EAST Framework

Dimension: Mindset · Type: Foundation

Four design principles for making a desired behaviour more likely to happen: Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely. EAST is the design toolkit; COM-B is the diagnostic. Apply EAST after COM-B has identified the bottleneck.

Introduced by Tiina Likki (Behavioural Scientist, WHO Transformation team) at the Behavioural Science for Career Development session of the UN Inter-Agency Career Week 2026, on 8 May 2026. Tina Stochmal (WHO HR, 17 years across UN system recruitment) translated each principle into career-development applications throughout the session. EAST was developed by the UK Behavioural Insights Team (BIT, sometimes called the “Nudge Unit”), distilled from a decade of large-scale randomised trials in public services.

The framework

Use EAST to design the conditions around a behaviour you want to make more likely. The principles compound: at least three of the four should show up in any serious design pass.

When to use it

• After running the COM-B Model and identifying which component (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation) is the bottleneck.
• When you have set a specific goal and want to design the conditions that make it most likely to happen.
• When you have noticed a habit you want to break and need a structured way to add friction to the unwanted behaviour and reduce friction for its replacement.

The four principles

1. Easy. Reduce friction for the behaviour you want; add friction for the behaviour you do not.

The session example was concrete: the speaker stopped buying a daily pastry simply because her new office added two minutes of walking distance to the cafeteria. No motivation change. No willpower change. Two minutes of friction was enough.

For career behaviours, this means:

• Pre-schedule recurring blocks on the calendar so you do not re-decide each week.
• Reduce a large task to its smallest executable unit. Not “update my CV” (a weekend project) but “rewrite one bullet using R-CAR” (15 minutes).
• Automate where possible: AI tools for one specific section, templates for repetitive components.
• Use the Tiny Habits Setup shrink-down step.

For habits you want to break:

• Add friction. Move the source of temptation farther away. Sign out of accounts you mindlessly check. Use website blockers during focus blocks.

2. Attractive. Create rewards along the journey, not just at the end. Humans systematically discount the future and prefer immediate rewards; long-term goals lose to short-term pleasures unless the journey itself has built-in rewards.

Three concrete moves the session named:

• Temptation bundling (Katy Milkman’s term): pair a pleasurable activity with a less enjoyable one. The exercise bike with your favourite show. The CV update with your favourite coffee.
• Visual cues in the workspace: a sticky note, an object, a calendar reminder that re-attracts your attention to the goal.
• Deliberate disincentives: commit to donating money to a cause you do not support if the goal is missed. Some websites enforce this; the cost of failure becomes felt and immediate.

For career-specific applications: pair an application with a small reward. Reframe a LinkedIn update as a personal-brand exercise that has its own satisfaction. Mark each application milestone (researched, drafted, reviewed, sent) with deliberate acknowledgement.

The session was direct about the current job market: “Job applications can become a toxic relationship. After repeated rejections, the process loses its pull.” The Attractive principle is the antidote: make the activity itself rewarding, do not wait for outcomes to restore motivation.

3. Social. We are wired to follow the behaviour of those around us. This is evolutionary, not irrational. The practical move is to convert private intentions into social commitments.

Three operational moves:

• Make the commitment public. Tell a person, a group, your manager, your mentor what you intend to do this week. Not in two years; this week.
• Set short time horizons. “I will message someone by Friday” is trackable. “I will shift careers in two years” is not.
• Ask for a check-in. “Could you ask me next Tuesday how the application went?” The anticipation of being asked changes the calculus.

For career development: share your experiences (including failures) with peers. Become a mentor or mentee. Tell someone you are doing a mock interview this week. The social account creates accountability without requiring willpower.

4. Timely. Behaviour is easiest to change at transition points and when anchored to existing routines. The session emphasised three sub-principles:

• Use natural transition points. Moving house, starting a new role, a period of disruption, a new year, a return from leave. These are when habits are most open to change. The current UN restructuring, difficult as it is, is exactly such a transition point.
• Anchor new habits to existing routines. “After my Tuesday team standup, I will send one outreach message” beats “I will send outreach messages weekly”. The anchor provides the trigger.
• Time reminders well. Too early, they are ignored. Too frequent, they become noise. The right reminder arrives at the moment of choice.

For career development: act when motivation is present (after a positive performance review, after completing a project, while the achievement is fresh). Do not leave applications to the last day. And use the current sector turbulence as the transition window it is.

Steps

1. Run COM-B first. Identify the actual bottleneck. EAST applied to the wrong bottleneck will not work.
2. For each EAST principle, ask the diagnostic question.
   • Easy: Have I made the behaviour as easy as possible? What friction can I remove? What friction can I add for the unwanted alternative?
   • Attractive: Have I built in rewards along the journey? What sensory or social pleasure can I pair with the behaviour?
   • Social: Who can I tell? Who will check in with me?
   • Timely: Is this anchored to an existing routine? Am I using a natural transition point? Are my reminders well-timed?
3. Design the conditions. Pick at least one move per principle. Write them down.
4. Run the new conditions for two weeks. Track whether the behaviour happens.
5. Re-evaluate. If the behaviour is sticking, refine and continue. If not, return to COM-B and check whether you mis-diagnosed the bottleneck.

Worked example

A staff member commits to one outreach message a week to people in roles she would like to learn from. She designs the conditions using EAST.

• Easy. Pre-schedule a 20-minute calendar block every Tuesday at 10am. Reduce the message to a template with two personalised lines. AI assists the drafting; she edits.
• Attractive. Pair the activity with her favourite coffee at the office cafe. Track the streak on a small visible calendar. After every fifth message, allow herself a small reward (a long lunch, a deliberate weekend off).
• Social. Tell her mentor she is doing this. Agree to share who she reached out to and what came back at their monthly check-in.
• Timely. Anchor the action to her Tuesday team standup (“after standup ends, before I open my email, I send one outreach message”). Use the current period of organisational restructuring as the transition window that makes building external connections feel especially relevant.

After eight weeks, the behaviour is reliable. Two of the eight outreach messages turned into substantive conversations; one of those produced an invitation to apply for a role she would not otherwise have known about.

On the intention-action gap

The session emphasised that even when capability, opportunity, and motivation are all in place, intentions still often do not translate into action. The “intention-action gap” is documented and universal. EAST is one of the most effective ways to close it.

A specific evidence point the session shared: a flu vaccine study in which adding a single planning prompt (writing down the specific day and time you intend to act) raised vaccination rates by four percentage points. Planning, when specific (when, where, what to do when the obstacle arises), measurably closes the gap.

Pitfalls

• Applying EAST without running COM-B first. Without the diagnostic, you may make the wrong behaviour easy or attractive. The diagnostic comes first.
• Picking only one principle. EAST is most effective when at least three of the four are designed in. The principles compound.
• Treating Social as optional. Social commitments are one of the strongest evidence-based levers. People resist them because they feel exposing; the discomfort is the mechanism.
• Over-relying on willpower as the back-up. EAST is designed to reduce reliance on willpower. If your design ends with “and then I just need to be more disciplined”, the design has failed.
• Setting too long a time horizon. “By the end of the year” is too far for most behaviours. Weekly or bi-weekly horizons work better with the Social principle especially.
• Confusing the planning fallacy with motivation failure. People consistently underestimate how long things take, how much effort they require, and what obstacles will arise. Build buffers in. If your plan fails, do not assume motivation; assume the original time estimate was optimistic.

When not to use it

When the behaviour is genuinely not in your interest. EAST is not a tool for manipulating yourself into something you do not want; it is for closing the gap on something you do want. If the gap is your subconscious resistance to a goal that is not actually yours, use Immunity to Change or the 5i Framework Identify dimension instead.

When the bottleneck is genuinely capability (you do not know how to do the thing). EAST will not teach you the skill; it will only design the conditions around it. Address the capability gap separately, then return to EAST.

A note on the source

EAST was developed by the UK Behavioural Insights Team (BIT, sometimes called the “Nudge Unit”), originally a UK Cabinet Office spin-off founded in 2010. The four principles distil a decade of large-scale randomised trials in public services (tax compliance, organ donation, energy use, charitable giving). The framework is widely used in public policy, public health, and organisational behaviour-change work. The session presented it as a practical tool rather than introducing a new model.

How I use it

Personal note pending. Davide to fill.

Related frameworks

• COM-B Model, the diagnostic that identifies which bottleneck EAST should address.
• Habit Loop, the underlying behavioural mechanism EAST principles work with.
• Tiny Habits Setup, the seven-step practice that operationalises Easy, Timely, and Attractive.
• Notice, Pause, Shift, Act, the in-the-moment routine for catching the automatic patterns EAST is trying to redesign.

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Notes compiled by Davide Piga. Last updated 2026-05-09.