A while back, a sales team that I was working with wanted to improve the quality and consistency of their emails. Everyone had a different format, voice, and process.
So I did a thing I’m good at. I translated what I knew about branding and email marketing to something simple and created an easy-to-follow guide.
A few weeks later, the team leader mentioned in frustration that she was still seeing tons of variation. So I asked her to forward me a few examples, and sure enough they were a grab bag of marketing faux pas. It was like the guide I’d created wasn’t even read.
And in truth, it probably wasn’t.
Ease doesn’t always get people to take action.
Behavior researcher BJ Fogg spent years studying why people do things and why they don’t. His model is simple enough to fit on a napkin. Someone takes an action when three things line up at the same moment: a reason to do it, the ability to do it, and a nudge right as the moment arrives.
Motivation, Ability, Prompt. All three at once, or the action doesn’t happen.
Go back to my “easy” guide and you see where it broke.
What I gave them was ability. Here is how you do the thing. But there was no prompt to use it when they drafted an email, because it was hidden away in their email and on the server.
I’d assumed there was motivation, since they’d asked me to help solve the problem. But asking for an outcome is different than wanting to sit down and do the work when you’re busy and not thinking about it.
So nothing changed. I only gave them 1 of the 3 things they needed to take action.
When I work with teams now, I know that knowledge sharing is only part of the process. Most often they already have some ability to correct their problems. My adding to it doesn’t change anything, because it wasn’t really the ability that was stopping them.
I need to find out their motivation. The motivation needs to be linked to rewards, pain, or pride, so that it has reason. Without that, it’s just a nice to have, or something they may or may not remember when the time comes.
They also must have a prompt. Not a file sitting in a folder digital miles away from where they’re working.
This is where I think AI can fit in.
What if, as you were drafting a message, your AI assistant could suggest a tone or word choice that aligned with your company’s messaging. What if it made sure your email signature was always current. What if it was there with you, making it easy. It’s the prompt, and it gives the ability in one easy step.
One caution: a tool only helps if it lowers friction at the moment of action and keeps the person in charge of their own voice. Take the human out of it, automate the wrong steps, and you’ve built one more thing for people to ignore.
Sharing knowledge and helping solve problems is still something I enjoy, but I spend more time considering the nudge. Slower to build, but a better chance of it actually getting used.
