have three traits: 

• We discover the set off.
• We affiliate the set off with the goal behaviour.
• The set off happens after we are each motivated and capable of carry out the behaviour.

However, there are methods to affect triggers. Let’s discover!

1. Spark

In conditions the place your learners have the flexibility however lack motivation, it is best to deal with inspiring hope. Inspiring worry would additionally work, however right here at Growth Engineering, we don’t imagine in unfavourable triggers.

When it involves coaching, a spark ought to assist your learners to see the Epic Meaning within the behaviour you’re asking of them. They wish to know why it’s necessary, and it’s as much as you to make them care.

Answering the WIIFM (‘what’s in it for me?’) query helps with this. After all, your learners are more likely to ponder the need of their coaching now and again. 

Creating a coaching programme with WIIFM in thoughts is the one approach to make sure your viewers is totally dedicated to their coaching.

2. Facilitator

In conditions the place learners have a excessive motivation degree however lack means, it is best to use facilitator triggers. In truth, facilitator triggers convey that the goal behaviour is straightforward to do.

This is the place a well-structured coaching programme is available in. By giving adequate directions, your learners will perceive what motion is predicted and the best way to do it. 

Similarly, your coaching programme or studying platform must be straightforward to navigate. Providing tutorial movies, tutorials and gear ideas helps your learners to know the best way to full the specified motion.

3. Signal

The final set off, sign, is a set off for conditions the place customers have each excessive motivation and excessive means to finish the goal behaviour. As explored, sometimes a easy reminder is sufficient to immediate behaviour.

As such, be sure to finish every coaching unit with a transparent name to motion. After all, you need your learners to proceed their studying journey. Similarly, it is best to ship an e mail notification each time you launch a brand new coaching unit.

Final Words

Behaviour change isn’t out of attain. It’s fully inside your grasp. With BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model as a trusty sidekick, you may construct tiny habits that guarantee long-lasting behaviour change. In flip, you may enhance efficiency and remodel your organisation.

All it is advisable to do is keep in mind Fogg’s useful equation of B=MAT. If your learners have the motivation and the flexibility, all you want is the correct set off. 

Luckily there are numerous techniques, like gamification, social studying and Epic Meaning, that allow you to to supercharge your learners’ efficiency.

Want to be taught extra about behaviour change? Our guidebook is the proper place to start out! Get your free copy by clicking the hyperlink beneath.