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Behavioural Diagnosis Canvas
Work the same nine sections on screen and it reads your COM-B scores, names your primary barrier, and hands you an ordered set of next steps — plus Word, an Obsidian note or a PDF.
The master one-pager. Fill this in before anything else. If you can’t complete it, you don’t yet know enough to design a change — and that’s a finding worth reporting.
⏱️ 60 minutes alone for a first draft, then 90 minutes with the core group.
1 · The change, in one sentence
Fill in
We are changing _______________ so that _______________.
Deadline / go-live: ___________
Sponsor: ___________
My role: ___________
2 · What does success actually look like?
Not the milestone. What is observably different on an ordinary Tuesday?
Fill in
Six months from now, if this has worked, someone walking the floor would see:
_____________________________________________
And they would stop seeing:
_______________
⚠️ If you can only describe success in terms of system usage or project milestones, go to Target Behaviour Definition.
3 · Who has to do something differently?
| Group | Roughly how many | What they do now | What they must do instead | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
⚠️ Include leaders as a group. They almost always have to change too, and it’s almost always left off this table.
4 · The vital few behaviours
Maximum five. Ruthlessly. Each must pass the film test: could you film someone doing it and know whether they did it?
| # | Behaviour | Who | When / trigger | Currently happening? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | ☐ Never ☐ Sometimes ☐ Often | |||
| B2 | ☐ Never ☐ Sometimes ☐ Often | |||
| B3 | ☐ Never ☐ Sometimes ☐ Often | |||
| B4 | ☐ Never ☐ Sometimes ☐ Often | |||
| B5 | ☐ Never ☐ Sometimes ☐ Often |
Create a note per behaviour from T — Behaviour Note.
5 · COM-B barrier scan
For your top behaviour. Score each 1 (total blocker) to 5 (no issue). See COM-B and the Behaviour Change Wheel.
| Component | Score | Evidence — how do I actually know? |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Capability | _ |
|
| Psychological Capability | _ |
|
| Physical Opportunity | _ |
|
| Social Opportunity | _ |
|
| Reflective Motivation | _ |
|
| Automatic Motivation | _ |
The evidence column is the point
If your evidence is “we assume” or “the steering group thinks”, you have an opinion, not a diagnosis. Go and have six conversations — Barrier Analysis — COM-B Interview Guide.
Lowest-scoring component = your primary barrier: _______________
6 · Bright spots
Where is this behaviour already happening, even partially? Who, and what’s different about their situation?
Fill in
_______________
What can we copy? _______________
Bright spots are the cheapest source of solutions and the most credible evidence you’ll ever put in front of a sceptic. See Switch — Rider Elephant Path.
7 · What’s genuinely in it for them?
Fill in
For the organisation: _______________
For the individual doing the behaviour: _______________
What it costs them (time, effort, status, autonomy, comfort): _______________
If the individual benefit column is empty or vague, that’s your real problem, and no amount of comms will paper over it. Say so early.
8 · The honest risks
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | What I’d do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsor goes quiet | Sponsor Briefing Pack | ||
| Change saturation | Change Readiness Assessment | ||
| Middle managers don’t cascade | Manager Conversation Guide | ||
| Design is genuinely worse for users | Resistance Decoder | ||
9 · What I don’t know yet
Fill in
_____________________________________________
How I’ll find out, by when: _______________
Bring this section to your sponsor. Naming your uncertainties builds far more credibility than a confident plan built on assumptions — and it protects you when one of them turns out to matter.
→ Next: Target Behaviour Definition · Stakeholder Map and Power Grid · Change on a Page
← Back to the Behavioural Change Toolkit