How Learning & Development Can Create Behavior Change in Your Nonprofit

Mar 2

Motivation is fickle. At the end of the day, even with the best learning experience and high motivation, people are going back into their workplace, and when you're back in your day-to-day, it's easy to fall back on a habit. So, how do you actually change behavior within your nonprofit?

In this episode, I'm joined by Amy Glover from the British Red Cross, who has found a great solution: habit stacking. She is a coach, facilitator, and 5Di© accredited Learning Designer.

She is sharing how they used habit stacking to effectively improve feedback skills, what they learned from this experience, and how nonprofit L&D leaders can use it too.

▶️ Key Points:

00:00 Amy's very unconventional route into L&D

07:06 Amy's solution for improving feedback skills

13:36 How to make training stick with habit stacking

24:42 What came out of the Feedback in Action week

26:58 Tips for nonprofit L&D pros to change behavior

Why Learning & Development Can’t Rely on Learner Motivation

Nonprofit leaders care deeply about impact. We invest time, money, and energy into training because we want our teams to lead well, communicate effectively, and serve communities with excellence.

So it’s frustrating when the behavior doesn’t change.

You host a feedback workshop. People leave energized. They nod, take notes, and even role-play beautifully. For a week or two, you see improvement.

Then it fades.

The problem isn’t commitment. It’s not that your managers don’t care. It’s not that your training wasn’t good. The real issue is this: Motivation is fickle. Systems are durable.

If you want consistent performance, you have to design beyond the moment of instruction. And that’s what we are focused on in episode 175 of the Learning for Good podcast with nonprofit L&D leader, Amy Glover.

Amy designed not just training, but a transformation in her nonprofit. Here’s how.

The Myth of Learner Motivation

We tend to assume that if someone knows how to do something, they will do it. In reality, knowledge is only one variable in behavior.

Take feedback as an example. Most managers know they should give timely, specific feedback. Many have been trained to do it. But when they’re in the middle of a packed day, jumping from meeting to meeting, the new behavior competes with everything else.

And when a behavior competes with urgency, urgency wins.

This is where many nonprofit L&D teams get stuck. We improve the skill but neglect the environment. We upgrade the capability but ignore the friction. If the only reinforcement for giving feedback is internal motivation, consistency will fade.

Teaching Skills in Your Training Is Not Enough

Training typically focuses on building competence:

How to structure feedback
What language to use
When to deliver it
How to navigate difficult conversations

All important. But behavior doesn’t live in theory. We have to include the context of their day-to-day.

If managers leave a training session and return to:

No reminder systems
No cues in their workflow
No visible tracking of progress
No reinforcement mechanisms

Then the new behavior has to fight for space. And it will lose.

If we want learning to translate into action, we must shift from asking, “Did they learn it?” to asking, “Is the system designed to support it?”

That’s the difference between support function thinking and strategic leadership thinking.

Three Steps to Creating Behavior Change

Amy recognized that training alone wouldn’t be enough to change behavior in her nonprofit. She needed to introduce feedback skills, and she needed staff not just to learn the skill but also take action.

Here’s how she did it:

Remove Friction in the Moment of Action

Friction is often invisible, but it’s powerful. And it presents a barrier to behavior change.

Consider this scenario: A manager intends to give more consistent feedback. They genuinely want to improve. But when they think about reaching out, they pause:

What exactly should I say?
Is this the right time?
Should I wait until our 1:1?
Is this too small to mention?

Each hesitation adds friction, and friction compounds into avoidance.

Amy’s simple way to reduce friction is through habit stacking. She encouraged them to pair the new behavior with an existing one.

For example:

“Before I make my morning coffee, I send one Slack message with positive or developmental feedback.”

Coffee already happens, so the cue is built in.

Now the behavior doesn’t rely on remembering or feeling inspired. It’s attached to an anchor.

Make Change Visible

When change is invisible, it’s easy to assume it’s not happening or not working. So Amy wanted to make the change visible.

Amy shared the idea of using marbles to give visibility to an otherwise hard-to-see change. Something as simple as moving a marble from one pocket to another every time feedback is delivered creates a tangible signal of progress.

As humans, we respond to visible progress. When managers see physical evidence of their consistency, they begin to identify as someone who gives feedback regularly. And identity fuels repetition.

Help People Feel Successful

Behavior sticks when people feel competent. If the first attempt at giving feedback feels awkward or overwhelming, the behavior becomes emotionally costly. But if the system encourages small, manageable wins, confidence builds.

You can design for early success by:

Encouraging brief, specific feedback instead of long performance reviews
Providing short scripts or examples
Framing progress as experimentation, not perfection

When people feel successful, they repeat the behavior.

From Training Factory to Strategic Partner

Many nonprofit L&D leaders feel overwhelmed because they are asked to build quickly and move on. New request. New training. New deadline.

But behavior change requires sustained design.

If you’re only invited to create content and not invited to shape systems, you will continue to feel like a factory. This is where your identity matters.

You are not a training producer.
You are a change agent.

Change agents ask different questions:

Where will this behavior show up?
What friction will people face?
What cues will remind them?
How will progress be visible?
How will we know it’s working?

These questions move you from order taker to strategic partner. They also protect your time. Because when you design systems well, you reduce the need for constant retraining.

The Practical Takeaway for Nonprofit Learning & Development Pros

If your training isn’t translating into consistent performance, start here:

Identify the specific behavior you want to see.
Map the moment when that behavior should occur.
Reduce friction in that moment.
Attach the behavior to an existing habit.
Make progress visible.
Create early experiences of success.

When nonprofit L&D leaders design for behavior — not just knowledge — they gain influence, demonstrate impact, and build proof. And they reclaim time by reducing rework and repeated interventions.

Motivation may fade. But systems endure.

To learn more about habit stacking and behavior change, tune into episode 175 of the Learning for Good podcast.

Additional Resources Just for You

Other Helpful Podcast Episodes:

Subscribe to the Nonprofit L&D Insiders.

Join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.

Support the Learning for Good Podcast

Become a sponsor.

Ask a question or suggest a topic.

We love hearing from listeners!