Behavioral Physics

For about a year now I’ve been working on a theory whereby I could use physics equations to explain and plan motivation and incentive initiatives.  I started trying to morph Newton’s Laws into a  behavioral framework.  My thought process was this:  An object will behave based on specific laws of physics therefore how people behave should also follow similar laws.  Example:  An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by some force.  Therefore people doing a behavior will continue to do that behavior until acted upon by some force (either punishment or reward?)

Granted – there are some issues with the premise (free will comes to mind…but don’t ask Scott Adams from Dilbert fame about free will) but intuitively I thought there was some connection.  Then I see a study from the American Psychological Association on procrastination (downloadable for a fee.)  The study looks to define and quantify the causes of procrastination.  One of the key thoughts in this study is that procrastination can be explained via a formula. 

The formula the authors come up with to explain procrastination can be expressed as:

Definitions from the study:

Utility refers to how desirable a task or choice is for an individual.  By definition, people pursue whatever behavior has the highest utility. As the numerator of the equation indicates, activities that are high in expectancy (E) and value (V) should be more desirable.  The denominator of the equation captures the element of time.  Enjoyable activities that are immediately realizable (D), that have a short delay, should be more highly valued. As delay becomes large, utility necessarily shrinks. Gamma (upside down "L") refers to the person’s sensitivity to delay, and the larger it becomes, the greater is the sensitivity.  To apply the equation to punishments rather than rewards, merely take its reciprocal. In other words, people prefer their punishers to be distant, unlikely, and small.

What does this have to do with putting a performance improvement program in place.  A lot really.  What is procrastination but delayed behavior?  If I can influence procrastination am I not by definition influencing behavior?  I should be able to apply the same concepts to enhance someone’s desire to do a behavior using this formula even if they weren’t going to procrastinate in the first place.  If this formula holds then a program could be designed in such a way as to find the optimal mix of utility, expectancy, value, and delay.  Sensitivity to delay is a personal issue and the best we can do is try to take care of the maximum number of folks – there will always be some outliers that we can’t influence.

So – a long introduction to the following.  When developing an incentive program one should:

Increase the expectancy of succeeding.
Show participants how they have succeeded in the past.  Show participants others who are similar to them succeeding.  Create a way to model the behavior in a safe environment through role-playing training.  It’s the old story of "if you believe it you can achieve it."

Increase the difficulty of the task.
Set higher goals.  This sounds counterintuitive but the research shows that the more difficult the task is the more value it will hold in the participants eyes.  Make it too easy and there is no challenge and therefore no value. 

Pair the long-term task with more short-range rewards. 
This is the genesis of the "steps to the sale" incentive program whereby participants earn as they progress through the steps leading up to the sale.  Creating a path with rewards along the way increase the overall value of the activity therefore, increasing the likelihood of the behavior.

Minimize the number of steps.
Breaking down a big task into component parts and rewarding for those
steps is effective – providing there aren’t too many steps.  Keep it
simple and straightforward.

Reduce the delay associated with the the reward. 
Reward immediately – preferably while the activity is in progress.

All of this seems pretty straightforward.  The key is to balance all the factors.  I can offer a big reward for a longer-term goal attainment (think annual bonus) – or I can offer smaller awards more often for incremental goal attainment. 

In addition, through education, training and targeted communication I can influence the "expectancy" of the behavior with little or no change in the reward, delay or sensitivity of the person to the delay.