What is COM-B and why does it matter for organizational change?
COM-B is a behavioral model developed by researchers at University College London. It stands for Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour. The model states that for any behavior to occur, a person must have the capability to do it, the opportunity to do it, and the motivation to do it. Remove any one of those three, and the behavior does not happen.
Capability covers both psychological capability (knowledge, skills, memory and attention, ability to regulate behavior) and physical capability (strength, stamina, dexterity). In organizational settings, this translates to: does the person know how to do what is being asked? Can they do it quickly enough under real working conditions? Can they remember the steps when they are under pressure?
Opportunity covers physical opportunity (time, resources, tools, environmental cues) and social opportunity (cultural norms, peer behavior, interpersonal influences). In organizational settings: does the system make the new behavior easy? Do peers support it? Is there time and space to do it?
Motivation covers reflective motivation (conscious beliefs, plans, evaluations, intentions) and automatic motivation (emotions, habits, impulses, desires). This is where the Plan vs. Impulse dynamic lives. A person can have strong reflective motivation (they intend to do it) but weak automatic motivation (the habit pulls them back to the old way).
COM-B matters because it prevents the single-cause fallacy that undermines most change programs. Without a diagnostic framework, organizations default to their preferred intervention: communication-heavy cultures always add more messaging, training-heavy cultures always build more courses, technology-heavy cultures always redesign the platform. COM-B forces the question: is the barrier actually in the category you are treating? That question alone saves organizations months of wasted effort.
