How understanding the Ikea effect can help change adoption
Have You Heard of the IKEA Effect?
No, it’s not walking into IKEA for a packet of tealights and somehow leaving with a PAX wardrobe and three storage boxes. The IKEA Effect is a behavioural science concept that describes our tendency to place a higher value on something when we have helped to create it ourselves.
I was reminded of this as doing some preparation for a workshop I’m running (I'm also surrounded by IKEA boxes as my daughter is home from University for summer)
One of the constant challenges in any change or transformation programme is overcoming change resistance and encouraging change adoption. It's easy to assume that resistance happens because people don't understand the change. Sometimes that's true. But often change resistance happens because people feel that change is being done to them rather than with them.
This is where remembering the IKEA Effect can help by asking where can people influence decisions or shape implementation?
That could include::
Involving employees in problem definition workshops
Running co-creation workshops to develop new processes or ways of working.-
Piloting ideas with frontline teams and incorporating their suggestions.-
Creating employee advisory groups
Encouraging colleagues to review their own capability gaps and training needs
Of course, it's not practical to give every employee a direct role in decision-making. But we can help people see that their views, or the views of colleagues like them, have genuinely influenced the outcome.
