Behavioral Steering, Influence Or Manipulation?

We are in the business of behavioral steering. Whether it’s working with our customers, collaborating with peers, or as leaders working with our teams, we constantly seek to shape behaviors. Sometimes gently, often deliberately, sometimes without even knowing that we are doing it.

Behavioral steering is the process of designing choices, contexts, or presenting information intended to drive certain actions or outcomes. We use it in helping customers make a buying decision, coaching our people to more effectively achieve their goals, influencing our peers in developing and executing strategies.

And others steer us, to influence our own actions and behaviors.

Behavioral steering can be very powerful but also very dangerous.

In working with our customers, we can help the customer navigate their change/buying process. Leveraging our experience and expertise, we can help them better understand, manage the risks, and develop their confidence in the decisions they make. Alternatively, it becomes manipulation when we prioritize our success over that of the customer, pushing them to the decision we want.

Within our own organizations we are constantly steering the behaviors of the people we lead. We set the tone, priorities, metrics. We decide what behaviors get rewarded, what gets punished. We shape the culture and priorities by where we focus our attention. These can drive great clarity, alignment, sharper execution, and higher engagement. But they, also, can drive unintended behaviors when incentives and the management behaviors are not aligned, where we overwhelm people with constant shifting of priorities without their understanding. Where we focus on compliance rather than commitment.

And we do it with our peers in the way we shape discussions, promote certain ideas, leverage social pressure to achieve goals. When aligned, they can be very powerful. When not, they erode trust.

AI adds another dimension as an amplifier of behavioral steering. It helps us work and it helps us think. Used responsibly, it can help clarify very complex choices and decisions, reveal blind spots or encourage new ways of thinking. It can help us personalize engagement, enabling us to connect more impactfully with customers, our people, and our peers. But it can create manipulation at scale. We steer decisions and choices through recommendation engines, or through the algorithms of what we let people see and what we don’t let them see. And we’ve all experienced the faux empathy of LLMs like ChatGPTs constant complementing–even though we may be way off base.

When human steering goes wrong, it’s often visible. The manipulation affects one conversation or interaction. When AI steering goes wrong it is often not recognized or is invisible. But manipulative algorithms shape thousands or millions of conversations simultaneously.

As with so many things, behavioral steering is a double edged sword. It can be used with great impact or it can be very manipulative. When it is transparent and aligned with shared goals it can be very powerful. When it is hidden and self serving, it is manipulative.

How do we harness the positive aspects of behavioral steering?

1. High transparency: Making what we are doing, why we are doing it, and our purpose visible to those we are working with. Simply asking ourselves the question, “Am I comfortable with sharing what I am doing and why with the people I am engaging?” If we can’t answer in the affirmative, we may be manipulating.
2. Create shared intent/alignment with the people we work with. When we align our goals with others, we build higher levels of trust and collaboration. We focus on the shared success rather than just focusing on our success.
3. Keep an open mind: Steering should be about creating a better outcome than we might achieve individually or by focusing on our own goals. It means we may have to shift our perspectives–being steered rather than steering. But with the shared intent and transparency, everyone feel they have been heard, respected, and trusted.

Behavioral steering exists in everything we do and are engaged in. Whether it’s shopping on Amazon, looking at our feeds, working with our customers, people, and peers. We are steering or being steered. And AI amplifies it massively.

The question isn’t whether we are steering or being steered. The question is how we do it. Are we acting with clarity, integrity, and respect.

Afterword:  Here is the AI generated discussion of my post:  Behavioral Steering, Influence Or Manipulation?  It’s another fantastic discussion, they really get to the core issues and vividly explain the subtle differences in behavioral steering.  Enjoy!