The Six-Source Model of Behavior
Every manager has been there. A task was assigned. The expectations seemed clear and understood. Time passes. It doesn’t get done.
Every parent has been there, too.
In fact, we've all been there with ourselves.
We tell ourselves, “I must do Task A by the end of the day on Tuesday.” Tuesday comes and goes, and we can’t help but notice that we failed to do the task.
Do this once, and the result is usually frustration or disappointment. Do it a few times and a pattern develops, and a pattern of broken commitments makes us angry.
That’s where the character judgments usually come in.
With our employees we explain the behavior with words like unreliable, lacks accountability, no sense of urgency, no work ethic, or even incompetent.
With our children the judgments often come in a slightly different flavor: lazy, entitled, ungrateful, selfish.
Often the words we use with ourselves are the worst of all, words we would never use toward another human—worthless, failure, or worse.
(Seriously, listen to your inner dialogue. Would you speak to your employees that way? To your child?)
It Doesn’t Work
In response to incomplete tasks and unmet expectations, these labels are as ineffective as they are inaccurate and harmful.
They lead to anger, resentment, broken relationships, turnover, and—when directed inward—lower self-regard and suffering.
What they do not lead to is better outcomes.
Yet the work must get done. Much of it is important, and simply not doing it often carries consequences no one wants.
What can we do differently?
Well, the sage and eloquent philosopher, Ted Lasso, was on the right track when he said,
“Be curious, not judgmental.”
If you haven’t seen it, search “Ted Lasso darts scene” on YouTube. It combines practical wisdom with a dose of sweet justice for the bad guy (along with a little profanity—consider yourself warned).
Being curious about human behavior, that of others and our own, greatly increases not only our empathy, but also our odds of successfully changing said behavior for the better.
Judgment closes doors. Curiosity opens them.
That said, people are complex, and instead of wandering around the endless intertwining avenues of human motivations banging on doors at random, we can take a more structured approach.
The Six-Source Model
Fortunately, the authors of Crucial Accountability: Tools for Resolving Violated Expectations, Broken Commitments, and Bad Behavior, have given us a map.
Their framework is a six-source model of human behavior.
You might have heard the distinction “will vs. skill.” In the six-source model, we add another dimension to that original differentiation between Motivation and Ability, and look at both on three different levels: Personal, Social, and Structural.
Six boxes result, motivation and ability at the personal, social, and structural level, and all of them influence our behavior.
How does this work?
Applying the Model
Take a moment and consider some task that you’re avoiding. Think also about what you’re doing instead (the answer might be “anything but the thing I need to do”—that’s still useful data).
Once you have something in mind, let go of those judgments about how you should toughen up, buckle down, try harder, and care more.
Instead, get curious in a very specific, targeted way using the six-source model.
- Personal
- Motivation: Knowing you should do it and motivation are not the same thing. Do you find it rewarding or at least neutral? Or do you find it scary, tedious, boring, painful, or otherwise unpleasant? Do you prefer doing the other thing instead?
- Ability: Do you know how to do it? Do you have the knowledge and skills? Are you physically and cognitively capable? Do you have the materials and/or information you need?
- Social
- Motivation: Does the culture you’re in (work, family, ethnic, religious, etc.) promote or preclude the desired behavior? Is peer or social pressure helping or hurting?
- Ability: Are you able to get the information and resources you need from others? Do you have permission or authority? Are others willing to help when asked?
- Structural
- Motivation: Are the external carrots and sticks working for you or against you? Will doing the right thing result in reward or punishment?
- Ability: Where is the friction in your environment? Is it helping or hurting? Is there a candy jar on the kitchen table? Or a bowl of fruit?
Take this framework and turn it into a simple table with two columns (Motivation and Ability) and three rows (Personal, Social, and Structural).
Now, put a check mark in each box that’s working for you, aligned with the desired behavior. Then put an “X” in each box that’s working against you, making the desired behavior harder or impossible.
What do you see?
Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, and the other authors of Crucial Accountability didn’t just make this stuff up. It’s based on extensive research and careful analysis of why behavior change succeeds or fails. Here’s what they found:
If you can’t check at least four of the six boxes, it’s very unlikely that you will do the desired behavior, and neither will anyone else.
If you want the desired behavior to happen, instead of applying labels and judgments, get curious and ask how you can turn some of those Xs into check marks.
Importantly, you don’t have to check all six. Some tasks will always be undesirable. But when personal motivation isn’t likely, just notice that you’ll need to tick four of the remaining five boxes to have reasonable odds of getting it done.
From Self to Others
It’s always best to do your own work first, but now that you understand the framework, think of someone else—partner, employee, child, supplier, friend—who isn’t doing the things you want or need them to do.
Can you get curious about why that might be?
If you find yourself resistant to that effort, look at box number one, personal motivation. The behavior you want from yourself right now is curiosity.
But let’s be honest: when others disappoint us, curiosity toward others doesn’t feel as satisfying as righteous anger and judgment.
There’s no guarantee that human nature motivates us in the right direction. Tricky, huh?
To overcome this, you have to want the results more than you want to be right.
That’s not always easy, but with a little practice, you’ll find that by engaging your curiosity, what you learn about yourself and others can be just as gratifying, and far more productive.
More Resources
You can find a deeper dive into this model, including specific questions for understanding what’s happening for people at each of the six sources, plus many other useful frameworks and mental models, in The Loom.
The Loom is our free online collection of resources that have informed our perspectives on life, business, leadership, human behavior, communication, and relationships over three decades.
Before we conclude, let's give this six-source model a test. I'm asking you to check out a feature on our website. Why might you do that? Well…
- You have the link right here. (Personal / Ability)
- All the cool kids are doing it. (Social / Motivation)
- I gave you all the information you need regarding why and how. (Social / Ability)
- Friction is as low as it gets—it’s free! (Structural / Motivation)
- You’re already on your phone or at your computer, so it’s just one click away! (Structural / Ability)
That’s five out of six! As for personal motivation? Well, that’s up to you.
Until next time,
Greg
