At Growth By Design, we believe intentional choices lead to impactful growth, whether you’re shaping a thriving organization or a meaningful life. Here, we provide the practical information, tools, and frameworks to get you there. Today we’re exploring the fourth phase of the human behavior change continuum, Action, to better understand what is truly necessary in order for us to change a behavior and sustain it over time.

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In the transtheoretical model of behavior change, the fourth stage – Action – is the stage that looks most like “success” from the outside: you are actively doing the new behavior and changing your environment to support it. This is where most goal-setting content begins, even though it is really the fourth phase on the human behavior change continuum.

What Action Really Is

When you’re in Action, you have changed your behavior in observable ways for a short period (can be as little as a few days, but from a scientific standpoint it is often defined as less than 6 months). You might be consistently exercising, running weekly retros with your team, or holding regular planning sessions.
If you’ve been following along in this series, you may be astutely observing that Preparation and Action can be quite similar. The key difference between preparation and action is not intention, both are high-intention phases, but rather execution over time.

Careful, Action is Fragile

Early action can feel exhilarating, but it is also fragile. Research on TTM shows that relapse (slipping back to earlier behaviors) is common, especially in the early months of change. At this stage:

• Old cues and environments still exist.
• Habits are newly forming and not yet automatic.
• Motivation can fluctuate dramatically day to day.

Goal striving research emphasizes that this is where self-regulation skills (hello monitoring, feedback, and coping strategies) become critical.

What the Science Says About Monitoring & Feedback for Action-ers

Findings from the behavior science field consistently show that goals are more effective when accompanied by feedback that allows people to gauge progress and adjust effort. This can be feedback markers such as mile time, weight, marking an ‘X’ on the calendar for each day you complete your desired behavior…you get the idea. Likewise, implementation intentions continue to help, especially in overcoming anticipated obstacles and maintaining momentum. Studies on habit formation and self-regulation also suggest that consistent repetition in stable contexts can start to shift effortful actions toward more automatic patterns over time. What we’re ultimately looking to strike here is a shift from effortful to automatic – but this my friends, can take time.

A Couple Practical Steps You Can Take Today (If You’re in Action)

If you are already doing the thing – congratulations, friend! The mission now is to keep going and make the behavior more robust. Here are a few things you can do that are backed by science to help ensure you’re progress isn’t just a phase, it is a new reality.

• Track your behavior with simple metrics
  • Choose 1–2 key indicators (e.g., minutes of focused work, workout sessions, number of weekly 1:1s).
  • Example: “Increase my weekly deep work time from 3 hours to 8 hours by March 31.”
• Strengthen your environment
  • Make the desired behavior easier – also called habit stacks – to eliminate all the extra barriers that may make this change even harder (e.g., pre-block calendars, prepare materials in advance).
  • Make the old behavior harder (e.g., remove apps from your phone, change default meeting lengths).
• Use “if-then” for setbacks
  • “If I miss a planned session, then I will reschedule it within 24 hours instead of waiting until next week.”
  • Quick Tip: I use the ‘No Day 3’ policy in my behavior change process. This means I’ll give myself two days of grace, but I do not allow myself to skip the desired new behavior for three days in a row.
• Anchor your actions to routines
  • List your top three likely obstacles (unexpected meetings, fatigue, self-doubt).
  • For each, create an if-then: “If my 9 a.m. block gets booked, then I will move it to 3 p.m. the same day.”

Hey Leaders, Here are a Few Tips You Can Use to Sustain Action in Your Team

At the organizational level, action is where new norms, rituals, and systems are being tested. This is where the rubber hits the road for your leadership. the initial enthusiasm at the start of a change is going to wane – you must lead your team through the mundane and away from temptations. Here are some things you can leverage from our behavior science friends to help make your job a lot easier:

• Make progress visible
  • Share simple dashboards or stories that highlight behavior change, not just outcomes: “We increased monthly development conversations by 14% this quarter.”
• Celebrate process, not just results
  • Recognize teams for consistent practice (running retros, experimenting with new processes) even before the metrics fully shift.
• Remove friction
  • Just like you need to remove the Oreos from the house if you’re wanting to eat less sugar, you need to remove the blockers for your team. Audit which policies, tools, or meetings currently make the new behavior hard and adjust them where possible.

In action, your work is to treat your new behavior like a prototype: keep what works, refine what doesn’t, and stay in motion. Most of all, remember this is a process – set backs are inevitable, but don’t have to be defining.

Onward and upward!
Katie