They have been doing this work for over ten years now. But Joyce Croonen (37) and Liza Luesink (34) still have a ‘crisis moment’ somewhere with every project they carry out. Croonen and Luesink are the founders of the Duwtje agency, which helps organizations to give people a push in the direction of desirable behaviour. nudging, that’s called in technical terms. Croonen: “Every time we do a behavioral analysis for a customer, we are left with an enormous pile of information for which we have to come up with a simple solution. There is always a moment when we think: this time it won’t work.”
The ultimate example of a ‘nudge’ is the image of the fly in the urinal. This ensures that the user aims more or less automatically and the toilet becomes less dirty as a result. A simple solution that makes you naturally display the right behavior, without thinking about it. “We always strive for a solution à la die fly,” says Croonen. “But that is a difficult task for some issues. For example, a client asked us whether we could ensure that people in a certain district would switch to natural gas-free living. Well, try inventing a ‘fly’ for that.”
Joyce Croonen and Liza Luesink both graduated as behavioral psychologist and know each other from the tax authorities. There they set up the first ‘behaviour team’ at a government agency. That team had to ensure that a group of notorious procrastinators would be encouraged to complete their tax returns on time. This was done, for example, by sticking a personal post-it on the blue envelope, with the greetings of the tax employee.
They have been working on these kinds of behavioral issues for twelve years with their own agency Duwtje. They have their offices in the center of Zutphen, have fifteen employees and often work for government agencies, but also for HEMA and insurance company Interpolis. Last April they presented their book Push in the right directionin which they explain their method.
An important method from the book is that of the four ‘behaviour knobs’ that you can turn, according to Duwtje, if you want to influence people’s behaviour. Croonen and Luesink explain these buttons at the large lunch table in their office, each time with an example of how they use the relevant button in practice.
Ease
“You could call it the basic button,” says Croonen. “In the sometimes complex matter, organizations sometimes skip the simple question: how easy is it to make the right choice?”
Luesink gives an example. “We did an assignment for the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. He had the problem that manure transporters often filled in the forms incorrectly. We delved into the subject, went with the drivers to farms. And what turned out? Because it was a paper form, it often literally fell into the manure. Sometimes a form was so full of spots that numbers were illegible and therefore entered incorrectly.”
The solution turned out to be in a digital form. “Super simple yes, but a solution with a lot of impact that the organization would not have thought of itself.”
People think they are a unique person who makes their own choices, but we are continuously influenced by the environment
standards
Normen is Liza Luesink’s favorite button. “People always think that they are a very unique person who makes their own choices, but we are continuously influenced by the environment in our choices. That is systematically underestimated.”
Especially in situations where we are unsure of how to behave, we look to other people to see what the norm is. If a group of people stands still on the street and looks up, there is a very good chance that you will also look up.
Push turned the norm knob on an assignment for Tytsjerksteradiel. That municipality wanted to motivate people to find out whether they could make their homes natural gas-free. That is why Duwtje designed a brown doormat with ‘gas-free’ on it in large black letters. People who had already switched were given such a doormat. Croonen: “As a result, natural gas-free living suddenly became visible. When people have seen that doormat three times on their neighbors, they think: hmm, maybe we should consider that too.”
Resistance
“Ah, resistance! Always interesting”, says Luesink, rubbing his hands. “The misconception about resistance is that we think it’s rational, but it almost never is. The point is that someone, for example, does not feel taken seriously, or is forced to do something. Then you can throw good arguments against it, but that doesn’t work.”
Also read: Changing behaviour: nudge or boost?
Croonen and Luesink found such a case at a municipality in the east of the country, where the officials had to move to a new office. “There was a lot of resistance there,” Luesink recalls. “In the old office everyone had a permanent desk and there was room for goldfish Henk, a trophy from the volleyball tournament and a tree that the colleagues had grown from an avocado pit themselves. In the new office they had to work in flexible workplaces and there was no room for personal items. The employees found the new office especially cold and unfeeling.”
The move was planned around Valentine’s Day and Duwtje made good use of that. They thought that the new building should ‘flir’ with the employees. So an entire communication plan was created with winking stickers on the toilet mirrors and inviting cards in the shape of hearts. And everyone was allowed to bring a moving box with personal items, for which a special wall had been set up. “If people value that so much, you have to do something with it.”
Motivation
Motivation comes in two types: intrinsic and extrinsic. The latter concerns motivation through a fine or a reward for certain behaviour. Intrinsic motivation is when you behave because you want to. “It is therefore the strongest form of motivation, but also the most difficult to change,” says Luesink.
Nevertheless, the office tried to turn the motivation knob for an assignment for the municipality of Deventer. The subject was the Beestenmarkt: an anonymous, asphalted square where local residents had been bothered for years by young people hanging around, noise pollution and litter. Luesink: “Someone who lived directly on the square said that he found the nuisance so annoying. Because, he said, it’s your front yard after all. That was the hook for us to get started.”
The project was eventually given the name: ‘Welcome to our front yard’. The long wall on the square became a large photo wall, with portrait photos of local residents on it. Croonen: „That worked well for it watching eyeeffect: The effect that people behave more neatly when they feel they are being watched – even if it is through a photo.”
It is this project that Joyce Croonen is still most proud of. “We found a nice effect in figures: the square was perceived as cleaner and more pleasant. But it was especially nice to see that people were suddenly proud of their neighbourhood. That the photo day was a pleasant gathering, that the turnout was large at the opening. We were able to really make a difference there.”
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