Giving L&D a nudge On the whole, colleagues understand the importance of constant learning, and in times of unprecedented change – from increasing regulation and statutory requirements to automation and new technology – keeping skills updated and relevant is key to staying on the front-foot.
What’s your bias? Although experts differ on how many cognitive biases exist, some of the most common include:
The ostrich effect
Why, then, do we so often see a reluctance to engage with L&D? For learning and development practitioners in the UK and beyond, we’ve found the real challenge is in getting people across organisations to engage with and drive their own learning. Why the hesitancy? To help find an answer, we’ve dived into the world of behavioural economics and nudge theory. Are there any learnings from science that can help us identify and erase the barriers to engagement?
We’ve got into a cycle of constant spoon-feeding to get our teams to engage with learning. I can’t seem to break the cycle.”
But first: what is behavioural economics? Simply put, behavioural economics applies insight from psychology to understand the reasons behind the decisions we make. In practice, this insight can then be used to influence behaviour. These influences can be identified and utilized to several ends. While it is frequently applied in psychology, we also see it being used in fields such as sales, politics and even healthcare. Examples include replacing an opt-in organ-donation scheme with opt-out; switching chocolates and sweets for healthy snacks on supermarket checkout displays; or even etching a housefly into the urinals at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport to improve aim. All of these are examples of ways in which the environment can be tweaked to change behaviour. To help predict our behaviour, behavioural economics makes use of cognitive bias – a well-established theory outlining the systematic errors that commonly occur in our thinking (also known as heuristics) – often because we’re trying to take mental shortcuts, or because we’ve become used to a certain way of thinking.
*All quotes are from workshop participants
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avoiding negative or disturbing information to avoid the issue; for example people tend to stop monitoring their investments during economic downturns.
The bandwagon effect doing something simply because everyone else is doing it
Availability bias overestimating the importance or relevance of something due to how readily available that information is, and scanning through headlines rather than reading the full context of the articles.
The framing effect a common sales tactic of placing an expensive drink next to even more expensive drink, and suddenly the “expensive” one seems reasonable by comparison.
Confirmation bias seeking out opinions, views and information that align with what you already believe. This is prominent in elections, where people only take in the arguments and information put to them by the party or candidate they already support.
