07/01/26
New Year, New Tactics: Turning habits into business impact
How organisations can use January-esque habit forming tactics to improve performance and demonstrate business impact.
What if habits weren’t just for use in our personal lives? What if organisations helped people build habits to address organisational challenges, close skills gaps, drive organisational change and unlock employee engagement?
At New Year, many of us are thinking about personal goals for the year ahead – a new healthy routine, exercise plan, or habits that make our lives better in some other way. But we’ve probably also found in previous years that by February our good intentions have fallen by the wayside. And we probably know why!...
Often we set ourselves up to fail if we expect too much of ourselves in the beginning, and attempt to implement a big change that’s not really sustainable.
Lasting progress is usually about starting small, and maintaining consistency over time.
It’s about building habits that stick.
From wellness to the workplace.
The very same principles that help individuals achieve their goals can help organisations and teams thrive – improving performance and achieving strategic goals.
But how do you translate this for use in your organisation?
At the crux of it, it’s about finding small actions. Actions that are easy to do, and that people are sufficiently motivated to do. And then prompting people at the right time (in the ‘moments that matter’) to help them actually do it.
Just like for personal goals, it’s about starting small, and building consistency over time.
By identifying and influencing the human actions that achieve sustainable change, organisations can achieve long term business impact.
To help you apply habit forming tactics in your organisation we’ve put together 5 steps to identify and embed habits that drive organisational change.
How small habits drive big results.
Sounds great but still not sure how to apply habit tactics in your organisation?
For some inspiration, here’s how we’ve supported organisations by embedding small habits to achieve their strategic goals:
Example 1: New system rollout for Co-op.
Need: Implement a new cash management system across thousands of stores to reduce risk and deliver strategic goals.
Challenge: Success depended on employees changing a small, ingrained habit in a time of great uncertainty, so could easily be met with resistance to change.
Solution: We took a campaign approach rooted in behavioural science using 'nudges', including stickers and music to embed learning into the flow of work.
Impact: Employees adopted key actions and celebrated the change, resulting in millions of pounds worth of savings.
See how we helped Co-op employees unlearn and relearn habits – read the full case study.
"Our store colleagues are celebrating this piece of change as a better and safer way to do business.”
- Jay Brereton, Operations Lead, Leading the Way, Co-op
Example 2: Creating a high-performance culture for HC-One.
Need: Build a consistently high-performance culture across 320 care homes to meet regulatory requirements.
Challenge: Performance varied widely, with no clear way to replicate what top managers were doing.
Solution: Using activity diaries, workshops and focus groups we identified the essential actions and behaviours of the best care home managers. Then we created an internal communication campaign, learning materials and practical toolkits to make the actions repeatable.
Impact: Managers felt empowered, embracing the change and adopting the high-performance behaviours critical to HC-One’s success.
Discover how HC-One embedded habits to ensure the quality of their services – read the full case study.
Example 3: Increasing employee engagement with ethics and compliance for Wellcome.
Need: Launch a new Code of Ethics and make compliance meaningful for employees to preserve the organisations leading reputation.
Challenge: A Code of Ethics is notoriously seen as restrictive, dry and hard to absorb.
Solution: We helped people focus on one simple habit: pause and think before acting. Led by Connie, the pink-haired puppet who represents your conscience, this became the heart of a campaign connected to Wellcome’s beliefs, values and mission.
Impact: Boosted engagement and awareness of ethical decision-making across the organisation.
See how Wellcome generated award-winning engagement with ethics and compliance - read the full case study.
Ready to embed habits that drive business impact in your organisation?
Our Smart Move approach solves people and performance challenges. We help you translate your strategy into the everyday actions you need people to take. Designed to give you quick wins to build a business case, gain momentum and scale up.
