Picture or Video Test: If you can't describe what a photo or video of someone doing the target behavior would show, you don't have a specific enough behavior to design for.
COM-B first: Never design an intervention before completing a COM-B analysis. Ask: which of the six sub-factors (Physical/Psychological Capability, Physical/Social Opportunity, Reflective/Automatic Motivation) is actually deficient?
Training addresses Capability only: Training is one of nine intervention types. If the COM-B gap is in Opportunity or Motivation, training will not fix it.
The Fundamental Attribution Error in diagnosis: When behavior is missing, the reflex is to attribute it to character (lazy, resistant, uncaring). Assume instead that the system produced the behavior. What would have to change in the environment, incentives, or social norms for the desired behavior to emerge?
Research positive deviants before designing: Who succeeds at this behavior with the same or fewer resources? Their strategies are more transferable than high-performer strategies.
Is training the right answer? Diagnose before prescribing. Run through seven root-cause categories: knowledge gap, skill gap, process/environment failure, anxiety/fear, values misalignment, identity conflict, emotional state. Only the first two are training problems.
Hierarchy check: Is the environment producing the behavior? Is there a policy that directly causes the unwanted behavior? Is there an incentive structure rewarding the wrong outcome? Fix these before training individuals to work around them.
Value Communication Heuristics
Kettle Bell test: Can you make the benefit physically perceptible — something the learner could hold, see, taste, or touch? Abstract benefits engage the Rider; concrete, sensory benefits engage the Elephant.
Four dimensions check: Is the value Significant (large enough)? Immediate (arrives soon)? Tangible (perceivable)? Likely (believable given past experience)? Failing any one disqualifies it for Elephant motivation.
Hyperbolic discounting: The gap between "now" and "next week" is psychologically larger than the gap between "11 months" and "12 months." The closer the benefit to the present moment, the more the Elephant responds.
WCIDWT over WIIFM: "What Can I Do With That?" (specific, immediate, applicable) beats "What's In It For Me?" (abstract, future, hypothetical) for Elephant-level communication.
Point of Learning = Point of Use: Whenever possible, deliver training at the moment of need. When not possible, use Immediate Use design (problem-first) to simulate the need state.
Resulting awareness: When learners have been through failed initiatives, they discount new promises. Acknowledge the history and offer specific, concrete evidence this is different.
Motivation Heuristics
Three amotivations require three different interventions: "They can't do it" (competence gap) vs. "They don't see why" (value gap) vs. "They're not the kind of person who does this" (identity gap). Treating them as one problem produces solutions that work for none.
Motivation to learn ≠ motivation to do: High engagement during training is not evidence of behavioral motivation. Design separately for both.
Overjustification rule: Do not introduce expected external rewards for behaviors that are already intrinsically motivated. Unexpected, variable rewards are safe; expected rewards degrade intrinsic motivation when removed.
Autonomy protection: Controlling language ("you must," "you should," "you're required to") triggers reactance. Strengths-based framing ("here's what this enables you to do") supports autonomy.
Success-first feedback: Surface correct responses before errors. Failure feedback is ego-threatening; competence need satisfaction enables learning.
BCT Selection Heuristics
BCT chain: COM-B gap → Intervention Type → BCT. Never select a BCT without first selecting the correct Intervention Type. Never select an Intervention Type without COM-B diagnosis.
Implementation intentions for every behavior with a specific trigger: Have learners self-generate "If X, then Y" plans. Externally assigned plans have weaker effects.
No imposed behavioral contracts in mandatory contexts: BCT 1.8/1.9 triggers reactance when the learner doesn't genuinely want accountability. Coerced commitment produces the opposite of commitment.
Salience over statistics: For consequence communication, move from statistical (probability × magnitude) to experiential (vivid, proximate, specific scenario). The Elephant responds to experience, not calculation.
Fear + efficacy together: Never communicate threat without also communicating the efficacious response. Fear without efficacy produces avoidance.
BCT 4.4 after, not before: Behavioral experiments are a post-implementation evaluation tool, not a pre-launch pilot design.
Environmental Design Heuristics
Big Red Line Test: Before training anyone, ask: "Can we redesign the environment so the correct behavior is the path of least resistance?" If yes, do that first.
Fix the environment before compensating with training: Training that compensates for a broken environment adds cost without durability. The environment will win.
Informal networks before formal resources: Map who people actually ask when they have a question (Tim). Understand why before designing formal alternatives. If Tim is faster, the formal resource will fail.
Social norms as behavior predictors: If the perceived peer norm is the unwanted behavior, individual motivation training cannot overcome it. Change the visible norm first.
Practice and Habit Heuristics
Automaticity is the goal, not accuracy: Knowledge and correct answers are Rider-level. Automatic behavioral execution — without deliberate attention — is Elephant-level. Design for repetition volume.
Gamification = repetition volume, not engagement veneer: Gamification is only valuable if it dramatically increases the number of practice repetitions. Entertainment without practice is cost without benefit.
Streak recovery: Streak-based systems should allow one missed instance without breaking the streak. Loss aversion from breaking a streak causes abandonment — the opposite of habit formation.
Performance dip framing: When self-monitoring reveals gaps in previously unmonitored performance, the apparent decline is a measurement artifact, not actual performance decline. Pre-brief learners on this effect.
Identity and Values Heuristics
Connect, don't convert: Present the target behavior as an expression of values the audience already holds. Do not try to change the underlying values — this triggers reactance.
Affirmation before ask: Lead with affirmation of existing identity; then connect the new behavior to it. Never lead with the discrepancy between current and desired behavior.
Reframe must be accurate: Strained or false reframes are detected. The new frame must genuinely fit the behavior and be consistent with the audience's actual experience.
Role model accuracy condition: BCT 13.1 requires that the person actually be influential. Falsely assigned role-model status produces cynicism.
Separate the audience analyses: Supervisors and workers need separate COM-B analysis and separate identity-based BCTs. One-size messaging produces misses for both groups.
Ethical Practice Heuristics
Consent test: Would participants endorse this intervention if they fully understood what was being done and why? If uncertain, err toward disclosure.
Three-phase ethical check: Run the research, strategy, and design ethical checklists before finalizing any intervention.
Test with real learners: Three real-learner sessions will reveal 70-80% of comprehension and usability problems. SME review cannot substitute.
Calibrate emotional intensity: Decide explicitly how much stress your design introduces. Provide recovery mechanisms for high-intensity experiences.
Measure behavior, not proxy: Course completions, satisfaction scores, and knowledge test results are not behavioral outcomes. Design measurement that reaches as close to the actual behavior as possible.
