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Behavior Principle
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Chapter 6

Organizational Learning

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Illustration of three professionals: a businessman with an orange tie holding files, a healthcare worker with a clipboard and badge, and a construction worker holding an orange hard hat.

The work conducted by the CCAs and ideas42 not only impacted the perceptions and behaviors of people on a DMP, they also impacted the way CCAs executed their work and interacted with their clients. Our CCA partners highlighted the following:

1. CCAs should take holistic approaches to debt management

The pilot results showed that many DMP clients struggled with payments because of larger structural issues. This challenged the CCAs to take a more holistic approach to their clients’ financial lives in order to help them with debt management.

Taking a holistic approach to debt management encouraged CCAs to be more intentional in how they presented themselves, highlighting their nonprofit status and actively demonstrating their genuine commitment to helping clients. The shift in messaging better aligned with their organizational mission and values. It also shifted their thinking to consider the complete client journey, instead of thinking about their work in terms of how they were internally organized. For example, challenges with retention that occurred as clients began struggling with repayment came to be seen as more than the responsibility of the customer support team, but also part of the onboarding processes and new client communications.

The past mentality was to just sign them up, but now we are looking at whether they have sufficient income, whether the plan is sustainable. Making sure it is sustainable going forward to make sure they can be retained going forward.”
— CCA Staff

2. The importance of data-driven innovation

Conducting a data-driven pilot allowed the CCAs to further engage with their own data and to leverage the tools they already had more successfully. It set the stage to help them continue leveraging data to make future business decisions. While CCAs remain constrained by their technology systems and financial resources, the pilots gave them new insights about how they could serve clients and increase organizational efficiency.

Along with discovering what our database and our CRM can do for us, it opened our eyes to different ways of communicating and what our system could do.”
— CCA Staff

3. Dispelling assumptions about client needs

The engagement with ideas42 dispelled some assumptions within the CCAs about what communication their clients needed and wanted. Many staff members acknowledged being susceptible to the status quo bias. Having worked in the industry for so long, they defaulted to a certain way of doing things without challenging their assumptions. Specifically, the CCAs assumed that clients preferred formal and infrequent communication; the pilots dispelled this idea, and encouraged CCAs to shift the tone and channels of communication with their clients. This change allowed the CCAs to reach clients who would have otherwise not engaged with them. The pilots also helped CCAs realize they could trust clients as savvy decision-makers who would make rational decisions about their payments.which causes people to focus, or tunnel, on issues that demand immediate attention and tax their mental bandwidth. While tunneling in the short term may have some benefits (e.g., Manny following leads for the next job), the bandwidth tax can make it more difficult to process information, evaluate options, and make high-quality decisions regarding important issues outside the tunnel. 

There were a lot of assumptions about what clients wanted to see from us: short text messages, minimal communication, very succinct and to the point rather than the warm, fuzzy feeling. We assumed that was what they wanted and that assumption was based on decades in the business. But we found [in working with ideas42] that that wasn't necessarily the case and that it's important to reevaluate our own assumptions.”
— CCA Staff
Enhanced communication and support systems tend to lead to better outcomes. And that, I think, was our biggest learning.”
— CCA Staff
The creation of different forms of low-touch communication that feels less invasive has been ‘revolutionary’ for us.”
— CCA Staff
Having the user testing and seeing how clients respond to different types of verbiage has really made a difference because things that we find impactful may not come across the same way to clients, and that has definitely impacted the way we communicate.”
— CCA Staff
There was always an organizational concern that if we gave the client options as far as partial payment, that they’d opt for that option even if they could afford to make the full payment. And we found that that wasn’t the case.”
— CCA Staff
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Conclusion

Debt management plans are a powerful tool for helping people regain control of their finances. By simplifying repayment and reducing the stress of managing multiple creditors, DMPs free up mental space for other priorities. Successfully completing a plan can also improve credit scores and provide a genuine opportunity for a fresh financial start. While motivation to stay on track is generally high, progress is often constrained by structural barriers such as limited income and irregular cash flow.

The examples and learning throughout this document are accessible for DMPs and other programs seeking ways to assist clients in reducing their debts. We’re grateful for the opportunity to apply behavioral learnings to DMPs and for the partnership of so many CCAs, employees, and clients along this journey, and look forward to continued innovation to better meet the needs of millions of people across America.

We welcome your thoughts on the tools, barriers, and insights shared in this report, and we’d love to explore opportunities for partnership. Please reach out to us at FinancialHealth@ideas42.org.