How to build or break a habit May 25, 2006
Seth Godin recently mentioned making and breaking habits. As humans, habits are what keep us alive. Almost every behaviour you do is either a habit, or built on habits. From walking and talking to putting on your socks and combing your hair.
While it is possible to break habits, it’s much easier to just replace them with a new one. Offer a better option, and you get a better result. When you were much younger, you learned and built a crawling habit. After a while you learned the more effective transport habit of walking. Regardless of your age now, you can still go back to your crawling habit. As the old saying goes - it’s just like riding a bike.
Of course, knowing the right stop where to insert the new habit is the challenge. To find it, I usually start with the question - “What is the real or imagined positive value that you get from this habit?”
If you were marketing a new product, and wanting to build a new habit in your customers, that question needs a little modifying. You may want to use the Creating Passionate Users mantra of helping them to “kick ass”.
Technorati Tags: Business, Change, Gladwell, Learning, Persuasion, Psychology
Begin at the end
So there I was, watching someone be taught a new Aikido movement. I have learnt it myself, about 15 times now, so I forget what I learnt before and took careful notice to learn even more. My attention was drawn, not to the movement, but to how the person I was watching learnt it.
All movements can be broken down into component parts. Step 1, step 2, step 3 etc. Depending on how new you are to the skill, the smaller the steps are. The more skill you have, the larger the steps become. So what used to be bending your arm at the elbow, opening hand, pushing hand forward, adjusting distance, closing fingers, opening fingers, dropping hand is now one automatic movement of shaking someone’s hand.
So this fellow was having particular difficulty with the movement. He would perform steps 1 through 5, but get step 2 wrong. He would not notice his mistake until step 5. Repeating the movement, he would then still error on step two, but make changes to step 4 only to be more confused at step 5.
When you want to change the course of a river, you don’t start at the top, you start where it meets the ocean, dig the channel you want, then at the last moment break the old banks and redirect the river. You offer the river an easier path, rather than fighting it as you dig franticly in front of the oncoming wave.
I’ve experienced this many many times; Being confounded by a problem that I myself created by screwing up a step long before. This is one of the reasons I like to learn and teach things backwards. Starting with the end, and working back. So if I am teaching you to count to 10, I teach you 10. Then 9, 10. Then 8, 9, 10. Then 7, 8, 9, 10. Etc. Each time I teach a new topic (number), it flows into what you already know. So the more we learn, the better you get at everything you’ve learned before.
Yeah, it’s a little different than most of us would have been taught. It takes a little more planning and thought. And a fair amount of trust as you know where the end is, but no where to ‘hang’ that knowledge (which is another direct benefit). So if you teach others, offer advice, or just talk about a subject, how would you restructure your behaviour to teach it backwards?
Technorati Tags: Change, Learning, Psychology, Training
First skill of Managing Peter May 17, 2006
I’m working with a client late in the afternoon when I hear a nearby telephone conversation.
“I’m really busy right now. What can I do for you?” The person said, quickly and with a hint of irritation.
After a short pause. “Ok, so why are you calling me with this?” The hint of irritation become a little more than a hint.
Another short pause. “Right. Ah huh. Yep.” All said faster and faster. Then a long sigh, followed by a long pause “I still don’t know how this is my problem.”
I have heard many times, and in fact in my past cultured, this attitude of irritation and indifference. As I’m sure you will know, if you happily do other peoples work, they will keep bringing you work to do. Acting as if you have more important problems to deal with (if it’s true or not) and becoming irritated with questions means you keep away trivial requests. This attitude is readily apparent from your local system administrator, though you can find it almost anywhere.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this behaviour. It gets specific and measurable results. These results may not always be what is really wanted, and sometimes might be detrimental.
After another short pause, his tone and attitude changes dramatically. “Yes. Ok. I’ll find out what needs to be done.” The phone was then hung up and a curse could be heard.
I ask my client what the problem is, and the answer; “He recently became a manager.”
Technorati Tags: Business, CEO, Change, Persuasion, Psychology, Management
The right practice makes perfect. May 14, 2006
SMH has a nice concise description of what to practice makes perfect here.
To paraphrase, it does not matter how long you practice something, only how you practice. This is one of the reasons I find judging how good you are by how long you have been doing it so flawed.
You might have been doing the same job/skill for 25 years. Yet practice only the first year over and over again, never learning anything more. While others match and exceed that 25 years of ’skill’ inside six months.
The length of time you spend on something is your measure of dedication and focus. Rarely is it a measure of skill.
Update: More detail from freakanomics. Here is a link to the book as well.
Technorati Tags: Business, Change, Learning, Psychology, Training
Begin with no Guarantee May 11, 2006
I’m a fan of animae.
One of my all time favourites is Ghost in the Shell.
I was watching an interview with the director Mamouru Oshii talking about his work on Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. He was asked a question along the lines of: What is this movie about?
He answers in a way fitting of the movie. Saying (and I’ll miss quote this till I find a proper transcript) “You don’t know what it’s about when you start. It takes two to three years to produce a movie like this. If you know what it’s about at the start, there is no use in making it.”
This attitude is what I have been attempting to foster whenever I start a new project. Begin with the end in mind, but do not expect a guarantee that you’ll reach that end, let alone you’ll get there the way you plan. Keep the end in mind, and stay fluid in your thinking. Keep the end in mind, and keep learning new ways to get there (or not).
When I give myself a project, or a client a task, or a student some homework, the outcome is usually secondary to the process involved in getting that outcome. I have seen many people refuse to start a project, or perform a task, or ignore the homework all because they don’t know how it’s going to turn out, or they don’t have enough knowledge or confidence to get success. When you start learning something new, success is not the entire reason you start - if you are guaranteed success, would you even bother starting to learn it? You must do the drills to get the skills, even if the drills seem like a waste of time.
Sir Richard Branson is a good model for this. When he started Virgin Records, he had no idea how it would turn out and didn’t have the skills required to pull it off. Then he did the same thing again with Virgin airlines. And again any time he got into a balloon.
Of course, doing this requires a few skills in itself; Suppression of ego (so you can ask the ’stupid’ questions, be wrong and make mistakes) and suspension of prior beliefs (so you can actually learn something new, rather than attempting to fit your prior understanding into the current situation).
So what drills did you do today to improve your skills for tomorrow?
Technorati Tags: anime, Business, Change, Productivity, Psychology
Delegation connection May 7, 2006
I may have been a little obscure in my last post.
Malcom Gladwell in The Tipping Point wrote about a particular type of person (or personality) who he describes as a ‘connector’. These connectors seem to know many people, from many different walks of life. While some people will have a close nit group of friends, these people seem to know, and by known by a much larger group.
So let’s say that you are a plumber, and you need to find a bath made of solid gold. You’ve asked all your usual suppliers and who are unable to help (most likely laughed at you for even asking). Then you think to yourself, who do I know who might know? So you ring Mary, the PA of a friend of yours. She listens carefully to your request, then tells you she will call you back. She does so, thirty minutes later, with a phone number.
Mary is a connector. Mary is the go-to gal when there is a problem. Within every single company I’ve worked in, for or with, there is someone like Mary. The person you go to when the copier is broken. The person you go to when you are not sure of the spelling of someone’s name. The person you go to when you need to find out what would be a good birthday gift…
Now, once you call Mary, you have delegated to her the job of finding a bath supplier. You may continue to search on your own, but will call her back if she doesn’t call you.
Nothing really new there - we all know someone like that. It’s not until Mary calls us back that things begin to get really interesting.
Three months later, you are sleeping in, having taken 2 months off after installing the bath, and get a call from Mary. “I need some help,” she says “I have a friend who is looking for a good plumber on short notice. Are you able to help, or do you know someone who can?”
Chances are your immediate response to that request will be something like; Yes I can do it. You owe her. She is now calling in the favour. Mary, thanks to the reciprocity principle has become the delegator.
Don’t take my word for it, Robert Cialdini in his book Influence has done all the research you’ll ever need on this.
Now everyone is happy. You have repaid your debt to Mary. Mary’s friend has a good plumber. And Mary has strengthened two of her connections - Thanks again to the reciprocity principle, you will be more likely to ask Mary for help, and also accept her calls in the future.
You already know who in your circle of influence is the connector. You may actually know several. The question that sticks in my mind is; “How did you know to go to them in the first place?”
Technorati Tags: Business, Change, Cialdini, Gladwell, Persuasion, Psychology
Do you know who has delegated your business? May 5, 2006
In a marriage, taking the stereotypical view, the husband mows the lawn and the wife does the cooking. While this specific example does not always hold true, I’m confident that those two jobs are tasked to a specific individual most of the time. Both jobs need to be done. Maybe the wife does both jobs, maybe the husband does both, maybe even the wife calls someone every two weeks to get the lawn mowed.
If you are married or in a long term relationship you will know this. If you are living alone, you need to do everything yourself. Once you share with a partner, you automatically begin to split the jobs. You might like to cook, but hate washing up. Maybe, in a few rare cases, you sat down with a pen and paper and actively split these jobs up. Most of the time you just fall into the stereotype.
Most of the time, we don’t really notice (habits are great things). Not until the other party leaves for a while or the relationship breaks up. Suddenly the pile of dirty dishes clogs the sink, clutters the bench, and begins to attract insects. It’s at those times we suddenly have twice the work, and only 1/2 the requisite skill.
What does this have to do with business? Nothing.
It does prime the pump because this behaviour happens in business - and if you think about it is exactly what business does; Delegate jobs.
So the jobs you do during your day - were they chosen for you, by you, or are you just following the stereotype?
Within in each marrige, relationship and business there is usually a hidden delegator. There are times when the delegators in business make themselves known. Here is a hint: When you run into difficulty and don’t know who can help, where do you go for help?
Technorati Tags: Brain, Business, CEO, Psychology