Glossary: Behavioral Science Terms for Organizational Change

Glossary

SHIFT Framework

A five-stage behavioral design framework for organizational change: Specify the behaviour, Hypothesize the causes, Intervention Design strategies, Facilitate the change, Test and Iterate. SHIFT is built on the COM-B model and provides diagnostic precision that traditional change management frameworks typically lack. Unlike readiness or communication models, SHIFT focuses on identifying specific behavioral barriers and selecting matched, evidence-based interventions.

COM-B Model

A behavioral model developed at University College London that states all behavior requires three conditions: Capability (the person can do it), Opportunity (the environment supports it), and Motivation (the person wants to do it at the moment of action). COM-B has six sub-components: psychological capability, physical capability, physical opportunity, social opportunity, reflective motivation, and automatic motivation. In organizational settings, COM-B is used to diagnose why a specific behavior is not occurring and to select the intervention category that matches the barrier.

Capability (COM-B)

One of three COM-B components. Capability is a person's knowledge, skills, and cognitive readiness to perform a behavior. It divides into psychological capability (knowledge, skills, memory, attention, behavioral regulation) and physical capability (strength, stamina, dexterity). In organizational change, capability barriers manifest as: not knowing the new process, not being able to do it quickly enough under real conditions, or not being able to hold the steps in memory when under pressure. Capability barriers respond to training, practice, peer teaching, and graduated difficulty.

Opportunity (COM-B)

One of three COM-B components. Opportunity covers the environmental and social conditions that enable or prevent behavior. Physical opportunity includes time, resources, tools, system defaults, and environmental cues. Social opportunity includes cultural norms, peer behavior, interpersonal influences, and role expectations. Opportunity barriers are among the most underdiagnosed in organizational change because they are often invisible to leadership. They respond to environmental redesign, default changes, friction reduction, champion networks, and social proof strategies.

Motivation (COM-B)

One of three COM-B components. Motivation covers both reflective processes (conscious beliefs, plans, evaluations, intentions) and automatic processes (emotions, habits, impulses, desires). The critical distinction: a person can have strong reflective motivation (they intend to change) and weak automatic motivation (the old habit is stronger at the moment of action). Motivation is not a fixed trait but a system that changes moment to moment based on what feels most important. Motivation barriers respond to social proof, implementation intentions, reframing, incentive redesign, and friction manipulation.

Agreement-Action Gap

The phenomenon where people intellectually agree with a change but do not perform the new behavior in practice. This gap is the central challenge of organizational change. People nod in meetings and revert at their desks. The cause is that agreement operates through reflective motivation (conscious intention), while action is governed by whatever force is strongest at the moment of action, which is often the old habit, environmental friction, or competing priorities. Closing this gap requires behavioral diagnosis and matched interventions, not more communication.

Plan vs. Impulse

A framework for understanding why agreed-upon changes do not happen at the moment of action. The Plan is the conscious, rational intention to perform the new behavior. The Impulse is whatever force pulls toward the old behavior: habit, comfort, speed, social norms, cognitive ease. At the moment of action, the strongest force wins. The Impulse typically has every advantage: zero cognitive load, muscle memory, social reinforcement. Effective interventions either strengthen the Plan (implementation intentions, social accountability), weaken the Impulse (remove access to old systems, add friction), or change the Context (disrupt habitual triggers).

Behaviour Change Techniques (BCTs)

The specific, active ingredients inside a behavioral intervention. There are 93 documented BCTs in a validated taxonomy, each observable, describable, and replicable. Examples include: instruction on how to perform the behavior (4.1), prompts and cues (7.1), feedback on behavior (2.2), restructuring the physical environment (12.1), social comparison (6.2), and credible source messaging (9.1). BCTs represent what you deliver in an intervention. They are selected based on the COM-B diagnosis: different barriers map to different BCT categories.

ERIC (Implementation Strategies)

A taxonomy of 73 labeled implementation strategies that describe how behavioral interventions are delivered, embedded, and sustained. ERIC stands for Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change. Examples include: identify and prepare champions, create an implementation blueprint, change tools and defaults, form a coalition, provide continuous learning, and create a learning collaborative. While BCTs are the active ingredients (what you deliver), ERIC strategies are the delivery mechanisms (how you deliver). Effective interventions combine BCTs with matched ERIC strategies.

Strategy Cards

A set of 33 practical intervention strategy cards used in the SHIFT framework. Each card combines Behaviour Change Techniques with implementation strategies and is color-coded to the COM-B domain it primarily addresses (Capability in blue, Opportunity in pink, Motivation in purple). Each card includes: when to use it, what it does, how it works, which BCTs it contains, a diagnostic prompt, and whether it operates at system, team, or individual level. Strategy cards simplify the process of matching diagnosed barriers to evidence-based interventions.

Target Behavior

A specific, observable action that has been defined precisely enough to diagnose and design for. Target behaviors answer four questions: who is the actor, what is the observable action, when does it need to happen, and where does it occur. 'Adopt the new CRM' is not a target behavior. 'Enter client interaction data within 24 hours of the meeting using the new CRM' is a target behavior. The SHIFT framework's Specify stage converts vague change goals into diagnosable target behaviors.

Behavioral Diagnosis

The systematic process of identifying why a specified target behavior is not occurring. Using the COM-B model, behavioral diagnosis classifies barriers into Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation categories, then into specific sub-categories. The diagnosis determines the intervention: different barrier types require different strategies. Behavioral diagnosis prevents the single most expensive mistake in organizational change: treating the wrong barrier with the wrong intervention.

Information Deficit Model

The assumption that if people understand why they need to change, they will change. This model drives heavy investment in change communication and is the default mental model in most organizations. Behavioral science shows that information is necessary but not sufficient: people can fully understand a change and still not perform the new behavior because the barriers are environmental, habitual, social, or skill-based. The Information Deficit Model explains why communication-heavy change programs often produce awareness without action.

Implementation Intentions

Specific, pre-committed if-then plans that specify when, where, and how a person will perform a target behavior. Format: 'When I encounter situation Y, I will do behaviour X.' Example: 'When I finish a client call, I will log the interaction in the new CRM before opening my next email.' Research shows that implementation intentions significantly increase follow-through by creating an automatic link between a situational trigger and the intended behavior, bridging the gap between intention and action.

Psychological Reactance

A predictable psychological response where people resist or push back when they perceive a threat to their autonomy. First described by Brehm in 1966. In organizational change, reactance explains why mandating change and escalating pressure often increases resistance rather than reducing it. The harder you push, the more people push back. Effective behavioral interventions work with autonomy rather than against it, using strategies like choice architecture, social proof, and self-selected implementation paths.

Social Proof

The behavioral tendency for people to take cues about what to do from what others around them are doing. In organizational change, social proof is one of the most powerful motivational levers. When people see peers performing the new behavior and getting results, their own motivation to adopt increases. The 'Find and Equip Your Champions,' 'Spot Your Early Adopters,' and 'Engage Influential Voices' strategy cards all leverage social proof as a primary mechanism.

Knowing-Doing Gap

The documented failure in training and development where people acquire knowledge and demonstrate learning in assessments but do not transfer those skills to workplace behavior. The gap exists because training builds Capability, but the barriers to application are often Opportunity (the work environment does not support the new behavior) or Motivation (the old behavior is easier under real conditions). Closing the gap requires designing the post-training environment, not just the training program.

Friction

Any element that makes a behavior harder, slower, or more effortful. In behavioral science, friction is a critical design variable. Increasing friction on old behaviors (removing easy access, adding steps) and reducing friction on new behaviors (simplifying processes, changing defaults, removing barriers) is one of the most reliable ways to shift behavior. Friction operates through the Opportunity domain of COM-B and is often more effective than motivational interventions.

14 Coded Barriers (B1-B14)

A classification system within the SHIFT framework that codes organizational behavioral barriers into 14 specific types. Each coded barrier has a self-talk signal (how the barrier manifests in what people say), a COM-B classification (which domain it falls in), diagnostic signals (observable indicators), and a matched set of intervention strategies. The coding system turns subjective observations about resistance into specific, actionable diagnoses.

Stakeholder Decision Matrix

An eight-sheet diagnostic tool within the SHIFT methodology that routes from stakeholder type (seven types: Executive Sponsor, Line Manager, Peer Team Lead, Subject Matter Expert, Frontline Staff, Enabling Function, Senior Influencer) through barrier diagnosis, constraint mapping, strategy selection, conversation moves, and escalation logic. The matrix applies behavioral diagnosis to stakeholder engagement, treating each stakeholder's behavior as subject to COM-B analysis rather than assuming resistance is an attitude problem.

Automatic Motivation

One of two motivation sub-types in COM-B (alongside reflective motivation). Automatic motivation includes emotions, habits, impulses, and desires that influence behavior without conscious deliberation. In organizational change, automatic motivation is where habits live. Under time pressure, cognitive load, or stress, automatic motivation dominates: people default to familiar behaviors because they require zero conscious effort. Addressing automatic motivation requires environmental design (disrupting habit triggers), implementation intentions (creating new automatic responses), and friction manipulation.

Reflective Motivation

One of two motivation sub-types in COM-B (alongside automatic motivation). Reflective motivation includes conscious beliefs, plans, evaluations, and intentions. This is what people express in meetings and surveys: their understanding of why the change matters and their intention to comply. Reflective motivation is necessary but not sufficient for behavior change. It is the Plan in the Plan vs. Impulse dynamic. Strong reflective motivation can be overridden by automatic motivation at the moment of action.

Rapid-Cycle Testing

An approach borrowed from implementation science where behavioral interventions are deployed at small scale, measured for behavioral impact within four to six weeks, adjusted based on data, and then scaled. This contrasts with the typical change program approach of deploying at full scale and evaluating six to twelve months later. Rapid-cycle testing reduces risk, accelerates learning, and ensures that only interventions with demonstrated behavioral impact are scaled across the organization.

Environmental Redesign

Changing the physical or digital environment to make the desired behavior easier and the old behavior harder. Examples: changing system defaults so the new process is the path of least resistance, removing access to legacy systems, adding prompts at decision points in workflows, restructuring meeting formats to include new behaviors. Environmental redesign operates through the Opportunity domain of COM-B and is among the highest-leverage interventions because it changes the context in which behavior occurs rather than trying to change people directly.

Champions (Behavioral)

Internal advocates selected and equipped to model target behaviors, provide peer support, and create social proof during change implementation. In the SHIFT framework, champions are chosen based on peer credibility and influence rather than seniority. They are trained not just on what to do but on how to demonstrate the behavior in real work contexts and how to support others. The 'Find and Equip Your Champions' strategy card operates through social Opportunity, using peer influence to normalize new behavior.