Diminish Restraining Forces

Danny Kahneman rewrote many of the “rules” of economics and psychology (see Michael Lewis’ fantastic The Undoing Project to learn more about him and his partner, Amos Tversky). He joined Freakonomics Radio’s podcast, How to Launch a Behavioral Change Revolution, to talk about the topic of behavior change.

Among many topics, he discussed the theories of the pioneering social and organizational psychologist, Kurt Lewin, who suggested that behavior is the result of an equilibrium being reached between two forces: the forces that “drive” a it, and the forces that “restrain” it. “Lewin’s insight was that if you want to achieve change in behavior, there is one good way to do it and one bad way.  The good way is by diminishing restraining forces, not by increasing the driving forces.  That turns out to be profoundly non-intuitive.”

I would say that most efforts to stimulate creativity and innovation are essentially driving forces: trying to incite some new behavior. Kahneman and Lewin would suggest a different tack when advocating a change: “Instead of asking how can I get him or her to do it, (instead) start with the question, ‘Why isn’t she doing it already?’ Go one-by-one, systematically, and ask ‘What can I do to make it easier for that person to move?’”

We have wrestled with the question of removing restraining forces quite a bit at the d.school, especially where those forces often reside in organizational environments far beyond our influence, let alone control. And so we often default using the driving forces approach; but it’s a question that I often return to: “How can we eliminate the forces that are restraining creative action from taking place?”

We’ve tried a few things; but I’d love to hear from others: how have you addressed the forces that restrain creative behavior and action?

*Hat tip to Mike Shipulski for spotlighting this digestible podcast on his blog

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