Mathias Vermeulen on Nudging
On Thursday, Nov. 17, all eyes were on Mathias Vermeulen. During our exclusive community meeting he told all about nudging. Were you there and do you want to read his story again? Or could you not be there but do you want to know exactly what Mathias shared with us? Especially for you we made this recap.
The core of nudging is nudging. You can nudge people unconsciously toward desired behavior through small adjustments in the environment that are subtle and do not limit choice. Richard Thaler - who won the Nobel Prize in economics 15 years ago - is the founder and wrote the book "Nudge.
Nudging in our daily lives
We are genudged all day long. And governments and companies like to play with it. Schiphol, for example, was struggling with dirty urinals. When a sticker in the shape of a fly was placed on each urinal, the behavior of men changed, leaving the urinals much cleaner.
The second example is speedometers in traffic. Think of the happy and sad faces on speedometers what we encounter daily are. If you see a sad face, chances are that you will let off your gas and stick to the speed.
And there are plenty of other examples like that. Ecommerce platforms are king when it comes to nudging. Think of the reminders you get when something is left in your shopping cart. But, the danger of nudging is right there around the corner: if it is too flashy it can work against you.
Nudging in L&D
L&D there is plenty to nudge. Using the EAST framework, Mathias explains how to apply it.
Make it easy for end users by removing as many obstacles as possible. This includes a default option. You make it easy for your users by filling in the information that is already known. For undesirable behavior, you can reverse this component and make the undesirable behavior slightly more difficult.
You can also make message attractive . Charities send letters to solicit donations. These letters are often personal and appeal to emotion. Within L&D you can apply this by having others tell you about a training course and address someone personally. It also helps by emphasizing what there is to gain or lose if they do or do not perform a certain action.
The threshold to do something if you are the first is very high. People like to know what others are doing with an equivalent profile. This is the social component and a principle that uses Netflix for example. Within L&D we still do this a little too little.
Finally, you can add a time component, or timely. What is the ideal time to give the stimulus? For example, you might give the incentive "Would you like to be fluent in French during your vacation in France?" right after the vacation is booked.
Tools
Many LXPs are increasingly applying nudging. For example, personalization and the social element is taking up more space. And when you want to nudge based on data, you can create an ideal breeding ground in a Learning Record Store (such as Next Learning Valley's LRS) combined with automation.
Fortunately, we don't have to do everything manually. We can automate many nudges. There are several tools for that, such as:
- Zapier
- If this than that (ITTT)
- Make
- Bardeen
- Power Automate
- Waves (automation)
- Insights Bi
Waves and Insights Bi are tools offered within our Learning Suite. Waves ensures that the right stimuli are sent at the right time. The output is processed with Insights Bi.
Finally, humor
Mathias believes in the power of personal communication. Based on behavior, you can send very personal emails while the process is automated. And above all, let's not forget humor. Because within L&D we are sometimes a bit stiff and with humor we can break through that. That's a great opportunity.
Next meeting
On December 15, the last Meeting More Minds event of this year will take place. And a very special one. Because the meeting will be hosted by Donald Taylor. He is subject matter expert on workplace learning and assistive technologies.
During the meeting, he will talk about the topic "the use of data to make better decisions about learning."