Our signs had been up around the neighborhood for about 26 hours and her birthday was officially over when the 21-year-old we were looking for knocked on our front door. We weren’t home but she wrote a message that my husband and I received once we got back from running Saturday morning errands – thanks to sturdy tape, an available pencil, and an effective “call to action.”

This story is an example of the power of a clear, compelling call to action. It catches a specific person’s attention, moves them to action, and often, especially in this case, transforms feelings from high anxiety to a sense of ease.

Now back to the story. As we pulled into our driveway on Saturday, we noticed the sign that we had posted on the tree in front of our house the day before was now on our front door. And it included a handwritten note with a phone number.

Success!

The “birthday girl” had spotted our sign – our “call to action.” Plus, she had a tool – a pencil – to respond. And even better, she would soon retrieve from us a valuable personal possession – her driver’s license.

The day before, May 16, on our early morning walk, Marcel the Therapy Dog had noticed a small leather case on the ground about a block from our house. (He’s attracted to all things leather, so he sniffed it.) It looked like something of value, so I picked it up, unzipped it and discovered a driver’s license. I brought the case home to see if we could find the owner using the principles of an effective call-to-action. That’s how we came to create and post signs early Friday morning in likely locations to grab the owner’s attention.

Back to Saturday morning — after we were in the house but before I could call the number she provided — the doorbell rang. As soon as I opened the door and saw the young woman, I  recognized her from her driver’s license photo. Another young woman was with her, holding a bouquet of flowers to thank us, which was very thoughtful.

Both of them expressed gratitude for our efforts to track down the 21-year-old and reunite her with her driver’s license in advance of her flight home later that weekend.  (Yes, with REAL ID operational on May 7, you need official ID to get through airport security and board a plane.)  They shared that their parents had warned them that there was a very good chance that the driver’s license was lost forever. Even if someone found it, would they try to help?

From our perspective though, it was worth making the effort.  My husband and I could empathize with a traveler visiting a city and then misplacing, or worse, losing their official ID. How would you overcome the obstacles to fly or drive home?  

Plus, we liked the challenge of the hunt. Considering we live in a high density neighborhood with many students walking to class during the day and the bars and restaurants at night, we figured a specific, succinct action posted on a sign could attract the attention of the owner of the driver’s license. And if the signs were on our street plus the intersecting street near where Marcel and I found the leather case, the owner surely would see the signs when she retraced her steps.

Based on my training with Dr. BJ Fogg, the father of behavior design and Tiny Habits®, and my years of applying his techniques, I created this latest call to action. These practices work especially well:

• Confirm the outcome you want. Our goal was to find the owner of the driver’s license and return it to her.

• Define the crisp, concrete behavior to achieve this outcome. We wanted the individual to come to our house. We figured that once we saw her we’d recognize her from her driver’s license photo.

• Outline the sequence of baby steps (or actions) that someone needs to take. Our house is on a busy street with a well-marked address. We needed the individual to come to our front door.

• Use the individual’s name to grab their attention (or if you’re requesting action from a number of people, use the name of a group that’s meaningful to them.) Also include other identifying information if helpful. Our “hook” was wishing Kathryn from Atlanta “Happy 21st Birthday!” (Her license showed that she was born on May 16.) In this case, providing three identifiers (name, city and birthday) helped immensely because we learned from Kathryn that she goes by “Maggie” instead of her legal first name. (This explained why she didn’t show up in the online searches I did.)

• Try to make the message graphically interesting and easy to see. We added the clip art of the birthday cake to support the birthday greeting. Once we finalized the sign, we made two copies and posted them at eye level, roughly based on her height listed on her license. One sign was on a tree in front of our house; the other was on telephone pole near where we found her leather case.

• Make it as easy as possible to follow your directions. Even when people have the will and skill to act, they may find it too hard to get over the hill — that is, overcome the barriers in their way. For example, the barrier Maggie and her friend encountered was something we didn’t anticipate. They told us they walked by our house on Friday night but it was too dark to see the sign, much less read it. When they went out late Saturday morning, they successfully spotted the sign.

While all of this may sound involved, my husband and I created and produced our call to action, including posting the signs, in less than 30 minutes. (I know because I was racing to meet a colleague for coffee.)

And when we achieved our outcome so that Maggie (Kathryn on her driver’s license) could fly home with ease, I realized we also had met BJ Fogg’s criteria of successful behavior design – the experience was simple, social and fun!