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Changing organizations, one nudge at a time
You have to make a decision: are you going to read this article or not? What if I told you that it will be very valuable for your job, especially if you are working on change, and that you better not miss this information?
Nudging has been a hot topic for years. How can you use it in organizational change? I explore that in this article.
I think it was 2010 when I read the book Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, one of the most influential books in behavioral economics. I was an instant fan. And also in 2017, for the first time, genuinely pleased with a Nobel Prize winner. At that time, Richard Thaler got the Nobel Prize for economics for his research on how to steer people towards better choices.
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That includes the concept of nudging. A nudge is a small push in the right direction. You can help people make better choices by creating conditions that encourage that choice. Not by using strict orders, but by guiding people with a soft hand without limiting their freedom of choice. People can still choose the lesser alternative (for their health, for their finances, for their career, etc). Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.
Reducing salt intake
In the UK it was found that customers of takeaways were adding huge amounts of salt to their fish and chips. Research showed that many takeaway restaurants were using flour barrels with 17 holes for the salt. Therefore, the government decided to hand out free salt shakers with 5 holes with the aim of reducing the amount of salt on fish and chips.
Selling overstock
The ‘Pick me I’m single’ nudges used in supermarkets in Denmark led to a 90% reduction in the waste of bananas.
Similarly, a study by Kallbekken & Salen (2013) found that the use of smaller plates in hotel restaurants reduced food waste by 20%.
