The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do Book by Charles Duhigg

Presented by Tomas “KLepo” Klesken at LIC BB 2013

“All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.”

William James, 1892

“More than 40 percent of the actions people performed each day weren’t actual decisions, but

habits.”

Duke University research, 2006

Creation of the habit loop

Creation of the habit loop

1. At first, brain is working nonstop.

2. After some repeating the mental activity decreases. Brain starts thinking less and less, it knows what it does.

3. After a week – not even “memory” part of brain is working. Brain learned the task so well that it nearly does not think at all.

What is the doing?

“Chunking” - zhlukovanie

Creation of the habit loop

Remember Pavlov dogs? :)

Creation of the habit loop

The habit loop

So what do we know?a) Brain is lazy :Db) Is it repeated? = routine -> make it a habit

(so brain can focus on other things)

Creation of the HABIT LOOP

(btw: Don't repeat what you don’t want to do forever.)starts or endsSo why doesn’t it kills us?

Because behavior chunk

“Chunking” - zhlukovanie

Creation of the habit loop

Habit => brain stops decision making and thinks about other things.

If you don’t stop them in doing so, patterns will form automatically.

Fearing the habit loop

Breaking the habit loop1. You can change its parts (cue, routine, reward).

2. Habits never really disappear (they just sleep).

3. Brain can’t tell the difference between bad and good habits.

4. Your bad habits are always hiding there, waiting for the right cues and rewards.

As the habit becomes stronger and stronger brain begins anticipating reward and is “happy” before it comes –> when the trigger comes.

If strong, the happiness will come even if the reward doesn’t come.

And if it is strong enough, no distractions or other rewards, will work.

Habit loop: Addiction

Habit loop: Addiction

Want to change a habit? You can change its parts (cue, routine, reward).

Find a simple obvious cue and clearly define the reward.

Often its not about thinking about how to get rid of a bad habit, because we are used to it and its part of our daily reality and subconsciousness (what we do without thinking).

What we need is a strong reward we will crave for at the end.

Habit loop: Changing habits

Golden rule of habit change:“Keep the Cue and Reward, replace the Routine.”

Habit loop: Changing habits

Habit loop: Changing habitsWhy do we fail?1. Stress (under stress we think and selfcontrol less)2. The original Cue returns and the Routine is back

Supporting the chances of success:3. Identify the loop4. Do a first step immediately upon deciding5. Belief (that change is possible) makes a difference 6. Group/Team creates belief

(seeing the good examples & peer pressure & .their trust/support in you)7. Acting becomes reality (because the group believes in it)8. Do something for someone else (don’t be self centered)9. One good change will bring a general change – it makes you a

better . . .person by making it easier to adopt other good habits10. Adopt small habits (small wins), that will build the big goal11. You can not 100% plan the steps, you find them on the way12. Radical changes are hard to keep, it needs to be long-term

“Highly self-disciplined adolescents outperformed their more impulsive peers on every academic-performance measure.”

“Students who exerted high levels of willpower were more likely to earn higher grades. They had fewer absences and spent less time browsing internet and more hours on studying.”

“Self-discipline has a bigger effect on academic performance than does intellectual talent.”

“The best way to strengthen willpower and give people an advantage is to make it into a habit.”

“Sometimes it looks like people with great self-control aren’t working hard—but that’s because they’ve made it automatic.”

Research of University of Pennsylvania, 2005

IQ vs. self discipline

Only 30 % are strong enough :P

If you knew how to avoid the temptation of a marshmallow as a preschooler, it seemed, you also knew how to get yourself to class on time and finish your homework once you

got older, as well as how to make friends and resist peer pressure.

IQ vs. self discipline

The story of

Coooooooooookieees

Onion

Unsolvable puzzle

…and willpower

Self discipline has its limits

Willpower is a muscle

Willpower is a:1) Skill (you can learn it)2) Muscle (it gets tired and can be trained).

Can I increase it? Yes! Good habits “spill over”, remember? Just like belief and willpower:

If you make yourself stick to one good thing, other good habits will come.

Why? You’re changing how you think:1. You get better at regulating your impulses (ignore cues). 2. You learn how to distract yourself from temptations. 3. And once your brain has exercised the willpower training,

it is also practiced at helping you focus on a goal.

Creating habits of an organisationPlan the problematic points:- Create routines that will help people deal with the situations and- so help them by training to deal with situations where their willpower will be used,- or they need to do something difficult.

Problem? Habit is a solution :)

Does it always work? Not if you are an asshole to your people!

(Soldiers are people with broken autonomy, their willpower comes from outside.)

You have less willpower and it lasts longer if:

You have less energy and your willpower muscles get tired much faster if:

you feel good you feel badit’s your choice you don’t want to do it

it’s something you enjoy you are following ordersit helps someone else you have no autonomy

“People want to be in control of their lives.”

Organisational habits1. Organisational decisions = employees’ independent decisions

2. Organisational behavior = mostly unofficial rules

3. You can not change an organisation by inventing new values, competences, rules or motto. Its people “know what the should be doing” in good and bad.

4. Changing an organisation = changing individual habits of people.

5. Often a hard crisis/shock or generation change is needed.

6. Organisations with less written rules tend to be more productive.

7. “If you don’t give your employees freedom, they create their own.”

An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, 1982, Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter, Yale

Organisational habits

Making a big changeWe want to get what we know, what we are familiar with

(we in fact really like songs that we know, not the ones that are actually really good).

Peer pressure – when we follow the lead of others. That’s why it is important what the role models do, but also any of us can become

the person who will be followed, because we did act in a way. (Social) acceptance of a behavior takes only 3 people we see do it.

Kill the “I almost made it” feeling, it just stops you from changing. Change it from “I nearly won” to “I nearly lost” (or other way

around, depends what are you changing.

Making a big changeIf you believe you can change

(if you make it a habit) the change becomes real.

This is the real power of habit: the insight that your habits are what you choose them to be.

Once that choice occurs—and becomes automatic—the change not only becomes real, it starts to seem certain that it will happen.

Just like in “Secret”…oooooh :)

So to sum it up, how to change a habit:

• Identify the routine• Experiment with rewards• Isolate the cue• Have a plan

Making a change