Motivation, Ability, and Prompts: How Using the Fogg Behavior Model Can Grow Your Business

Think about what it takes to train a dog…

If you can get your dog to sit when you say the word “sit,” then you know how to design behavior.

Even if you can’t, we can use everything below to find out why.

Let’s break it down.

Behavior Design Fundamentals

“First, help someone (or your dog) do what they already what to do (their aspiration)
+
help them feel successful.” – BJ Fogg

Behavior Design in 2 Minutes

Behavior Design Examples

In 2018, Starbucks ran a promotion: $40 for and 30 days of coffee + a FREE Tumbler.

Their goal was to turn someone that might be a infrequent customer into a customer that makes a purchase every day.

What Causes Behavior Change?

A behavior happens when: Motivation + Ability + Prompt come together at the same moment.

BEHAVIOR = MOTIVATION + ABILITY + PROMPT

When a behavior does not occur, at least one of those three elements is missing.

Source: BehaviorModel.org

Motivation

Motivation is the emotional backdrop and the goal is to tap into it without artifically creating it.

There are six core motivations that are in three groups:

Sensation (Physical) – Pleasure/Pain (The result of this motivator is immediate). Game designers use this motivation by offering badges and points when learners change their behavior.

Anticipation (Emotional) – Hope/Fear (Fear is the anticipation of something bad happening, often the anticipation of loss). An example would be: people will accept pain (buying home insurance) in order to overcome fear (anticipation of your house burning down.

Social Cohesion (Social) – Social Acceptance (Belonging/Rejection). People want to feel like they belong.

Ability

A person must have the ability to do something.

The goal with each of these “Elements of Simplicity” is to minimize them as much as possible: Time, Money, Physical Effort, Mental Cycles, Social Deviance (Conformity), and Non-Routine (sits outside of a daily routine).

Prompts

There are three types of prompts: spark (high ability, high motivation; loud alarm clock), facilitator (high motivation, low ability; email newsletter), and signal (high ability, low motivation; post-it note).

Prompts should build on each other similar to learning to swim. This would look like small steps that lead towards larger success.

If you prompt people at the right time = joy.

If you prompt then when they lack ability = frustration.

If you prompt people when they don’t have motivation = annoyed.

2 Kinds of Prompts: Hot and Cold

Hot prompts are things you can do right now (e.g. button saying “Get it now” or “Download now”).

Cold prompts are things which one cannot act on right now (e.g. an add that you hear on the radio while you are driving).

Put “hot prompts” in the path of motivated people. – BJ Fogg

What If A Behavior Isn’t Happening?

Anytime you want to better understand why a behavior isn’t occurring, all you have to do is simply walk down the list and ask:

Are they amply motivated?

Are they truly able to perform this behavior?

Are we just forgetting to remind them/ask them to perform the behavior?

Next Steps To Learning Behavior Design

BJ Fogg created a free program called TinyHabits.com.

While most people think it takes 21 days to create a habit, TinyHabits.com will show you create results in just a few days.

Two of the most popular habits to design for are:

To tell yourself “Today is going to be a great day“
To floss one tooth

Prefer to read more? BJ Fogg also has a book and you can buy a copy of Tiny Habits on Amazon.

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