How Small Behavioral Tweaks Can Transform Your Team
Firstly, a disclaimer: Influence is not manipulation. The strategies we’ll explore aren’t about controlling behavior but about shaping environments to support better outcomes.
With that clarification in place, let’s talk about influence—specifically, how small adjustments in the work environment or the broader context in which people make decisions can, if done well, significantly impact behavior. These subtle changes, known as “nudges,” can help guide employees and teams toward success—whether that means achieving a specific goal, improving efficiency, or strengthening team cohesion.
Take a look around your office—have you ever wondered why the coffee machine is placed where it is? Or why your timesheet software opens automatically when you log in each morning? Beyond your office, have you ever heard the oddly famous story about the fly sticker in the Schiphol Airport urinals, designed to reduce cleaning costs? Or maybe you’ve been enticed into adding an extra item into your cart on Amazon after spying something in the “Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed” section. These aren’t random choices; rather, they are perfect examples of nudges. These and many other instances of successful nudges maximize impact at minimal cost.
What Is a “Nudge”?
A nudge is a subtle intervention or design choice that influences people’s behavior without restricting their freedom of choice. Although it was around for a little while before, the term was popularised by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein who, in their eponymous book “Nudge”, described nudges as:
“Any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.”
Put simply, a nudge is the way choices are presented or structured to gently guide people toward beneficial behaviors.
Key elements of a nudge include:
- Preserving Choice. Individuals can still opt out or choose otherwise.
- Subtlety. The intervention doesn’t involve mandates or heavy-handed directives.
- Encouraging Good Outcomes. Nudges are typically designed to help people act in ways consistent with their own best interests or shared organisational goals. For example, setting a default contribution to a pension plan dramatically increases employee saving rates.
As explored in our previous articles, people are not purely rational beings. As a consequence of our very humanity, we are irrational—but this irrationality is often exhibited in predictable ways. Rationally, you know you should always log your billable hours either straightaway or pretty promptly, or maybe it’s the knowledge that you should pour over each contract line by line (yes, even the T’s and C’s). But reality often looks different. You’re busy, you’re tired, and sometimes ‘the best intentions’ lose out to ‘the easiest path.’ Nudges capitalise on this reality—making an easier path the beneficial one.
The basis of Nudges
Decades of research in behavioral economics and psychology have shown us that decision-making is not as deliberate and logical as we may like to think. Our choices are strongly influenced by a complex interplay of context, environment, habits, and heuristics (the mental shortcuts our brains use to speed up processing). So, when we are faced with a complex or mentally demanding decision, our brains will often rely on these shortcuts to reduce the cognitive load. This is our brain shifting the emphasis to System 1 thinking – fast, intuitive, and automatic, rather than the slower, more analytical System 2 thinking.
System 1 thinking is where nudges thrive. Instead of trying to force people into System 2 hyper-analysis all day, it’s more effective to design the environment so that System 1, our automatic pilot, naturally does the right thing—like timesheets that pop up automatically at a convenient moment, or perhaps the healthier snack bars being placed at eye level in your local convenience store. Because System 1 processes are, by their nature, more prone to biases and predictable patterns of behavior, leaders can thoughtfully structure choices and environments to gently guide decisions in ways that align with desired outcomes—without restricting freedom or requiring conscious effort.
In the workplace, small, well-designed nudges can help teams make better decisions, increase productivity, and foster collaboration, all by working with—not against—the natural tendencies of the human mind. Interestingly, failed nudges can be as informative as successful ones. If a well-intentioned nudge consistently fails, it may signal deeper cultural or motivational disconnects within the organisation. Rather than persisting with a failing approach, leaders can use these insights to refine their strategies or address systemic issues, ensuring that their interventions truly align with the needs and behaviors of their teams.
Potential Pitfalls
Nudges are not magic wands that instantly solve all problems. They can fail or backfire if they’re poorly designed, culturally mismatched, or introduced without proper follow-through. Recognising common pitfalls helps leaders deploy nudges more effectively.
Bombarding people with constant prompts, pop-ups, or reminders can quickly overwhelm them. When “nudge fatigue” sets in, even well-designed interventions will be tuned out or resented. On an ethical level, excessive nudging can feel coercive, eroding employees’ sense of autonomy and trust in leadership. Imagine that every element of your life involved nudges. It’s all good and well for a prompt to pop up when you open your timesheet, but if one jumped out at you with almost every click on your system, you may quickly go the other way.
Building on “overnudging”, Leaders must ensure that nudges align with both the firm’s cultural values and its incentive structures. When nudges are perceived as top-down impositions that ignore day-to-day realities—in a sense akin to “greenwashing”—teams may resist, seeing a disconnect between what is said, what is done, and what is believed. Similarly, if a firm’s incentives (such as maximising billable hours) conflict with nudges (such as promoting pro bono work or a more relaxed office culture), employees are essentially receiving mixed messages which can breed cynicism. To avoid this, it is essential for leaders to transparently align their actions, policies, and incentives, ensuring that senior partners “walk the talk” and that every nudge reinforces, rather than undermines, the broader vision.
Nudges tap into predictable patterns of human behaviour—but human ingenuity being what it is always has the potential to produce surprises. If the timesheet software is “too easy,” for instance, people might habitually submit rushed or inaccurate entries just to dismiss reminders. A big risk here is unintentionally incentivising superficial compliance. Leaders must remain vigilant, track actual outcomes, and be ready to pivot if a nudge creates the inverse of what was intended.
Another pitfall leaders will often fall into is the lack of reinforcement. While it is good that nudges can work within System 1 thinking —easy to implement and quick to yield positive results—we need to keep in mind the sustainability of any positive results. An inherent weakness in nudges is that, without cultivating an ongoing measure of continued habituation of behaviours, or adjusted nudges, people can often revert either to previous behaviours or they could simply begin to circumvent the resultant actions or behaviours entirely. So, for leaders, it is vital to look toward implementing more traditional measures of education, or positive reinforcement to ensure that the positive results of any nudges they implement maintain their effectiveness.
Finally, as mentioned earlier, a failed or ignored nudge can be a powerful signal that something deeper is amiss—perhaps a lack of internal support, weak or problematic communication channels, or general distrust of leadership. Simply layering on more nudges without addressing these root problems risks drifting into ethically grey territory, where well-intentioned tweaks feel manipulative rather than helpful. A genuine commitment to change often requires revisiting policies and culture, not just refining the nudge itself.
The Bottom Line
Nudges are not about tricking people or limiting their freedom. They’re about recognising how we truly make decisions—often subconsciously—and designing environments that make the “easier” path the beneficial one. When applied with transparency and respect, nudges can catalyse significant changes: higher engagement, more consistent compliance, healthier habits, and stronger overall performance.
However, nudges are no silver bullet. If a particular nudge repeatedly fails, it may signal deeper organisational issues—such as misaligned incentives, cultural friction, or unclear priorities—that need to be addressed before any behavioural tweak can be effective. In this light, these failures should be viewed as instructive, highlighting where a firm’s assumptions or structures require rethinking. Ultimately, since nudges are designed to work with teams and employees, leaders should embrace these insights not only to benefit the company but also to support the individuals who form its backbone.
Above all, effective nudging begins with empathy and an understanding that colleagues, clients, and teams juggle countless demands and distractions. It’s about shaping our choice architectures thoughtfully, aligning them with people’s natural tendencies rather than working against them. That gentle alignment transforms small nudges into powerful levers for high performance.
For a quick reference guide, check out our “Nudges in Action” Checklist
Nudges in Action Checklist
A Practical Framework for Designing and Testing Nudges
Identify the Behavior
- Be crystal clear on what you want to change—e.g., more timely time-entry, greater tech adoption.
Map the Current Path
- Understand how the behavior typically unfolds now.
- Identify bottlenecks, distractions, or drop-offs.
Choose the Lightest-Touch, Ethical Intervention
- Defaults, reminders, simplified processes, or social norms—select the least intrusive, most effective nudge.
- Ensure alignment with organisational values and avoid manipulative tactics—ensure it aligns with corporate values.
Implement and Communicate Transparently
- Pilot the nudge in a small group.
- Remember, these changes apply to leaders as well—“walk the talk.”
- Remember that this is not about manipulation. Transparency is key.
Measure and Observe Outcomes
- Track relevant metrics (e.g., participation rates, compliance times, qualitative feedback).
- Identify unintended consequences or resistance.
Learn, Iterate, or Pivot
- If the nudge is effective, consider scaling it.
- If it fails, determine if misaligned incentives or deeper cultural barriers are at play before refining.
Celebrate, Reinforce, and Sustain
- Acknowledge and reward behavior shifts to create positive feedback loops.
- Plan for long-term reinforcement to prevent stagnation or circumvention.