Why People Do What They Do – and How to Enact New Behaviors

In this issue of Luck Hacker, I'm delving into the invisible forces that drive human behavior—and, more importantly, how to unlock lasting change.

Imagine this: A manager named Sam walks into the office Monday morning, brimming with fresh insights from a leadership workshop. He envisions a new era for his team—open dialogue, stronger partnerships, and an energized work culture. But by the end of the week, meetings feel the same, routines remain unshaken, and Sam is left wondering: Why is change so hard?

The answer lies in understanding why people do what they do. Beneath every action is a complex interplay of identity, systems, and a deep need to align the world around us with our sense of self. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explore groundbreaking ideas like enaction, active inference, and self-evidencing to unravel this complexity. Then, I’ll reveal a framework for fostering authentic, sustainable behavior change—one that empowers individuals like Sam and his team to thrive.

If you’ve ever struggled to lead change or wondered why it feels like pushing a boulder uphill, this issue is for you. Let’s decode the science of behavior and uncover how to transform potential into progress.

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Introduction: A Day in the Life of a Challenging Change

Imagine a manager named Sam. Sam is dedicated, skilled, and driven by a clear vision of excellence for his team. He’s just completed a leadership workshop on improving collaboration and communication within teams, and he feels inspired to bring these new behaviors back to his department. He envisions open dialogue, mutual support, and stronger partnerships among team members.

Yet, on Monday morning, Sam walks into the same office with the same set of challenges. Some team members don’t seem open to change; others are entrenched in their routines and quick to revert to old habits. Meetings continue as usual, with little new energy or engagement. Despite Sam’s efforts, his vision of a collaborative, high-performing team remains a distant hope. Frustrated, he wonders: Why is it so hard to get people to change what they do?

In this article, we’ll explore why people do what they do – and, more importantly, how to help them enact new behaviors. Through concepts like enaction, active inference, and self-evidencing, we’ll uncover how people continuously generate evidence of who they believe they are, within a web of interconnected systems that shape and influence their actions. By understanding these dynamics, we can build a framework that supports genuine and sustainable behavior change.

Understanding Why People Do What They Do: Enaction and Active Inference

At the heart of behavior lies a powerful principle called enaction – the idea that we actively shape our world based on our internal models of reality. According to enactive theory, behavior is not merely a response to external factors but rather a process through which we enact a version of reality that aligns with our beliefs, perceptions, and identities. In other words, we act in ways that validate our model of ourselves in our worlds.

This concept is closely related to active inference, a theory from neuroscience suggesting that people act in ways that minimize the “surprise” in their environment. To do this, individuals constantly make predictions about the world based on their self-concept and then act in ways that generate evidence aligning with these predictions. The result is an ongoing cycle of self-evidencing or self-modeling, where each action reaffirms our understanding of who we are.

For instance, if Sam sees himself as a competent leader who values teamwork, he’ll seek out actions that reinforce this identity. However, if his team’s resistance suggests otherwise, he faces a conflict: the world isn’t aligning with his self-model. To resolve this, he can either adjust his actions to align with the team’s current behaviors or take steps to enact his vision by changing conditions and support systems around him.

The Complexity of Embeddedness: Navigating Multiple Systems

Adding to the challenge is that individuals like Sam don’t operate in isolation. Each of us is embedded in multiple, often overlapping systems – personal, social, and organizational. These systems, whether a family, work environment, or community, impose unique values, resources, and constraints, each shaping our behavior.

The roles we play across these systems can often conflict. For example, Sam’s role as a manager within his company pushes him to improve team dynamics, but his loyalty to his department’s established culture may hinder him from enforcing drastic changes. At the same time, his role as a friend or mentor to certain team members might conflict with his responsibility to hold them accountable.

Understanding that individuals are navigating these multiple systems is crucial for effective behavior change. People’s actions are influenced not only by their self-models but also by the demands and feedback loops within these systems. The challenge, then, is to create conditions that respect this complexity while guiding individuals to enact new behaviors that align with both personal and collective goals.

A Framework for Enacting New Behaviors

To help people like Sam and his team enact new behaviors, we need a framework that acknowledges the active, self-evidencing nature of behavior and the influence of multiple systems. This framework has five interconnected components:

1. Enabling Context: Building foundational conditions that align with the individual’s goals across systems.
2. Perception: Shaping how tasks and goals are understood to align with both personal and organizational priorities.
3. Action Selection: Supporting value-based decision-making that respects individual and collective roles.
4. Action: Structuring tasks and environments that facilitate intentional, aligned behavior.
5. Feedback and Self-Evidencing: Reinforcing behaviors through constructive feedback and self-evidencing cycles that integrate actions into the individual’s self-concept.

Let’s dive deeper into each component to see how this framework can help individuals and teams adopt new behaviors in a way that feels authentic, sustainable, and effective.

1. Enabling Context: Creating Foundational Conditions

At the base of behavior change is an Enabling Context that supports individuals’ self-concepts while considering the systems they navigate. This context establishes conditions that make it easier for people to adopt new behaviors in alignment with their goals, roles, and resources.

For example, Sam’s team would benefit from an environment that promotes psychological safety – a sense of trust that allows them to explore new behaviors without fear of judgment. Additionally, clarity of goals ensures that both individual and collective objectives are transparent and aligned. When people understand how their actions contribute to broader outcomes, they’re more likely to feel motivated and accountable.

Other enabling elements include information symmetry (access to relevant information for informed decision-making) and power alignment (ensuring that individuals have the authority and resources to act on their decisions). Together, these conditions support a stable foundation where behavior change feels feasible and worthwhile.

2. Perception: Shaping Mental Models and Expectations

The Perception component involves shaping how individuals interpret tasks and goals to align with their values and roles across systems. For behavior change to occur, individuals must understand not only what is expected but also why it matters within their larger set of roles and systems.

To help Sam’s team members perceive their roles in alignment with collective goals, Sam might use prompts that prime mental models – framing tasks in ways that resonate with team values and individual strengths. Peer modeling can also be powerful here, as it provides concrete examples of colleagues successfully enacting the desired behaviors, helping others see these actions as achievable and meaningful.

3. Action Selection: Making Value Judgments Across Systems

Action Selection is the stage where individuals make value judgments to choose actions aligned with both personal and organizational goals. People weigh potential actions based on how these align with their self-concept and their roles in different systems.

For instance, Sam can guide his team by offering prioritization structures that clarify which actions will have the most positive impact on team dynamics. By helping team members see which choices align with both their personal values and organizational goals, Sam can empower them to make decisions that feel authentic and motivating.

4. Action: Structuring Tasks and Environments to Support Behavior

Once individuals have made value judgments, the Action component supports their chosen behaviors by structuring tasks and environments to facilitate follow-through. This stage is about reducing friction and providing cues that keep individuals on track.

To support his team, Sam might use sequenced task structures that allow team members to see how each action builds toward the shared vision. Additionally, contextual reminders or cues can reinforce behaviors by prompting individuals to engage in desired actions in real-time. This structured environment reduces cognitive load, making it easier for team members to stay engaged with new behaviors.

5. Feedback and Self-Evidencing: Reinforcing and Internalizing New Behaviors

Feedback and Self-Evidencing reinforce behavior change by allowing individuals to see how their actions align with their self-concept and the systems they belong to. Feedback that validates individuals’ roles across systems helps them integrate these actions into their identity, making behavior change more sustainable.

For example, Sam can provide feedback that emphasizes the personal impact each team member has on the group’s success, helping them see their contributions as integral to team goals. Encouraging self-reflection also enables individuals to self-evidence their progress, fostering a sense of ownership and alignment between their actions and their evolving identity.

Conclusion: Building Lasting Behavior Change in Complex Systems

Changing behavior isn’t about forcing individuals to adopt a set of new actions; it’s about creating conditions that help them see these actions as natural extensions of who they are within the systems they navigate. Through enaction, active inference, and self-evidencing, individuals act in ways that align with their self-concept, generating evidence that reinforces their identity.

By building an enabling context, shaping perception, guiding action selection, structuring environments, and reinforcing actions through feedback, we can create a pathway for individuals like Sam – and his team – to enact new behaviors that feel authentic, sustainable, and aligned with both personal and organizational goals. When behavior change resonates with our identities within the systems we inhabit, it becomes not only achievable but also transformative.

For more specific tactics on how to apply this framework, read the appendix to this post on my blog at https://www.alexnesbitt.com/articles/why-people-do-what-they-do-and-how-to-enact-new-behaviors/

P.S. When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

(1) Contact me for 1:1 CEO coaching and advisory services

(2) Apply to the Effective Executive Workshop designed to help unlock your executive mindset.

(3) Join my strategic thinking masterclass: Strategic Thinking For Advantage – A training program for aspiring leaders ready to turn strategic thinking into a superpower.

I hope this deep dive into understanding behavior and fostering change has sparked new insights for you. These concepts of enaction, active inference, and self-evidencing are powerful tools, and I’m excited to hear how you might apply them in your own contexts.

As always, I’m here to answer any questions or explore these ideas further. Thank you for taking the time to engage with this issue—I value your thoughts and feedback, so feel free to reach out anytime.

Until next time, be someone who happens to the world; Be enactive.

Best,
Alex

Alex Nesbitt
Founder, Strategy Academy