The Shopping Bag Strategy
News from the Funding Innovation Studio: November 13, 2024, Edition 20
About fifteen years ago, I discovered an important quirk about behavior change. It’s easier to change two (or more) habits at once than one at a time.
At the time, I got very deeply involved in my local food scene and switched from shopping at big chain grocery stores to almost exclusively shopping at the local natural food store.
And at the same time - seemingly independently, I started bringing a reusable canvas tote with me into the natural food store every time I went shopping.
Previously, this habit had been nearly impossible for me to integrate into my routine. Often, I didn’t have the bags with me in the car. Or I walked into the store and forgot about them. My habits and routines for shopping at the big chain grocery stores were on auto-pilot and very hard to interrupt.
However, when I started shopping almost exclusively at the local coop, it was shockingly easy to remember to bring my bag. Combining a couple of behavior changes at once made it much easier for me to achieve my aspirations - eating healthier and using less plastic - than either change could have been on their own.
Deciding to shop at a new store was one decision. Bringing a reusable bag was a separate decision. Both required energy and behavior change to integrate on their own, but combining them was actually easier and self-reinforcing.
I predict there is a natural amplification effect with our work here at the Funding Innovation Studio as well. Yes, we are leading formal, expertly designed experiments, collecting data, and working to bring rigor to our hypothesis testing around interventions.
At the same time, just bringing attention to the new things we could try in pursuit of creating more funding access and opportunity for diverse founders creates the conditions for people to feel comfortable trying new things, even in more informal ways.
Once we move beyond working on auto-pilot or running the expected or standard playbooks, it becomes easier and easier to add or combine new ways of working.
For example, one of the experiments we ran this fall was focused on making networking events more welcoming and inclusive for “outsiders”, the people who don’t know anyone at the event when they arrive. We had a simple system in place to identify who these potential outsiders were when they arrived, and our LabCentral team was on hand and ready to help make a quick introduction between them and the groups of people that had already started networking at the event.
What has been so interesting for me to observe since then has been the way running the experiment has created a ripple effect with my LabCentral colleagues who are now regularly noticing other tiny changes they can make in how they work, inspired by the experiment we ran together.
Just like changing grocery stores made it easier and reinforced a second habit change around using reusable shopping bags, getting involved with the Funding Innovation Studio community and activating the interventions we share from our experiments creates the conditions for seeing opportunity for innovation and experimentation even in very tiny and informal ways.
We all have more agency than we imagine. We can try things and see if they work the way we thought they would. And, it’s easier to do that when we’re in community together, sharing examples of things we’re trying with each other, and bringing to the surface activities and mindsets that might have been routine or auto-pilot previously.
Virtual Sprint Showcase
November 22nd, 10-11am EST
We recently hosted our inaugural Sprint Showcase, sharing the results from the experiments we ran this year - focused on networking events and pitch competitions.
If you were not able to join us in person and would like to dig into our process and the experiments we ran in more depth, I will also be hosting a mini Virtual Showcase event on November 22st on Zoom.
Research Spotlight
I’m excited to launch a new feature in this newsletter. For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing insights by Siri Chilazi, Senior Researcher at Harvard Kennedy School Women and Public Policy Program. Siri’s work deeply aligns with the approach we are taking at the Funding Innovation Studio. Siri also participated in helping us design one of this year’s sprints and will join us at the Sprint Showcase on October 30th. This post was originally published on LinkedIn and is shared here with permission.
"Consciously or subconsciously, norms create pressure to conform so we won't experience social discomfort or sanctions but can instead enjoy 'fitting in'; and they often also convey information about how to acquire 'payoffs' that we might otherwise overlook (such as avoiding a threat)."
Katy Milkman captures this perfectly in her brilliant book: "How to Change."
As humans, we're more influenced by surrounding norms than we realize.
We tend to:
- Seek to fit in with the herd
- Avoid sticking out
- Fear social exclusion
This desire to conform can be powerful – and limiting.
Think about it: When was the last time you wanted to do or say something, but held back due to social norms?
Understanding these influences is the first step to making intentional choices about when to follow norms – and when to challenge them.
The Funding Innovation Studio is a non-profit program, founded by LabCentral and led by Beth McKeon, with a mission to increase funding inclusion, access, and opportunity for women and BIPOC founders in the life sciences.
The Funding Innovation Studio convenes and supports innovators from across VC, universities, and entrepreneurial support organizations as they run rapid design sprints to solve the persistent systemic barriers and bias in the fundraising and capital deployment process. The Funding Innovation Studio has an open-source policy, sharing the wins and fails from these experiments here on Substack and with its community of practitioners with the goal to see widespread adoption and replication of emerging best practices in this field.