“information alone does not reliably change behaviour. This is a common mistake people make, even well-meaning professionals. The assumption is this: If we give people the right information, it will change their attitudes, which in turn will change their behaviours. I call this the “Information-Action Fallacy.”
– B. J. Fogg
This quote is by behaviour change scientist, B. J. Fogg, from his book “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything”
He’s the human behaviour expert who created a simple four letter behaviour change model that is applies to everyone and every situation
The reason why I’m bring this quote to your attention is that most coaches think that by simply telling participants what they should be doing, that they’ll change but this rarely works in the way that we want. To make meaningful change, we have to remove the obstacles that are holding them back – especially when it comes to injury prevention
Here’s how this applies to us and mental & physical health:
- Asking participants to spend their training time, or even their own time, doing mobility is the quickest way for it NOT to get done. If we want them to do it as part of their everyday routine, we have to remove the obstacle of extra time by blending it into their warm ups and cool downs. This way, they don’t see it an “extra”, they simply see it as a more effective way of doing what they were already doing
- Mobility is not an interesting topic for most people, which means that they don’t actually like doing it, but by making it fun and challenging we can change it into something they WANT to be doing, which makes it much more likely to get done
- Starting the session with something they don’t want to be doing sets you (and them) up for a mediocre session at best, but starting with something they’re looking forward to changes everything
So, let’s put this into action:
- Don’t expect that people will change their behaviour just because you explained something to them (mobility is NOT what they want to be doing with their time)
- Find ways to reduce the steps they must take for that behaviour to happen (blend it into their existing session)
- Reduce the obstacles so they feel confident (remove the idea of “right” and “wrong”)
- Make it as interesting as possible so that they feel compelled to experiment by themselves (adding the complexity of coordination can make it fun and challenging)
Oh, and before I forget…
If you’re one of the sports or fitness coaches who is sincere about wanting to take this to the next level, take a minute to check my bestselling book “The Coaches Guide to Long-Term Injury Prevention Success” at mostmotion.com/book. This makes it easy for you to make life-changing differences like these to every single participant – even in group sessions, without overwhelming yourself trying to cover all the individual areas of health.