When does Behaviour Change finally occur?

I know, I wanted to talk more about KPIs, but yesterday my client asked me this question about behaviour change and I think it is rather important to elaborate a little bit on that. 


When I started my career back in 1997 with Impac there was a rule when doing area development in any department or area - time to installation of a new management system (or tool) is about 10 weeks. Apparently, so we were told, the University of Chicago researched that it normally takes that long till human beings adapt and change their behaviour. I still follow this rule of thumb - 10 weeks to installation. These 10 weeks include 2 steps, analysis and development. 


From my experience though, behaviour change takes much longer. Well, it depends what kind of behaviour change we are talking about. There are 3 phases of learning and learning in my profession means changing behaviour. 


The first phase is called MECHANICAL COMPLIANCE.
Say, during a project we analysed that review meetings are not held, hence daily results can neither be talked about nor any corrective actions taken. So, after talking to managers and supervisors, drawing up an agenda for such a meeting, giving them a bit of training, we have the first review meeting. The manager and his supervisor do this every day, but people only attend because they were being told to do so. The meetings are not very good initially and actions not yet taken. This is mechanical compliance - doing so because of being told to do so. A characteristic of this phase - in case the meeting would be stopped people would not miss it and be happy to get on with life without it. 


Of course, daily review meetings are important, especially for a learning organisation. This is the forum to talk about achievement of the plan and in case the plan was not met, corrective action would have to be taken. Obviously, the meeting in my example would go on. People would attend for a few weeks, and slowly, the first actions would come up. Problems are being solved. Attendants of the meeting realise the benefit of having a structured approach to managing their area and deal with their problems. This phase is called COMPREHENSION. People understand why something (in my example the meeting) has been installed and how they can benefit from it. In case the meeting was cancelled, people would miss it and ask for continuation. The difference to mechanical compliance is that there is a very small risk of falling back into old behaviours. From phase 1 to phase 2 really takes about 2 to 3 months. 


But that's not enough. With comprehension alone there will not be any continuous improvement. Phase 3 is called FURTHER DEVELOPMENT. That's the phase where people take real ownership and develop something further. In my example about the review meeting participants would probably realise that a certain person from the organisation is missing and be invited to attend, the agenda could be changed, the meeting could be held at a different time, certain reports would be needed, etc.... 


Once that stage is reached "real" behaviour change will have taken place. This normally takes a few months.