If so, there some proven strategies that will help your clients or readers succeed. But a lot of teams try what I call the change-megaphone fallacy, believing that if people would just understand what they need to do differently, they will change.
They won't.
A Few Examples of Change-Megaphone Fails?
Advertising to get public buy-in for recycling behaviors didn't work, until governments started making it easier to do by providing curbside pick up. Not only did people start recycling, they began believing it was the right thing to do - partly because they were doing it! (Thank you, cognitive dissonance.)
People resisted wearing seatbelts for years despite tens of millions of dollars in advertising. When did lives start being saved by more wide-spread seatbelt adoption? After the interior environment of our cars changed. (Think of how annoying it is to simply move your car to alternate parking space without wearing a seatbelt.) And the external environment changed too. Pew Research says the Click-It-Or-Ticket campaign shows us, "There’s evidence the pressure works. NHTSA last year found that 92 percent of drivers used seat belts in states with primary enforcement, compared to 83 percent in states with secondary enforcement or none at all.
So let's put down the megaphone and build on a more reliable strategy. Facilitate change, one tiny habit at a time, and one environmental shift at a time. Don't forget to celebrate those changes!