Over three days of speaking events in Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney, the GRIST team hosted some of our clients at James Clear’s Atomic Habits tour. The principles of Atomic Habits closely align with our micro-behavioural approach, and we saw this as a fantastic opportunity to get a more in-depth understanding of Clear’s methodologies and open discussion with our partners on how we can all use the principles of habit formation when we’re design behavioural change interventions across an organisation.

At GRIST, we believe change management done well has immense power.

Human behaviour feels difficult to influence and yet, when you tap into the right message and techniques, simple, small shifts can make a massive difference.

It starts with doing change differently.

We know that the rate of change is increasing. Updates to technology, ways of working, regulation and customer preferences are all leaping ahead across all industries. To keep up with change and mitigate ‘change fatigue’, we need to reimagine the way we think about and manage change.

On the first weekend in August, the GRIST team met in the stunning surrounds of the Yarra Valley. Our team are scattered across Australia and New Zealand, and our twice-annual conferences are our way to get everyone together to build connections and communicate strategy with all our people.

The ACDC coaching model is a powerful tool for driving rapid behavioral change. Unlike the GROW model, ACDC focuses on specific micro-behaviors that can be easily implemented and provide immediate results. It emphasises simplicity, speed, practice, and accountability, leading to impactful and transformative change. By targeting small, actionable steps, ACDC enables leaders to drive quick and effective changes within their teams, as demonstrated by Sarah's experience in improving communication within her team.

The 'Life. Be In It.' campaign teaches us that small, simple steps can lead to significant behavior change. Applying insights from large-scale behavior change to individual settings can be done through behavioral coaching, like the ACDC model, which focuses on immediate improvements and frequent, targeted actions.

The pace and magnitude of change coming your way might feel overwhelming. We find that focusing on small, easy-to-action steps makes the change more manageable and helps achieve the desired outcome faster; especially when coupled with deliberate practice.

The concept of ‘aggregation of marginal gains’ posits that if you keep making small improvements on a continuous basis, they will add up to a significant improvement over time. This improvement is not linear but compounds – the kind of improvement that makes a difference between good and great.

At the core of all GRIST interventions are micro-behaviours. These small, specific, targeted actions enable big change when they are demonstrated well and consistently.

(Quote format) Micro-behaviours are small actions that you can see or hear; i.e. they are definable, observable, assessable, repeatable and 100% within the control of the individual. Micro-behaviours are easy for people to understand and do, easy for leaders to coach, and most importantly, designed to be predictive of performance outcomes.

Back-of-house teams play a critical role that in driving organisational success: they’re your internal engine room for getting things done and getting your products and services out there for your customer service teams to sell.