Pic c/o freakingnews
We really are very poor at changing human behaviour.
Much poorer than anyone of us would like to admit (to ourselves or anyone else).
Really, it should make you think twice before ploughing on with your next brief if you just thought about quite how unlikely success is.
So here's a couple of new pieces of evidence to add to our catalogue of behavioural change impotence:
First, the John Kotter number Johnnie mentioned the other day: only 30% of change management programmes achieve their objectives is from this book
Second, the Charles Graham piece What’s the point of Marketing anyway? New findings on the prevalence, temporal extent & implications of long-term market share equilibrium that Alan Mitchell mentions would seem to point in the same direction (if I could get hold of a copy that'd be big)
Of course - like the 70% of Swedish drivers who famously described themselves as above average - all the stuff that you and I work is different
But next time you leap in and assume that your programme will change behavior remember this: success will be as rare as...well, hen's teeth...
So you better get a better map!