Most advice firms don't suffer from a lack of good ideas. Many firms invest in new technology, redesign workflows and they implement compliance improvements. Firms document processes and communicate them to staff.
Yet months later, many leaders find themselves asking the same question:
"Why isn't anyone following the new process?"
The instinctive response is often to assume staff are resistant to change. Behavioural science suggests something quite different. People frequently intend to change but they often fail to translate intention into action.
This phenomenon is known as the intention-action gap, and it may be one of the most overlooked barriers to improving the efficiency of your practice.
Good intentions are not enough
Across many industries, people express strong intentions to adopt new behaviours. Do any of these resonate with you? You intend to exercise more, save more money, eat healthier food, drink less alcohol or reduce waste but…
Weeks later nothing has happened?
Intention alone rarely produces sustained action because life gets in the way. There are a host of reasons why you don’t convert your intentions into actions. Time, a better offer, too hard and much more. The same pattern occurs inside your advice business.
Team members may genuinely support a new workflow, client onboarding process, meeting template, or technology platform. They may even agree that the new approach is better than the old one. But when deadlines loom, clients call, and inboxes fill up, people will revert to familiar habits, simply because it's already learned and they know it, which makes it easy!
They are not resisting because they disagree with the change. They haven’t changed because habits are very powerful.
Why is your new process failing?
Many implementation efforts focus heavily on communication, but research consistently shows that education alone will only change 8-12% of the population. You need more to drive sustained behavioural change to the point that new habits are formed.
Unfortunately, understanding a process and performing that process consistently are two very different things. Behavioural research shows that people are heavily influenced by factors such as:
- Convenience
- Time pressure
- Habit
- Environmental cues
- Competing priorities
If a new process takes even a few extra minutes, requires additional clicks, or disrupts established routines, adoption can rapidly decline. In these circumstances, knowledge is not the problem. Behaviour is.
The hidden cost of workarounds
When staff don't consistently follow agreed processes, small inefficiencies can quickly accumulate. A shortcut taken by one team member creates rework for another. Incomplete information creates delays. Multiple versions of the same process emerge across the business. Over time, firms find themselves asking why efficiency improvements never deliver their expected benefits. The answer is often surprisingly simple.
The process changed.
The behaviour did not.
What successful firms do differently
The most effective firms recognise that implementation is not an event. It is a behavioural challenge. Rather than relying solely on training, they focus on making desired behaviours easier to perform.
A few practical approaches include:
1. Reduce friction
Every additional step creates another opportunity for non-compliance.
Before launching a new process, ask:
"How can we make this easier?"
Small improvements can have a surprisingly large effect on adoption.
2. Build prompts into systems
People are busy and forgetful.
Reminders, checklists, workflow triggers, and system prompts help bridge the gap between intention and action.
Good systems support behaviour rather than relying on memory.
3. Focus on one change at a time
Many firms attempt to introduce multiple initiatives simultaneously.
When everything changes, people become overwhelmed and adoption suffers.
Prioritising a small number of critical behaviours often generates better results than pursuing wholesale transformation.
4. Measure behaviour, not activity
Training attendance does not tell you whether a process is being used.
Instead, identify a small number of indicators that show whether the desired behaviour is occurring.
What gets measured gets done.
A different way to think about implementation
When a process fails to gain traction, the question should not be:
"Why are people resisting change?"
A better question is:
"What is making the desired behaviour difficult?"
This shift in thinking moves the conversation away from blame and towards design.
Because in most advice businesses, staff want to do the right thing. They want to deliver great service, operate efficiently, and support their colleagues.
The challenge is not motivation.
The challenge is creating an environment where the desired behaviour becomes the easiest behaviour.
And when that happens, even the best-designed process finally has a chance to succeed.
Professor Sharyn Rundle-Thiele,
Department of Tourism and Marketing, Griffith University
