A video post!
The Miro board used in the video can be accessed here:
https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVJi6NCs8=/?share_link_id=616280785572
(PS: Miro, I’d love another sweatshirt!)
This framework explains why tools help in some situations and fail in others by grounding everything in the current state of a behavior. Every important behavior in an organization sits somewhere on a spectrum: it might be purely aspirational, weakly practiced, inconsistent, friction-heavy, fully stable, actively suppressed, or not even clearly defined. Each of these states is held back by different blockers—lack of clarity, lack of skills, lack of time, workflow friction, political risk, or social norms—and each requires a different kind of support.
Using a behavior-design lens like COM-B, the idea becomes simple: tools only work when they address the real blocker. Sometimes their job is to scaffold early steps and turn aspiration into practice. Sometimes it is to remove operational drag from a behavior that already exists. Sometimes it is to create shared visibility and reduce political friction. Tools matter, but how they matter depends entirely on the behavioral context they are dropped into.
Show Notes (AI Generated)
The Core Question
When do tools matter, and how do they matter?
Answer: It depends entirely on the current state of the behavior you want to see.
The Seven Behavior States
A. Normal States
Aspirational / Not Realized
Only talked about. No real practice.Weakly Realized
People agree it matters and occasionally try it, but it gets displaced by urgency and habit.Partially Realized / Inconsistent
Happens in pockets. Conflicting interpretations. Local successes that have not scaled.Mostly Realized but Friction-Filled
Behavior is accepted and happening, but it is painful due to workflow friction, manual effort, tool constraints, or time pressure.Fully Realized / Stable
Consistent, predictable, routinized. Embedded norms. Change feels risky.
Special States
Actively Suppressed
Counter-behaviors, incentives, or power dynamics prevent the behavior.Contested / Undefined
No shared understanding of what the behavior even is or how it should show up.
COM-B Essentials
A behavior emerges when people have:
Capability
Psychological: knowledge, mental models, clarity
Physical: skills, practice
Opportunity
Physical: time, tools, workflow space
Social: norms, permission, cues, legitimacy
Motivation
Reflective: beliefs, intentions, identity, political risk
Automatic: habits, impulses, shortcuts
Tools can influence any of these.
How Tools Help Depends on the Behavior State
If the behavior is…
Aspirational / Not Realized
Primary tool role:
Turn aspiration into a repeatable practice.
Strategies:
Provide structure and scaffolding
Make early steps easy
Visualize desired state
Reinforce identity and intent
Weakly Realized
Primary tool role:
Lower activation energy and make it harder to forget or skip.
Blockers:
Not enough time
Habit competition
Too many steps
Short-term urgency wins over long-term value
Strategies:
Reduce steps
Support self-regulation
Nudge and cue the behavior
Make it easy to start
Partially Realized / Inconsistent
Primary tool role:
Create a shared frame without forcing uniformity.
Strategies:
Clarify purpose
Help reconcile or visualize different interpretations
Provide minimally viable standardization
Mostly Realized but Friction-Filled
Primary tool role:
Remove operational drag.
Blockers:
Workflow friction
Manual coordination
Confusing handoffs
Tool gaps
Strategies:
Standardize routines
Streamline workflows
Make bottlenecks visible
Automate repetitive work
Fully Realized / Stable
Primary tool role:
Preserve what works while reducing risk and effort.
Blockers:
Risk aversion
Fear of destabilizing the ritual
Manual grind that no one wants to mess with
Strategies:
Automate low-value steps
De-risk changes
Protect institutional knowledge
Contested / Undefined
Primary tool role:
Clarify, name, and frame the behavior.
Strategies:
Make interpretations explicit
Help teams converge on a definition
Reveal misalignment
Actively Suppressed
Primary tool role:
Shift legitimacy, visibility, and power dynamics.
Strategies:
Provide shared visibility
Depoliticize the behavior
Reinforce norms or incentives
Create social proof
Tool Change Vectors (How Tools Influence Behavior)
Tools can work through different mechanisms depending on the blocker:
Influencing Capability
Clarification
Instruction
Cognitive offloading
Guided workflows
Checklists
Influencing Opportunity
Automation
Better workflows
Reducing steps
Making time and space
Influencing Motivation
Social proof
Legitimacy
Identity cues
Reduced political risk
Reinforcement
What This Means for AI
AI’s role will differ depending on the behavior state:
In aspirational states: scaffold early steps, provide examples, generate clarity.
In friction-filled states: remove manual overhead, automate stitching, reduce coordination cost.
In stable states: protect quality, ensure consistency, prevent regressions.
In contested states: help surface meaning, definitions, and distinctions.
AI is another lever in the COM-B system — not magic, but highly state-dependent.
The Core Insight
Tools always matter, but they matter in different ways depending on:
Which behavior you’re trying to support
Where that behavior currently sits on the realization spectrum
What is actually blocking it (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation)
Getting this right means choosing the right intervention instead of assuming tools “fix” or “don’t fix” things.
