This article was adapted from Charles Duhigg’s New York Times bestseller, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Random House, 2012).
Sometimes not only do people need to changes their habits, but companies do too.
The real obstacle to change for most people, for the executives leading a company, is not a lack of determination — it’s a lack of understanding how habit works. Changing habits is not just a matter of willpower. When an individual successfully quits smoking or an organization changes collective behavior to improve its safety standards, there are certain universal patterns at work.
At MIT in the 90’s, researchers studied the underpinnings of habit and discovered a simple, three part neurological loop at the core of every habit that they dubbed, the “habit loop”: routine, reward, cue.
As they studied people and organizations that had changed behaviors, they learned that the loop was put into play by the successful. Habit breakers were able to ID the routine around the habit, experiment with different rewards to satisfy the craving for the behavior, and then isolated the cue that triggered the behavior in the first place. Then, and what I believe is the most important ingredient here, those who most successfully executed the habit change put a plan in place to help them respond differently to the cue.
Embrace change with a strategic plan and consider the following steps.
Step One: Identify the Routine
With most habits, the routine is the most obvious aspect: It’s the behavior you want to change. Let’s say your routine, like mine, is that you get up from your desk in the afternoon, walk to the office fridge, open the freezer and grab from the pile of frozen dark chocolate bars. It’s been gnawing at me, this habit of mine, because the chocolate, while needed during a 4pm low that comes about an hour before I need to transition to my work as a mother, actually affects my sleep.
What’s the cue for my routine? Is it hunger? Boredom? Low blood sugar? Anxiety that I am not going to be able to finish my work before I need to take on mother-work? The fact that it’s too early to have a sip of wine?! Perhaps it’s just need a break before plunging into another task.
And what’s the reward? The chocolate? The change of scenery? The temporary distraction? Socializing with colleagues who are in the kitchen taking their own break? Or the burst of energy that comes with that blast of chocolate and sugar?
To figure this out, I need to do a little experimentation.
Step Two: Experiment With Rewards
Rewards are powerful because they satisfy cravings. We’re often not conscious of the cravings that actually drive our behaviors, though. We might think we’re craving a little online shopping, but it’s really something else we’re after — distraction from an odious task, or the chance to daydream a little. Be a scientist, collect some data so you can figure out what cravings are driving your particular habits. And experiment with some different rewards. Give yourself a few days for this. This is how it played out for me:
On the first day of the experiment, when I felt the urge to submit to my chocolate eating habit I made the decision to adjust my routine and deliver myself a different reward. I still got up from my desk, but instead of walking to the kitchen, I went outside and walked around the block. Then (and when I first devised this plan, I thought it would just about kill me!), I went back to my desk without eating anything.
The next day, I went to the kitchen and got something other than the chocolate bar, but still something not necessarily without caffeine. I ate it at my desk, instead of in the kitchen. On the third day I went to the kitchen and ate an apple and called my business partner on the phone. Day four, I grabbed a power bar from my bag (no caffeine) and walked around the block while making some phone calls that had been screaming at me from my to-do list. What happened? I discovered it wasn’t the dark chocolate candy bar that was important. I tested different hypotheses to see which craving was driving my routine. It not only helped with my productivity during the work day, it helped with my productivity the following day because I got a better night’s sleep.
By experimenting with different rewards, you can isolate what you are actually craving, which is essential in redesigning the habit.
Once you’ve figured out the routine and the reward, the next step involves identifying the cue — which is the last component of the habit loop. After that, you’ll be ready to make a plan.
Step Three: Isolate the Cue
Cues are the triggers for our habitual behaviors. They are often the most difficult part of habits to identify, because there is so much information bombarding us as our behaviors unfold. Do you eat at a certain time of day because you are hungry? Or because the clock says Noon? Or because that’s when everyone in the office is going out for lunch?
To identify a cue, we can use the same system as researchers in the field: Identify categories of behavior ahead of time to scrutinize them for patterns. Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fall into one of five categories: location, time, emotional state, other people, immediately preceding action.
Write down the information for these five things the moment an urge hits.
- Where are you?
- What time is it?
- What’s your emotional state?
- Who else is around?
- What action preceded the urge?
Do this for three days. I tried this and discovered that my chocolate habit at 4pm was triggered by time. I was looking at the end of the workday looming and realizing that my job as a mother was going to kick in soon and I needed something to help me with that transition. As felt an urge to pump myself up at 4pm each day. I figured out, in step two, that it wasn’t that hunger driving my behavior. The reward I was seeking was temporary distraction so I could unwind a little from my workday.
My habit loop was completed.
Once you’ve identified your own habit loop, you can begin to shift the behavior. You can develop a better routine by planning for the cue and choosing a behavior that more constructively delivers the real rewards you are craving.
Step Four: Have a Plan
No matter what you do in life, a plan is key. It cuts down on chaos. A habit, however, isn’t always a good part of a plan. It’s a choice we make, then stop thinking about, but continue doing. Often we do it every day.
To reengineer that formula, we need to begin making conscious choices again. And the easiest way to do this, according to study after study, is to strategize a plan to make a habit a conscious thought. It’s called an “implementation intention.”
So write a plan.
You’ll see it won’t be easy. Some days you won’t stick to the plan, but fall back into the habit. But there is reward in a plan. You finish the workday feeling better for the implementation
Create a new habit in your office and watch productivity take off.
