Nudge Theory Change Management Model Process Checklist

Run this Nudge Theory Change Management Model Process Checklist to frame your changes more attractively.

Introduction:

Record checklist details

Overview change details

Stage 1 - Clearly define your changes:

Define your changes to be deployed

Approval: Stage 1

Stage 2 - Consider the changes from your employees' point of view:

Assess your team

Detail how the change is desirable to your team

Approval: Stage 2

Stage 3 - Use evidence to show the best option:

Assess current performance and structure

Predict change effects

Compare current performance with predictions

Run stage 3 meeting

Approval: Stage 3

Stage 4 - Present the change as a choice:

Question whether the change has been chosen by your team

Identify why change has not been chosen

Approval: Stage 4

Stage 5 - Listen to feedback:

Plan stage 5 meeting

Run stage 5 meeting

Document feedback

Approval: Stage 5

Stage 6 - Limit obstacles:

Set up a stage 6 meeting

Run stage 6 meeting

Document obstacles identified

Limit identified obstacles

Approval: Stage 6

Stage 7 - Keep the momentum up with short-term wins :

Document short-term goals

Approval: Stage 7

Sources:

Related checklist:

Introduction:

Nudge Theory Change Management Model Process Checklist frames change more attractively. It is more of a theory that a change management model.

Nudge Theory Change Management Model: An introduction

The Nudge theory is a behavioral science concept developed by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in the 2008 book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

The basis of the theory is that nudging change along is much more effective than trying to enforce it in a traditional sense. Rather than telling your employees what to do, the choice landscape is designed so that employees are choosing the needed change themselves.

This changing the choice landscape is known as nudging. The trick with Nudge Theory is knowing how to present these nudges.

The core aspects of nudges are ascertained as being:

Indirect
Subtle
Open-ended
Educational
Backed up with evidence
Optional
Open to discussion

There is no set method to Nudge theory so in that sense the theory is vague. It is better to think of nudge theory as a tool to use with another, more structured change management model.

This checklist will follow the basic principles of nudge theory, so your team are nudged to choose your proposed changes:

Clearly define your changes
Consider changes from your employees point of view
Use evidence to show the best options
Present the change as a choice
Listen to feedback
Limit obstacles
Keep the momentum up with short-term wins

What's good about it

Nudge theory helps the employee realize the importance of the issue and lets them choose the solution. This gives the employee choice, strengthening employee bonds with yourself and the business, leading to greater loyalty and lower employee turnover.

Nudge theory can be a great supplement to change management models that neglect the employee side to change. The theory looks at change from an employee perspective.

What's bad about it

As already mentioned, the nudge theory doesn't provide a model for analyzing, managing, deploying, and maintaining change and so it is best used as a supplement to another change management model. Because of this, implementing the nudge theory alongside another change management model is time and energy-consuming.

Nudge theory also suffers in terms of its predictability. Changing the landscape in favor of the employee to make a choice does not guarantee that the choice you want to be made is made.

How to use this checklist

At the beginning of this checklist, you will be presented with a set of specialized questions given as form fields. You are required to populate each form field with your data.

The checklist is broken down into the 7 stages of the Nudge Theory Change Management Model:

Stage 1 - Clearly define your changes
Stage 2 - Consider the changes from your employee point of view
Stage 3 - Use evidence to show the best options
Stage 4 - Present the changes as a choice
Stage 5 - Listen to feedback
Stage 6 - Limit obstacles
Stage 7 - Keep the momentum up with short-term wins

At the end of each stage, your supervisor/manager will review your work using Process Street's approvals feature. Other features used in this template include:

Stop tasks - To ensure task order.
Dynamic due dates - To make sure your initiative is reviewed on time.
Role assignment - To delegate tasks within your team ensuring your supervisors is appropriately assigned to the review tasks.
Approvals - Tasks can be accepted, rejected, and rejected with comments.

Record checklist details

In this Nudge Theory Change Management Model Process Checklist, you will be presented with the following form fields for which you are required to populate with your specific data. More information for each form field type is provided via linkage to our help pages:

Let's start by recording your business details, your details, and the details of your supervisor or manager.

This is a stop task, meaning you cannot progress in this template until the required form fields are populated.

Business details

Business name

Your details

Your full name

Details of Manager/Supervisor

Manager's name

Checklist details

Once set, the due dates for each phase in this Lewin's Change Management Model Process Checklist will be used to set a dynamic due date, notifying your manager for the needed stage approval when required.

Checklist start date

Stage 1 due date

Stage 2 due date

Stage 3 due date

Stage 4 due date

Stage 5 due date

Stage 6 due date

Stage 7 due date

Overview change details

To begin this Nudge Theory Change Management Model Process Checklist, take the time to give a summary overview of the changes you intend to implement and explain why you want to implement these changes.

Next, consider potential roadblocks you could encounter during the implementation of change. Summarize how you intend to remove these roadblocks.

Use the long-text form fields to detail this information

Changes to implement

Why change is important

Potential roadblocks

Strategy to remove potential roadblocks

Stage 1 - Clearly define your changes:

Define your changes to be deployed

The goal of the nudge theory is not simply to deploy the required changes but to do so with the full support of your employees. Your employees need to know exactly what they are signing up for.

Use the long-text form field to clearly define your changes to be deployed.

Changes to be deployed

Approval: Stage 1

Define your changes to be deployed

Will be submitted

Stage 2 - Consider the changes from your employees' point of view:

Assess your team

"A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. A nudge must be easy and cheap to avoid." - Thaler and Sunstein, Nudge (2008)

Once you have set out what changes you want to make, you need to consider how these changes will appear from your employee's point of view. For this you need to consider:

Your team's culture
Your team's structure
Your team's responsibilities
Your team's skills

Use the long-text form fields below to detail this information.

Your team's culture

Your team's structure

Your team's responsibilities

Your team's skills

Detail how the change is desirable to your team

Think about how the changes to be achieved are desirable to your workforce.

Use the long-text form field below to detail this.

How is the change desirable?

Approval: Stage 2

Assess your team

Will be submitted
Detail how the change is desirable to your team

Will be submitted

Stage 3 - Use evidence to show the best option:

Assess current performance and structure

Once you know how to present the change to fit the priorities of your team, you need to gather evidence to prove how this could be useful.

The first step to gathering this evidence is to obtain information on current performance and structure.

Use the long-text form field below to detail this information.

Current performance

Current structure

Do not cherry-pick evidence that supports your theory, ignoring contradictory evidence.

Predict change effects

You then need to predict the effects of change. Use the long-text form field to detail these predictions.

Predicted impacts of change

Compare current performance with predictions

Next, compare your current performance with the predicted effects of change. It is this difference that will be presented to your teams.

Use the long-text form field below to detail the results of your comparisons made.

Performance vs change

Set up a meeting with your team to present this comparison.

Assign a meeting date. This will utilize our dynamic due date feature, notifying you a day before the meeting.

You can use our members form field to select the team members to attend the meeting. These team members will be notified.

Stage 3 - meeting date

Run stage 3 meeting

It is now time to run the stage 3 meeting. Use this meeting to communicate the difference between actual performance and predicted performance from the changes made.

This is a stop task, meaning you cannot move forward in this template until the meeting has been conducted.

Approval: Stage 3

Assess current performance and structure

Will be submitted
Predict change effects

Will be submitted
Compare current performance with predictions

Will be submitted
Run stage 3 meeting

Will be submitted

Stage 4 - Present the change as a choice:

Question whether the change has been chosen by your team

Despite the evidence gathered, as the Nudge theory goes, the evidence cannot be forced on your team. Doing so will only breed resentment.

Select yes or no from the drop-down form field provided in response to the given question. The question asks whether the change has been accepted and therefore chosen by your team.

If you have argued your case well, backing it up with evidence, then you should be able to respond yes to this question.

Is the change chosen by your team?

Identify why change has not been chosen

There could be several reasons as to why your implemented changes have not been chosen by your team, such as:

1

Did you miss anything when presenting the evidence to your team?
2

Have you argued your case well enough?

Listening to your team's feedback is a great way to decipher why your proposed changes were rejected. Listening to feedback is the next stage of this checklist.

Approval: Stage 4

Question whether the change has been chosen by your team

Will be submitted
Identify why change has not been chosen

Will be submitted

Stage 5 - Listen to feedback:

Plan stage 5 meeting

Whether your changes have been accepted or not, you need to listen to the feedback your team has. By doing so you can:

Identify why your changes were rejected if they have been rejected
Reveal missed outside factors not yet considered
Show your team they are valued as people and their opinion matters

To gather this feedback, set up a meeting with your employees. You can use our date form field to set a date for this meeting, and our members form field to assign team members to attend.

Stage 5 meeting date

Run stage 5 meeting

It is now time to run the stage 5 meeting. Use this meeting to gather feedback from your team.

This is a stop task, meaning you cannot move forward in this template until the meeting has been conducted.

Make sure to document your feedback.

Document feedback

During the meeting, you should have documented the feedback given.

You can use the file upload form field to attach the documented feedback into this checklist. Alternatively, you may have documented feedback into online documentation. Use the website form field to add the URL of online documentation used.

Feedback given

Approval: Stage 5

Plan stage 5 meeting

Will be submitted
Run stage 5 meeting

Will be submitted
Document feedback

Will be submitted

Stage 6 - Limit obstacles:

Set up a stage 6 meeting

Before and during the deployment of the changes, you should be limiting or removing obstacles. You don't want to hit a roadblock during your change process, as this will set precedence for the enthusiasm for your change to come plummeting down.

You need to take the time to assess what might get in the way of the change and tackle those issues as soon as possible.

A great way to identify potential obstacles is to talk to your team. Set up a stage 6 meeting. Assign a meeting date and select the members to attend this meeting.

Stage 6 meeting date

Run stage 6 meeting

It is now time to run the stage 6 meeting. Use this meeting to identify potential roadblocks that could affect the change implemented.

This is a stop task, meaning you cannot move forward in this template until the meeting has been conducted.

Make sure to document the obstacles identified from your meeting.

Document obstacles identified

During the meeting, you should have documented the obstacles identified.

Obstacles identified

Limit identified obstacles

Once you have identified potential obstacles to your change process, develop a strategy that will alleviate/limit these obstacles.

Approval: Stage 6

Set up a stage 6 meeting

Will be submitted
Run stage 6 meeting

Will be submitted
Document obstacles identified

Will be submitted
Limit identified obstacles

Will be submitted

Stage 7 - Keep the momentum up with short-term wins :

Document short-term goals

Once some progress has been made on the deployment of your changes, you need to ensure that these changes are maintained.

For this, plan out short-term goals and milestones which you can celebrate on reaching. Use the long-text form field below to plan out short-term, goals.

Short-term goals

Keep updating the short-term goals to maintain momentum until the changes set are as a normal routine.