If-then plans

The idea in one sentence: people are more likely to do what they mean to do if they decide in advance when and where they’ll do it: “when this happens, I will do that”. A good intention says what you want. A plan names the moment.

You’ve seen this already

Think about someone who has just been given a new daily tablet. “I’ll try to remember it” often slips within days. “When I put the kettle on in the morning, I’ll take my tablet” tends to work better. The kettle happens anyway. It becomes the reminder.

The same goes for exercise. “I’ll get fitter” is a wish. “On Monday and Thursday, when I drop the kids at school, I’ll walk straight to the pool” is a plan. The plan has already made the decision, so nobody has to make it again on a tired Thursday morning.

Why it matters for your teaching

Most training ends with good intentions. Then the shift starts, the phone rings, and the new idea slips away. That isn’t laziness. A busy day is full of old habits, and a vague intention can’t compete with them.

Say you’ve taught a team a new falls-risk check. At the end, a support worker says, “I’ll use the new check.” That’s a wish. Now ask her when. “When I do the first set of observations on a new admission, I’ll do the falls check before I leave the bay.” That’s a plan. It names the moment, which already happens every shift, and the action that goes with it.

This connects straight to the heart of Teaching That Lands: start with what people need to do differently. A when-then plan is that question answered by each person, for their own work. It is also how each session of the programme ends. In Sessions 1 and 2, people write a specific “before next week I will…” on a card, add when or where, and photograph it, and the next session opens by asking what they did. In Session 3, each person names someone who will hold them to their plan, and the support they need from that person.

Try this

• End with a plan, not a reflection. “What will you take away?” invites a wish. Ask instead: “When will you next do this? What exactly will you do?” Give people a minute to write it down.
• Tie it to something that already happens. Handover, the first drug round, the Monday huddle, opening the clinic list. The moment should come round whether or not they remember the plan.
• Push gently on vague plans. If someone says “I’ll try to…”, ask which day, which patient, which part of the shift. Kindly, but every time.
• Follow it up. Ask about the plans next time you meet, or agree who will ask in a month. A plan that someone checks on is more likely to happen.

How sure are we?

This is one of the better-tested ideas in this library. There are hundreds of studies. A 2006 review that pooled 94 of them (a meta-analysis: a study of studies) found a clear, medium-to-large effect on whether people reached their goals. Newer and larger reviews find a smaller effect, but still a real and useful one. So: reliable, but usually moderate rather than dramatic.

Some honest limits. Many studies used university students or health habits such as healthy eating, and many relied on people reporting their own behaviour. Plans help most when people already want the goal. A plan can’t create motivation that isn’t there. It has been tested much less with staff changing their practice after training at work, in healthcare or elsewhere.

A common misreading is that writing the card is enough. It isn’t magic. The plan makes the action easier to start when the moment comes, often with little conscious effort, but it still needs a goal people care about and, ideally, someone who follows up.

Where it comes from

The psychologist Peter Gollwitzer named implementation intentions in 1993. His 1999 overview, “Strong effects of simple plans”, made the idea widely known. In 2006, he and Paschal Sheeran pooled the evidence from 94 studies. The term means “a plan for how you will carry out your intention”, as opposed to the intention itself.