Complete the following questions
Habits in a Hurry: This chapter we are going to briefly introduce the role of habits with respect to planning and goal setting. We will discuss the common weakness of goal setting and where habit and routine fits in. We'll introduce the basics of habit formation, how this will fit into our first project of building a carrier habit. This habit involves contacting a person every day. We will then review on the process through a series of reflective questions. Most people are pretty clear about goal setting and planning. It's an intuitive idea and has proliferated throughout everywhere as the source of success and failure for companies and people. While it's a powerful tool, it has limitations for a lot of situations that we all commonly experience, mainly, uncertainty. In situations where most variables are known goals can be established, calculated and modified to increase performance.
This is particularly effective in situations where previous goals have been set and outcomes have been measured against the expected goals. Repetitive activities are well suited for goals. Even activities that we haven't done before, but have been performed by others in similar situations work for goals. What doesn't work for as well is situations with lots of variables such as starting a business, changing careers, embarking on a new product launch, industry/career change.
The goals become less meaningful. What is more relevant is possessing multiple capabilities that can be called on should the need arise. This is what habits and routines are especially suited for. The idea of habit isn't terribly new. Even Ben Franklin worked under this framework. Current discussions on habits and professional development is called by some people "systems". It's a counter component to the idea of goal setting. When we set goals, we assume we have enough information to confine our activities into one direction for best effect. It's an efficiency perspective and a very powerful tool. It's also a very dominant idea that ignores a common problem faced by people who are facing change; the problem of uncertainty. Uncertainty comes from lack of knowledge, and lack of knowledge is common in innovation, growth, creativity, all sorts of things that are everywhere in the modern world
. These are all situations where lots of value and wealth can be created. So what do we do when faced with uncertainty? We develop capabilities that will come in handy should the need arise. One of the most powerful capabilities of a professional facing future uncertainty is intentional habit formation. Humans really have a limited amount of attention. Most of us are familiar with setting goals, and then failing to meet the goals. Grade point goals, fitness and weight loss goals, income goals are all common themes in goals. This week I stopped by the Jazzercise fitness by Fred Meyer's this a few weeks ago(three weeks before Christmas) to drop off something for my wife, place was empty.
It would be easy to think that the place is going broke, but they are doing fine. Unsurprisingly the biggest revenue month is January. This is common. A goal demands our attention to achieve it. This means every goal we pursue has a cost. The more ambitious the goal, the more attention it requires. Without a doubt, things in our life jump out expectantly and force us to attend to them. Health, relationships, job changes, even opportunities. Once this happens, our goal is compromised and a lot of people, myself as well, beat themselves up over failing another goal. I hear this all the time "just needed more commitment". I know
it's a common remedy to say we just have to try harder, but this is really a set up for failure. Working hard on something and then getting punished at the end has every piece of a behavioral psychologist joke. An all too treacherous cycle of 1) I suck, 2) Set a Goal to Not Suck, 3) Fail 4) I feel guilty, 5) Punish 6) go back to step 1.
There is another way. It works like this. Build habits piece by piece. One of the intentions of this course is to show how to build a habit, and to actually build one to show us how it's done; one that can get us to places that we would really like to go even if we don't know exactly where yet. A habit is a nearly mindless routine that we engage in when the need arises. They demand little attention or will power, which allows us to focus on other things that are going on rather than how are we going to accomplish one specific activity. The habits we should build are ones that we will use that will get us where we need to go over time whether we know the exact destination or not. We know a productive goal would be to read a book a week.
A process habit would be to set aside an hour a day at the same time, in a particular spot to read and only read. From this, we may end up reading a book a week. Maybe more. We might also find days when we sit down, open the book and stare at it for 15 minutes and get up and leave because of something going on taking our focus. We can get up and leave without beating ourselves up for potentially ruining our goals because we know tomorrow we'll get back to it. People use this systems thinking for diet, networking, organizing, writing, learning foreign languages, time organization and other new skills. How to build a habit: This idea of behaviorism is a big part of habit formation. Psychologist call this "chaining". A rat does something a psychologist likes.
They give it a treat, so the rat is more likely to do this again. One trick early behaviorists taught pigeons is to turn around when they were presented a sign that said "turn around". They started by giving the pigeons treats when they turned around, training them to turn. They then present the sign at the same time that the pigeons turned. Eventually only treats were given when the sign was presented and they turned. Eventually just showing the sign became a reward that they could use to encourage other behaviors, even without any treats.
That's what chaining is. The concept is to present a reward at the end of the behavior, rather than a punishment like what a failed goal is. We develop if-then relationships that are automatic rather than intentional. A goal for example, might be to keep the house clean. A habit might be to break down several key behaviors needed to maintain a tidy house and make sure they are accomplished at the end. Maybe every time we get home, we change clothes and clean one room for 30 minutes, after which we treat our self to 20 minutes of catching up with friend online. The important thing is the routine, the reward, and the reduction in "will power" to accomplish it. Punishment does a lot of things, but making good behavior isn't one of them. Our proto habit is to reach out to someone every day. This sounds like a goal, something to put on a check list, but we're going to make it a habit to show the difference. A habit doesn't need a check list. If you are using this book as part of a course of workshop, the person you will reach out to will be your course mentor. If you are doing this on your own, refer to Appendix 1 at the end of this book for mentor
development, and let them know what this step involves. This will involve you contacting them, and they responding. This is a three step process: Trigger Æroutine Æ reinforcement. We use this process to increase the frequency of a particular routine. The original versions of this developed by behaviorists in the last century confined this to “behaviors” instead of routines. The reason is that behaviors typically have a clear beginning and ending, allowing for an association between the trigger and the activity, and the activity and the reinforcement.
Our activity involves contacting someone, which consisting of many behaviors incorporate by thought processes. While seemingly simple behavior, it is a function of complexity that we have reduced to a series of mostly automatic behaviors. More or less, a series of previously learned habits. Trigger: A stimuli that you will use to cue the execution of your routine. This stimuli needs to be external and out of your control. In our case, we don’t want the cue to be words on your to-do list saying “Text your mentor”, which would certainly be a cue. We want to tie this to a daily or situational stimuli so that it arises from an automatic process that happens with regularity. Some have put a sticky note on their cereal box, to initiate the association between cereal box and texting their mentor.
Eventually the sticky note was unnecessary, the cereal box having evolved into the behavioral trigger. For this assignment, triggers must be: x Relatable by time and activity to the routine. x Daily x External to our control ie. No “Every time I think about…” x Occur only when we want or can initiate the routine. i.e. No “Every time I see my phone…” Routine: Routines need to have a clear beginning and ending. In our case, texting/emailing a mentor is a clearly defined increment.
One discrete action or routine built up of many smaller actions. Having a finite ending allows for the association between completion of the action and the reinforcement. Reinforcement: A positively associated phenomena that doesn’t start until the end of the routine. A reinforcement is not the same as a reward. The idea of reward involves a transaction or a gift, which may arrive at a much later time tied to many conditions. Reinforcements are directly tied to an action. Cognitively, the clearest associations are made if the reinforcement can be engaged slightly before the conclusion of the behavior.
If that can’t be done (as it usually can’t), the closer a reinforcement is to the end of the routine the better. In the case of the sticky note on the cereal box, the student filled a bowl full of cereal, texted his mentor, and began eating. Eventually the habit of texting someone “good morning” became automatic before breakfast, a habit which he uses to this day. For this assignment, reinforcement should be:
Consistent: They should happen every time we do the behavior at least in the beginning. x At the conclusion: We should get them only at the end or shortly after. x External: They should consist of something that happens outside ourselves. Food, acknowledgment, rest, a brief splurge on social media, acknowledgement from someone else are fine. Major reinforcements aren’t necessary.
1. Explain the “Trigger” you are going to use to engage your daily contacting habit and another trigger you could use. Explain why the one you chose will work better.
2. Explain the “Reinforcement” you are going to use. What is another – how might this have changed the Trigger Æ Routine Æ Reinforcement loop of your habit?
3. Using the “Trigger Æ Routine Æ Reinforcement” as a template to describe it, what is a habit loop you already engage in every day?
4. Using the same template, what is a useful habit that you see another person engage in every day?