3.1 Why Nobody's Talking About How Agents Behave

Twenty minutes after we landed in Copenhagen, I got a notification: our next flight was cancelled. That was all it said.The airline, SAS, found us a new flight and looked after us for the night. What we could not get was the answer to one question: what happens next?I use that trip as a case to look at the day a service breaks. I go through three moments (a notification, a customer service window and a suitcase) and put them next to an idea from Jan Carlzon, who ran SAS in the 1980s. He called every short contact between an employee and a customer a moment of truth, and he said the employee in it needs two things: to know what is true, and to be allowed to act on it.In this episode:• Why information that already exists inside an organization often does not reach the person it is about• Three things to try: draw the broken day as its own service, check each moment for "know" and "act", and count the questions people ask after something breaks• What an AI agent at the service desk would and would not have changed• Why sharing what you know is how a service earns trustMentioned: Jan Carlzon, Moments of Truth (1987). John Seddon on failure demand.Behave & Design explores behavioral science, service design and systems thinking.

Everyone's talking about what AI agents can do. Almost nobody's talking about how they should behave once they're actually inside an organization, and Gartner predicts 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by 2027.In this episode, I open Season 3 of Behave & Design by naming a gap I couldn't find anyone else covering: the space between agent capability and agent behavior. Most organizations rolling out AI agents have a capability roadmap and no behavioral one, no answer for how the agent should act, handle data, or earn trust from the people working alongside it.This is the flagship thread for the season: not what agents can do, but how they land with the humans around them.

In Part 1, we explored how context dies at organizational handoffs. Now we ask: why does this keep happening?This episode examines the root causes behind handoff failures: the design assumptions that create invisible barriers, the structural choices that determine what information survives, and why making integration work visible is critical to system coherence.You'll walk away with diagnostic questions to identify handoff problems in your own organization and design principles for creating systems that preserve context across boundaries.Part 2 of 2 | Season 2: Designing for Consistency in Complex Systems

Why do organizations struggle with consistency even when everyone knows what to do? The answer often lies in the handoffs—those critical moments where context disappears between systems, teams, and people.In this episode, we explore the handoff problem across three scales: system-level design assumptions, organizational structure, and interpersonal transitions. You'll discover why information loss at boundaries isn't a communication failure—it's a design problem.Perfect for service designers, UX researchers, and anyone working to create coherent experiences in complex organizations.Part 1 of 2 | Season 2: Designing for Consistency in Complex Systems

Inconsistent behavior in organizations isn't a discipline problem—it's a design problem. When employees create workarounds, bypass official processes, or behave "non-compliantly," they're often responding rationally to systems that make the wrong path easier than the right one.In this foundational episode of Season 2, Senior UX Researcher Daniel explores why consistency emerges from system design, not willpower. Drawing from real enterprise systems mapping work, he breaks down a case where business teams consistently bypassed internal IT experiences—not due to lack of training, but because the system structure made external vendors the only viable path to meet deadlines.You'll discover:The "Replace the People" test: A diagnostic framework to identify true system problemsThree critical questions to ask when analyzing inconsistent organizational behaviorWhy layered governance can accidentally create shadow IT and security blind spotsHow to shift accountability from frontline teams to the designers and leaders who create system conditionsPerfect for service designers, UX researchers, organizational designers, and anyone responsible for employee experience in complex systems.Season 2, Episode 1: Foundation Arc

Why do some people consistently create, while others wait for motivation to strike? In this episode, we flip the script on willpower and uncover why action sparks motivation—not the other way around. Drawing from behavioral science, systems thinking, and real-world examples—from Olympic athletes to public transit and grocery store design—we explore how structure beats self-control every time.You’ll learn:Why “motivation waves” always crash—and how to stop relying on them.How the Zeigarnik Effect makes starting the hardest step.What Olympic routines, supermarket layouts, and tech apps teach us about consistency.Practical ways to design your starting line so showing up becomes inevitable.If billion-dollar companies use behavioral design to shape your habits, why not apply the same principles to your creative life? Stop waiting to feel ready—start building systems that carry you forward.🔗 Research & books mentioned: BJ Fogg, Amy Cuddy, B.F. Skinner, Daniel Kahneman, Charles Duhigg, James Clear, Richard Thaler, Carol Dweck, Paco Underhill.👉 Actionable challenge inside: Design the tiniest first step for a creative project you’ve been postponing.

Why do we pick the “popular” option, stick with sunk costs, or feel swayed by the first number we hear? In this episode, we uncover the hidden forces, social proof, anchoring, the decoy effect, and loss aversion that shape our choices more than we realize. From pricing tricks to team decisions, these biases are everywhere. Spotting them doesn’t make us immune, but it does give us a pause, and in that pause lies the power to choose differently.So here’s the question: if you could see the invisible strings behind your decisions, which ones would you cut, and which would you let guide you?Curious to dig deeper? Check out Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky’s classic work on loss aversion link, or Solomon Asch’s conformity experiments link.

What if the real secret to growth isn’t more effort, but smarter feedback loops? In this episode, we unpack how timing shapes learning, why “too much” or “too little” feedback can backfire, and how to build flexible systems that keep you improving even when life gets messy. From neuroscience insights to the After-Action Review method, you’ll discover practical ways to turn surprises into data, not failures.So here’s the question: what would change if every unexpected outcome became a signal to redesign your system instead of a reason to give up?

Have you ever noticed how some tiny changes create massive ripple effects while enormous efforts barely move the needle?In this episode, I explore Donella Meadows' framework of leverage points - those hidden places in systems where small shifts create massive change. As a Senior UX Researcher and service designer, I keep seeing this pattern: we pour resources into visible improvements (new processes, dashboards, tools) while the real drivers of change - paradigms and mental models - remain untouched.I'll share real examples of transformations that worked (and failed), from startups that changed their culture with one simple shift to Barcelona's superblocks that are redefining what streets are for. We'll explore why we instinctively intervene at the least effective points in systems and how to find those invisible levers that everyone else is missing.

Why do we struggle with routines even when we know what to do? In this episode, Daniel shares a personal discovery that transformed his approach to journey mapping. While mapping his chaotic morning routine, he uncovered a third, invisible layer that most journey maps miss: cognitive load.Learn how 50+ micro-decisions before 7 AM were sabotaging his mornings, why companies miss this crucial layer in employee experiences, and how to map what's actually happening in your brain. This isn't about perfect morning routines - it's about understanding the hidden architecture of your daily experiences.