Dr. Jon Finn is the Author of “The Habit Mechanic” and Founder of the award-winning Tougher Minds consultancy.
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As an entrepreneur or business leader, you face a host of challenges: the volatility of the economy, new workplace models, the “quiet quitting” movement and more. Overcoming these obstacles can seem daunting—as soon as you address one, another problem crops up.
But what if I told you that you don’t have to solve all of these problems in order to find success? As surprising as that sounds, it’s true: New science-based insights have shown that, when you focus your attention on just one thing, you can achieve the goals and outcomes you desire.
What is that one thing? Habits.
It’s true. When you can create and maintain the right habits—in yourself and your people—you can solve any problem that arises. Think you have a manager problem? An employee engagement problem? A strategy problem? You don’t. All you have is a habit problem, and when you fix that, you can fix everything.
We’re driven by habits.
To understand why this is, let’s consider how our brain actually works. Try reading these words out loud: To make sense of these wrods, it deosn’t mttaer in what order the ltteers in a word are, the only ipmortnt thing is taht the frist and lsat letters are in the right pclae.
Could you do it? Right. The reason you were able to read these words so easily is that most of what we’re thinking and doing most of the time (98% to 100% of the time, in fact) is mindless, subconscious, unconscious behavior. In other words, we’re being driven by habits—some of which help us be at our best, and some of which get in the way of that.
Consider this, too: Your belief systems and biases are also driven by habits. For example, our experience of the world comes down to what we are in the habit of thinking about. If, for example, you are in the habit of telling yourself that you are useless and that you’ll never be a great leader, that will be your experience of the world. If you’re in the habit of telling yourself that you’re fantastic, however, then that will be your experience.
So, what does all of this mean for you? When we accept how crucial habits are to everything we do and think—and accept that they’re the driving force behind our teams, too—we can start helping ourselves, our people and our organizations make the positive changes that lead to success.
1. Implement a habit-based strategy.
The first step to making positive changes is to move from a knowledge-based strategy to a habit-based strategy. Remember, we run on habits, not knowledge, so this is crucial.
Forget about trying to verbally persuade your people to act or think differently. Let go of the idea that more knowledge will lead to different outcomes.
If all it took was knowledge, all of us would be walking 10,000 steps and eating five servings of fruits and vegetables daily! And yet, that’s not happening. Why? Because knowledge-based strategies don’t work.
A habit-based strategy tool, at its heart, focuses on people’s habits. Recognizing the importance of adopting this type of strategy (rather than a knowledge-based one) is the first, most foundational step to achieving organizational and leadership success.
2. Unblock the blockers.
Next, you need to work out what’s blocking your behavior (and/or your people’s behavior) at the habit level. To do that, you can use a tool I developed called the “Nine Action Factors Analysis Tool.” This tool is key to building new habits that last.
Here are some questions to get you thinking about the Nine Action Factors:
• Does your culture engender trust?
• Do your people understand that most of what they think and do is automatic?
• Do they know how to build new habits and how to help each other build new habits?
• Do their personal goals align with the business’s goals?
• Do the reward and penalty systems (intrinsic, extrinsic and social) support the behaviors you want to see in the business?
• Do the daily triggers people are exposed to support the behaviors you want to see in the business?
• Do titled leaders model the behaviors you want to see in the business?
Asking yourself questions like these can help you determine what habits are blocking the behaviors you want to see.
3. Unleash the potential.
Once you and your people have worked through the nine factors, you’re ready for the final step: the “Building Habit Power” planning process.
To do this, you’ll need to do some reflection. For example, when it comes to making changes, do you—and your people—really understand that, while we can make changes to behavior, we can only make one tiny change at a time?
Or, when it comes to personal motivation for building a new habit, have you connected that to a bigger, more meaningful goal in your life? What about your people? Are their goals connected to their team’s goals and the organization’s goals? Do they understand and believe in the broader goals of the team and organization?
Asking yourself questions like these can help you consider how effectively you’re “unblocking the blockers.” If your answers reveal that what you are doing isn’t working, you can quickly and effectively adapt your tactics to create more successful habits in yourself and your people.
It’s a habit problem.
Once you realize how foundational they are to everything we think and do, it’s easy to understand why organizational and leadership success comes down to habits. It also makes it simple (maybe not easy, but simple) to solve any issue that crops up.
By following the three-step blueprint for organizational and leadership success, you can overcome employee engagement issues, management woes or problems with innovation and creativity. Indeed, you can overcome any problem facing your organization—because at the end of the day, the problems you face always come back to the same thing: habits.
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