Creating successful change is truly an applied social science. After watching Jeni Cross speak in the first video (TedxTalks, 2013), this idea of how we present our desired change matters. Three key ideas to focus on when developing the presentation of the plan are make it tangible, personalize the message, and include social interaction and social norms. I was surprised to learn from her that attitudes follow the behavior and that changing attitudes is not a priority for changing behavior. Focusing on setting behavioral expectations and connecting the message to the core values fo the targeted audience will have greater impact.
In the second video (TedxTalks, 2013), Joseph Grenny provided a profound context for the applied social science with a young girl in Africa and it really helped me understand some of the sources of influence. Personal motivation is an area I want to really pay close attention to when developing my plan. I believe acquired skills and incentives will be easy sources for me to implement. The social support and providing the peer to peer accountability is another source that will need very careful intentional planning, and the environment has me stumped a bit as of now.
Both of these videos sparked thoughts of how I can implement my change plan effectively. The one thing that keeps resinating with me is the idea of “social” influence. Both social support and social norms need to be intentionally part of the messaging and plan to ensure success.
TEDxTalks. (2013, March 20). Three myths of behavior change – what you think you know that you don’t: Jeni Cross at tedxcsu. YouTube. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5d8GW6GdR0
TEDxTalks. (2013, April 26). Change behavior- change the world: Joseph Grenny at tedxbyu. YouTube. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T9TYz5Uxl0