Moving Beyond the Behavior Change Trap with Rosie Ward, PhD.
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Moving Beyond the Behavior Change Trap with Rosie Ward, PhD.
- 1. MOVING BEYOND THE BEHAVIOR-CHANGE TRAP HP Live April 12, 2013 Rosie Ward, Ph.D., MPH, MCHES, BCC, Certified Intrinsic Coach® Health Management Services Manager RJF, a Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC company Minneapolis, MN
- 2. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 3. THE CRISIS OF CAPACITY • Humans are NOT Computers! – Continuously, at high speeds, for long periods of time, running multiple programs at the same time. Source: Tony Schwartz (The Energy Project, www.theenergyproject.com) MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 4. A CULTURE OF BELIEF: Exponential Engagement Attachment to Engaged the company & willingness to give extra effort A work Enabled environment that supports productivity & performance Individual Energized physical, social & emotional well-being at work MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton, All In: How the Best 3 Managers Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results (2012)
- 5. THE IMPORTANCE OF ENERGY The New Values Exchange Values How to Renew Each Value: • Physical: Quantity of energy; • Physical: food, exercise, renewal for sustainability sleep, rest • Emotional: Quality of energy; • Emotional: managing triggers, how you feel influences how you cultivating positive emotions perform • Mental: Flexible focus, quieting – Core emotional need = to feel the mind valued • Spiritual: connecting to a • Mental: Capacity for focus purpose (leaders inspiring (myth of multi-tasking) others) • Spiritual: Serving a mission/purpose bigger than yourself Source: Tony Schwartz (The Energy Project, www.theenergyproject.com) MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 6. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF E + E + E 27.4% 3x Higher Operating Margin 14.3% 9.9% Companies Companies Companies with Low with High with High Engagement Engagement Levels of E+E+E MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton, All In: How the Best 5 Managers Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results (2012)
- 7. SHIFTING FROM BEHAVIOR CHANGE TO CULTURE “Behavior change is really the mantra of wellness, but if a person achieves a lifestyle behavior change, only to return to the same unhealthy environment, what can we expect will happen? We set up wellness for failure if we don’t work on improving the environment and culture before we work on individual behavior change.” (Dee Edington, Ph.D., The Art of Health Promotion, Sept./Oct. 2012) MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 6
- 8. Section 1 THE REALITIES OF MOTIVATION The Limitations of “Behavior Modification”
- 9. TRAITS OF HUMAN NATURE • To be curious • To be active • To initiate thought and behavior • To make meaning from experience • To be effective at what we value Sources: Brandt (1999) & Chance (1992) MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 10. WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO Autonomy & Control & Alienation: Authenticity: • Actions come from being pressured • Actions come from true • Acting without sense of sense of self personal endorsement • Behavior isn’t expression of self MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Deci, E. (1995). Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation
- 11. INCREASING COST OF INCENTIVES • 73% of companies used incentives in 2011 in health-improvement programs • Average Incentive Values Increasing: - 2011: $460 - 2010: $430 - 2009: $260 Heavy Use of Extrinsic Incentives → It costs more over time to get the same result. MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: National Business Group on Health (2012)
- 12. MOTIVATION IS NOT ENOUGH! Behaviors that change quickly also change back quickly! Source: Paul Marciano, Ph.D., Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work, (2010) MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 11
- 13. INCENTIVES & RISK REDUCTION • Higher behavior change program completion rates – No changes in risk – No increases in health improvement • Progress-based incentives??? Source: Gingerich, Anderson & Koland (2012); American Journal of Health Promotion MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 12
- 14. THE FLAWED PATH TOWARDS OUTCOMES-BASED INCENTIVES MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 13
- 15. WORDS OF WISDOM… “After 35 years studying wellness as an economic strategy, I …challenge and engage organizations and populations to move wellness to a more mature field and to a higher level of purpose, values, mission and vision. Wellness is too important for all populations to reside at the level of economic gain and the use of incentives, which are built on the belief that "health can be bought." ~Dee Edington, Ph.D. (Jan. 24, 2013) MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 14
- 16. CHANGING THE QUESTION… How can we motivate others to…? How can we create • Take their medications CONDITIONS within which • Exercise • Do their chores/homework others will motivate • Eat healthy • Etc. themselves? MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Deci, E. (1995). Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation
- 17. FOSTERING INTRINSIC MOTIVATION FOSTERING INTRINSIC MOTIVATION • Occurs when learning activity & learning environment elicit motivation in a person. • Key to organizational effectiveness = empowered & intrinsically motivated employees. • Individual thoughts central to intrinsic motivation & self- leadership – Organizations need to create an environment that fosters developing and maintaining constructive thinking. MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Sources: Brandt (1999); Chance (1992); Lahiry (1994); Neck & Manz (1992)
- 18. Section 2 MOVING BEYOND BEHAVIORS The Critical Role of THINKING MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 19. REALITY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Why Behavior Modification Isn’t Sustainable MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 20. THE ROLE OF THE BRAIN IN CHANGE BRAIN: FRIEND OR FOE? Prefrontal Cortex Basal Ganglia MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 21. BRAINS ARE LIKE RW CDS “Scientists estimate that the average person has 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts a day. 90% of those are repetitive. 85% of the repetitive thoughts are negative. If leaders have approximately 45,900 negative thoughts a day, and, their followers are doing the same, the most important skill that leaders can develop is training the mind to lead.” –~Suzanne Kryder, Ph.D. (www.themindtolead.com) MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 22. WHY DON’T WE ACT IN OUR OWN BEST INTEREST? “Leaders don’t have time for the future because they’re too busy with the present.” ~ Muhammad Yunus “To transform the world, we must first transform ourselves.” Source: Tony Schwartz, “Why Don’t We Act in Our Own Best Interest?”, Harvard Business MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Review (Jan. 2012)
- 23. CHANGING WHEN CHANGE IS HARD CHANGING WHEN CHANGE IS HARD… MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard
- 24. THE HABIT LOOP MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 23 Source: Charles Duhigg (2012), The Power of Habit
- 25. LESSONS FROM CLAUDE C. HOPKINS MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 24 Source: Charles Duhigg (2012), The Power of Habit
- 26. MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 25
- 27. REPLACING HABITS MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 26 Source: Charles Duhigg (2012), The Power of Habit
- 28. IT ALL COMES DOWN TO LEADERSHIP… Organizational Effectiveness & Health Determined by: • Who leaders are BEING, not what they’re doing. • Cohesive leadership teams • Leaders recognizing when their thinking isn’t serving them • Leaders being intentional vs. habitual in their thinking and actions • Leaders recognizing the importance for their ongoing development. MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 27 Sources: The Arbinger Institute, Leadership and Self Deception (2010); Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage (2012
- 29. Section 3 THE ROLE OF INTRINSIC THINKING A Road Map for Sustainability MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 30. DEFINING & ASSESSING EFFECTIVE THINKING PATTERNS ROBERT S. HARTMAN, PH.D. Life Purpose: Life Question: “I dedicate “Why is evil so myself to finding easy to out how to organize, while organize good.” good is not?” Good Defined: A thing is good when it has all its properties MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 31. VALUES THINKING / VALUING Hartman’s Hierarchy of Values: • Intrinsic (I) – valuing individual uniqueness • Extrinsic (E) – valuing function • Systemic (S) – valuing concepts/ideas; ought/should • I > E > S – people are more valued than things; things are more valued than mere ideas of things or people. Sources: Hartman (1967) & Pomeroy (2005) MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 32. I, E & S IN ORGANIZATIONS Intrinsic Extrinsic Systemic Roles/Job Functions I Want to be Policies & fully alive at Procedures Operational work Tasks I have unique Mission, Vision, gifts & talents Values MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 33. SYSTEMIC (S) vs. INTRINSIC (I) THINKING / VALUING •S > E > I: •I > E > S: • Values OUR thinking • Values OTHER person’s thinking • Conclusive / Evaluative • Expansive, NEW thinking • Only sees content • Takes a little longer • Habitual (i.e., basal ganglia) • Recognizes there’s more than what’s merely apparent to us. • Narrowing, analyzing • Quick, no pause, no new thinking MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: WELCOA, “Changing the Game of Health Coaching” (2010)
- 34. APPEARANCE OF VALUE Why so much of the good we want to do doesn’t happen: • Intrinsic Valuing of People • Extrinsic Valuing of People - People as Things (predictable, replicable, and comparable – Why can’t you be like your cousin?) • Systemic Valuing of People - People as Ideas (Imagined – You should sit and be quiet, do what I think, etc.) Source: Christina Marshall, Marshall-Hartman Synthesis (Intrinsic Solutions Group MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 33 International, 2012)
- 35. PROGRAMS FAIL BECAUSE THEY ARE PROGRAMS • Programs are nearly always designed to accomplish a specific goal in a relatively short time period. • Programs fail because people view them as something to be done for a period of time and not as something that needs to be incorporated into their lifestyle. • What organizations want are employees who work hard all the time and not just when they are chasing carrots. • “Programs don’t fundamentally change employees’ beliefs or commitment to their job; they just change their behavior during the course of the program.” MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 34 Source: Paul Marciano, Ph.D., Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work, (2010)
- 36. PROGRAMS ARE TOO NARROWLY FOCUSED Avoiding the Reductionist Trap… MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Christina35 Marshall, Marshall-Hartman Synthesis (Intrinsic Solutions Group International, 2012)
- 37. WHEN WE ONLY WORK WITH WHAT IS APPARENT TO US… •Jumping to conclusions •Judgment •Impatience •Frustration Without the Capacity and Ability to work with more than what is merely apparent, you can never be anything other than my ideas about you… MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 38. MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 39. “I wish my parents would see me for all that I AM instead of all the things that I haven’t become!” MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 40. “We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” ~Albert Einstein MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 41. SHIFTING THINKING PATTERNS “Cracking Open the Intrinsic” CHRISTINA MARSHALL MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 42. INTRINSIC COACHING® Strengthening Intrinsic& Overall Thinking “A paradigm changing approach to better results for, with, and through people” by “increasing people’s capacity to think better about choices, especially by increasing intrinsic thinking” (Intrinsic Solutions International) • Shifts thinking to I>E>S: – Improves Resiliency and Work/Self Balance – Improves Communication – Improves Relationships – Teams: Get more done in less time MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 43. IC® = IMPROVED COMMUNICATION SKILLS THOUGHT FROM… TO… PATTERN / BEHAVIOR Listening • Talk more than • Listen more than listen. talk. • Interrupt people to • Let people finish provide own their thoughts. thoughts & ideas. Engaging Others • Give advice/tell • Ask questions to in Conversation people what I think elicit their best they should do. thinking so they can decide for themselves what they want to do. MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Rosalind Ward, Ph.D. (2008)
- 44. IC® = IMPROVED WORK RELATIONSHIPS THOUGHT FROM… TO… PATTERN / BEHAVIOR • Get employees to • Allow employees to Colleagues / do their jobs and create own way of Employees tell them what to being effective in do. their roles. • Impatient; jump in • More patient; allow to fix problems for people to figure others. things out for themselves. Customers • Lecture clients/ • Let them talk; ask customers on what ?s about what they they should do want and what is based on my important and thinking about their providing guidance situation. from there. MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Rosalind Ward, Ph.D. (2008)
- 45. IC® = IMPROVED RESILIENCY / COPING WITH STRESS THOUGHT FROM… TO… PATTERN / BEHAVIOR Perception of • Overwhelmed by • Focus on what is stressful situations most important; Stress & trying to figure gain clarity about out what to do. situations before moving into action steps, resulting in less stress and not feeling overwhelmed. Handling Personal • Acting based on • Act based on what habits. is most important. Challenges • Recognizing I can • Feeling like a victim make a difference of circumstances. in my life. MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Rosalind Ward, Ph.D. (2008)
- 46. Section 4 LEADERS’ ROLE IN ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 47. LEADERS’ ROLE IN WELL-BEING • Leaders shouldn’t ignore well-being as if it’s beyond the scope of their jobs. • People who agree their manager cares about them as a person: – Are more likely to be top performers – Produce higher quality work – Are less likely to be sick – Are less likely to change jobs – Are less likely to get injured on the job MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Source: Rath & Harter (2010), Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements
- 48. A “REBIRTH OF PERCEPTION” MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 49. SEEING MORE THAN OUR IDEAS ABOUT PEOPLE MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 50. Section 5 PUTTING CONCEPTS INTO ACTION The Journey Towards Sustainable Well-Being MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 51. SHIFTING OUR APPROACH Yesterday’s Today: Organizational Well-Being Approach Work HA Environment Cognitive Total Well- Stimulation Being Ind. & Org. Biometric Screenings Assessment Strengthen Increase Incent Leaders I>E>S Behaviors Biometrics Optional Limited in scope; lacking in sustainability Engagement & MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC Sustainability
- 52. CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL HABITS PAUL O’NEILL MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC 51 Source: Charles Duhigg (2012), The Power of Habit
- 53. I>E>S IN ACTION “Correcting” for Incentives • “Now That” vs. “If/Then” MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 54. I>E>S CASE STUDY City of Ames, IA • Profile: – 560 employees, 1350 total insured members – 75% M: 25% F – Avg. age = 44 – 5 unions environment • Highlights: – 95% Retention Rate over 7 years – Started w/ 60% low risk, now 80% (maintained for 5 years) – Required IC® sessions – It’s about the message & approach, not the money! MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 55. I>E>S CASE STUDY From the Mouths of Employees… • “The program is fabulous…the coaching is EVERYTHING!” • “I’m continuing to learn more about myself…it’s not just about weight loss and exercise.” • “Glad the City has this…it shows they care about me as a person and just as an employee.” • “This creates such a great environment…I have pride in the organization.” • “This would be one of the hardest things to let go of if I were ever to leave the City. It is a huge benefit that we have! My doctor finds that this is amazing that we have this!” MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 56. CONTACT INFORMATION Rosie Ward, Ph.D., MPH, MCHES, BCC Certified Intrinsic Coach®, Certified Valuations Specialist Health Management Services Manager RJF, a Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC company wardr@rjfagencies.com, (763) 548-8861 www.rjfagencies.com www.DrRosieWard.com MARSH & McLENNAN AGENCY LLC
- 57. © Copyright 2013. RJF, a Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC company. All Rights Reserved. The content provided in this presentation is proprietary and confidential and not for distribution without written consent from MMA.
Notes de l'éditeur
- Tony Schwartz is well-known in the business community, has written books with Donald Trump, and works with many high-power leaders of fortune 100 & 500 companies. 10 years ago he founded The Energy Projectwhich helps companies move from how to get more out of employees to how do we invest in them and take care of them.Tony puts it well when he says that we are at a tipping point in this country and have a capacity crisis…and take capacity for granted. People can’t simply take on one more thing. With that, what I invite you to consider is that how we typically go about and position wellness programs is doing just that – asking people to take on one more thing and jump through hoops.
- Towers Watson Global Workforce study (2012)Employee engagement is no longer sufficient to drive the highest levels of performance; willingness to invest discretionary effort (i.e., engagement) doesn’t mean they are ABLE.In high-performing cultures, leaders not only create high levels of engagement but they also create environments that support productivity and performance, in which employees feel enabled. AND they help employees feel a greater sense of well-being and drive at work – people feel ENERGIZED. Energy is a key requirement…more energy = more capacity…It requires a PROFOUND paradigm shift!ENABLED: SUPPORT, not “empowered”Organization provides right tools & equipmentClear daily direction from leadershipFlexibility in how job gets doneHelp meeting work obstacles & challenges
- Physical energy is really where wellness traditionally lies; and we know from the well-being research, it’s an important component – but only one small part.Emotional Energy at the heart of it is how you feel. And our core need as humans and employees is to feel valued.
- We’ve been trying for years to compensate for poor culture and climate with behavior change programs…IT DOESN’T WORK!!!*Important to realize that creating change inside of organizations is not a process or event (or program, for that matter). It’s an ongoing journey – a long-term shift in the way the company and people within it work and think. Jim Hart (CEO of Senn Delany – known for work in culture change) has said that outside-in approaches to culture change doesn’t work to shift the needle because it’s not getting at the underlying THINKING and habits that drive behavior; the minute you remove the communication or program, behavior snaps right back to where it was before because nothing has changed in their THINKING. People learn inside-out – a light bulb went off because something has changed in the way they see things and think. THIS is what we have to foster to have sustainable culture change and sustainable individual and organizational well-being – a shift in THINKING!
- I’d like to take our first poll to get a sense of what you’re currently doing with regards to motivation and behavior change.POLL #1What approach does your organization typically take to elicit the desired results and outcomes from employees?We use incentives to encourage desired behaviors (carrots)We use penalties for not meeting desired outcomes (stick)We focus on workplace environment instead of incentivesA combination of carrots/stick and environmental supportWe currently don’t do anything
- It’s important to start this part of the discussion today with looking at the innate traits of being human…It’s like people being surprised when the tiger attacked Roy of Siegfried and Roy…it’s innate qualities are a wild animal that will come out eventually. So we need to be mindful of hard-wired traits of being human…which starts to shed some light on why our traditional approaches to change don’t work – we are fighting physiology.With that, I’d like to take another short poll just to see if what these researchers have found resonates with this audience:POLL #2: Which of the following best describes how you react when someone tells you what to do?I LOVE it; I hate thinking for myself!I don’t like it but will comply with their directionI HATE it and am likely to rebel
- When people say money motivates, that they really mean is money controls; people become alienated and give up some of their authenticity and push themselves to do what they must do.
- Good to Great analogy regarding participation versus engagement.Tell stories of people upset about “jumping through hoops” and Dave’s story at UHC about being a new employee, lot on plate, etc. and having to jump through hoops…UNINTENDEDCONSEQUENCES!*Once people are oriented towards rewards (essentially feeling controlled by the incentive), they will take the shortest or quickest path to get them – to check it off their list and move on with their lives. I would argue we are spending a lot of time and money on compliance but that it isn’t leading to fundamental change or creating a framework for people to move into autonomy & authenticity and actually care about their well-being.There was actually a news story in late Dec. 2012 about a group of employees in Kansas City, Missouri who were indicted for defrauding their employer-sponsored wellness program; they falsely reported participating in activities in order to earn the reward included in their insurance plan.
- Many programs that try to motivate employees begin with a bang and then fizzle out quickly; “behaviors that change quickly also change back quickly.” (p. 11) Usually it takes something big in our lives to get us motivated to change our behavior and then requires making a conscious choice to change our behavior and the habits that run our lives; even so, powerful events and conscious choices rarely lead to sustained changes in behavior. Almost no source of motivation will provide enough incentive to keep you motivated for more than a few weeks. Motivation may get you started down a path, but carrots alone are insufficient to develop sustainable changes in behavior.
- Think about it, when was the last time you changed a behavior because you were over-nagged about it?In 2012, Staywell published research in the American Journal of Health Promotion looking at the impact of financial incentives on behavior change program participation and risk reduction. What they found is that offering financial incentives for completing a program was associated with higher program completion rates but not with changes in risk or improved health.I’ve been hearing lots of discussion amongst leaders and researchers in our field now shifting the argument that initial compliance may lead to intrinsic motivation over time; examples are given for compliance with policies like seatbelts and tobacco. However, those are really more cultural and societal norms and are not the same. I’ll talk more about that in a little bit.
- The dangerous path we are on with the provisions in the Affordable Care Act (and some would argue to remedy people “cheating” on programs) is to clamp down and require certain health outcomes. However, in part 1 of this webinar series, I talked about one of the flaws with our focus on behavior change; we have been focusing on the same risk factors for the past 60 years – which are CV risk factors for white males. And we know that many of the drivers of healthcare utilization also include workplace stress, workplace culture, and emotional and mental well-being. So reducing people down to narrow risk factors and trying to clamp down with a stick isn’t what will ultimately get results.DeeEdington stated in the Sept/Oct. issue of AJHP ““I’m not very enthralled with incentives that are based on the achievement of individual health outcomes…I favor an approach in which you treat people well and help them to make the right decisions. Paying them to be healthy is the wrong avenue for companies, because there simply will never be enough money to continue to pay people to sustain health improvements.” (TAHP, p. 3)During a session at the Art & Science of Health Promotion Conference in April 2012, Dr. James Prochaska (creator of the Transtheoretical Model and Stages of Change) noted, “even the military is fit 2 months out of the year”, implying that when people know they have a physical assessment forthcoming, they can buckle down for a short time period (or even result to unhealthy measures - think of the darker side of sports such as wrestling, boxing, gymnastics and others needing to “make weight”). but they haven’t fundamentally changed how they think or made sustainable change….they did the minimum required to be compliant and move on with their lives.I have heard more people find this approach a deterrant…(Dave, Mary Setter, etc.)
- “How can we motivate…?” are the WRONG questions because they imply motivation is something that gets done to people.
- Briefly talk about prefrontal cortexThe reason why most behavior-change programs and even leadership workshops don’t work long-term and are not sustainable is because things are crammed in during a short time-period and it’s all about skills, not developing new thinking. Furthermore, people are approaching learning from old thinking Doesn’t work long-term when you apply OLD thinking to try to learn new skills.
- We’re powerfully pulled to immediate gratification, even if it’s undermining our own long-term well-being.When we’re run by more primitive parts of our brain, we become myopically short-term in our perspective…and it’s more often than we realize.Leaders who don’t naturally see opportunity in change and uncertainty end up reacting differently when faced with too much stress – the brain reacts in the “fight or flight” way, prefrontal cortex shuts down and we are unable to come up with creative solutions. Even worse, in organizations, this type of behaviors feeds on itself, breeding fear and negativity that can spread and become the cultural norm.The remedy is to rely more on our prefrontal cortex and learning to better regulate our emotions – which begins with gaining more control of our attention.We can learn to be far more conscious and intentional in our behavior and less self-centered and short-term in our perspectivewe seek out information that endorses what we already believe rather than rationally seeking out information to confirm or disconfirm a particular belief; We also tend to have an unwillingness to believe contradictory information or change or opinions;Our brains are wired to feel right, not necessarily be right; our brain is wired to want to justify our behaviors and feelings.
- There’s another great way of looking at this dynamic. Chip and Dan Heath wrote a book called Switch. They use a great analogy of the Elephant, Rider and Path. Basically two parts of our brain, the rational elephant and the emotional rider, are constantly competing with each other. Then there’s the path or the direction.Successful change = Change situationClarity of directionRational & Emotional Systems must align with surrounding environment or the path…which goes back to why the culture and environment are so critical – we have to make better choices EASIER for people. Create the path in a way the clarifies the direction. The problem is that if you don’t have a solid foundation of a culture where employees feel valued, jumping in to do environmental interventions will likely be perceived negatively and as a way of being controlled.
- Habits emerge because our brain looks for ways to conserve effort; an efficient brain lets us not think about walking, eating and even driving so we have energy for innovation.The cue can be a thought, feeling or something in the environment – whatever it is tells the brain to go into auto-pilot mode. When a habit emerges, brain stops fully participating in decision-making and diverts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit – finding new routines; re-writing new neuropathways and laying down new Myelin – the pattern will unfold automatically.Habits are persistent and resistant to change, and they don’t go away just because we suddenly feel motivated.
- best known for a series of rules he coined explaining how to create new habits among consumers…these eventually became conventional wisdom among marketers, educational reformer, public health professionals, politicians and CEOs. His rules are fundamental to creating any new routine.Pepsodent Toothpaste – back around WWI, poor dental hygiene was a national security risk with so many recruits having rotting teeth. But hardly anyone bought toothpaste because hardly anyone brushed their teeth (despite the nation’s dental problems). Hopkins turned Pepsodent into one of the best known products on earth and, in the process, helped create a tooth-brushing habit across America. He created a craving; that craving is what makes cues and rewards work and what powers the habit loop. In order to sell Pepsodent, he had to find a trigger to justify the daily use of it. Hopkins found reference to plaque on teeth he called “the film” and advertised the toothpaste as a creator of beauty to deal with the cloudy film.
- So the adds not only triggered a cue (run your tongue over your teeth and feel the film). But, at the time, Pepsodent had a unique combination of ingredients – citric acid and mint oil; this combination created a tingling sensation…that people started to crave. Craving became a big part of understanding the habit loop.Think about what we know from programs like AA; it’s all about helping people identify the cue or craving trigger and then drilling and establishing new routines to replace old, habitual ones. They first have to increase self-awareness.
- Story of Tony Dungy – NFL football coach. Was regularly turned down for head coaching jobs because he’d say, “Champions don’t do extraordinary things; they do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the other team to react. They follow the habits they’ve learned.”He focused on taking the thinking out of the game and getting his players to respond to cues and then play out of habit. His strategy was to shift the team’s behaviors until their performances were automatic; he didn’t think they had to memorize hundreds of formations or have the thickest playbook – they just had to learn a few key moves and get them right every time. Most of the time errors are not physical, they’re mental. Players start messing up when they think too much or second-guess their plays. Dungy wanted to take the decision-making out of their game. For some habits, the other missing ingredient is BELIEF. For people to change habits permanently, they must believe change is feasible. Colts came close many times, but when things got tense, they went back to their comfort zones and old habits. After the tragic death of Dungy’s son, the players became a true team. They finally won the Super Bowl in 2007; the players say it’s because they believed and that the belief made everything they learn stick – even at the most stressful moments.
- I want to tie this back to culture for a moment. If you want to shift a culture, you have to shift the thinking patterns of leaders; develop them and give them the skills to be able to be intentional, get off auto-pilot and learn to BE differently, not DO differently.And to tie it back to this idea of energy…CEO should also stand for “Chief Energy Officer” – key job of leaders is to make people feel a certain way by authentically living it.Maya Angelou once said that “people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them FEEL.”This is where culture and developing leaders comes into play
- There’s another piece to the puzzle when we look at the importance of building new neuropathways and re-writing over old habits and ineffective thinking patterns; it’s something called intrinsic THINKING.
- Systemic thinking is deeply rooted in habitual thinking, auto-pilot; which makes sense why it is so difficult to change. We have to first be aware of it and then have the skills to disable it (i.e., Intrinsic Coaching®).
- When you think about it from this lens, it makes sense why most programs don’t work because people are being viewed as predictable and replicable things. IF they would just do what our Systemic idea about them is and follow the action steps that make sense if people were predictable and replicable, the program would work great!We are putting more value or attention in the content and the programs themselves rather than the PEOPLE who participate in the programs.
- Think about a cockpit of a plane; ALL of the gauges and dials are important in guiding the plane. We would never just zero in on one dial and say this is the one that is REALLY important. But that’s what we tend to do in our reductionist, merely apparent world.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv1I4q6lOpo
- IC® development allows people to start to be aware that there even are 3 dimensions of thinking (as opposed to just 2) and start to recognize their own S thinking and then build the skills to be able to temporarily disable that S thinking to create a space for the Intrinsic thinking to emerge and strengthen.*Can’t build Intrinsic through systemic means…can only build it via our own experiential learning. Think about it, you can’t learn to walk, drive a car, learn a foreign language, etc. by just reading or hearing about it; you have to try it, practice it and figure out what works for you.
- Leaders need to view employees as PEOPLE in order to have the benefits. It all comes down to how your leaders VIEW and REGARD employees.Every experience of employee interaction with a leader generates a belief about workplace culture. Culture is built team by team, so leadership development is a critical piece of this….that is all too often overlooked.
- 2,400 years ago Plato identified one of the main problems facing modern business leaders – when managers come up with a new initiative or ask employees to do things a certain way, many people are internally irritated with some even being resentful. The only thing that will change them is a “rebirth of perception.”It’s a myth that people are resistant to change; as humans we are changing all of the time. We resent change that is IMPOSED upon us!.Jim Hart (CEO of Senn Delaney)Most culture change efforts use an outside-in approach; but it doesn’t work to shift the needle because you’re not getting at the underlying thinking and habits that drive behavior. The minute you remove the communication or program, behavior snaps back to where they were before because nothing has changed in their thinking. People learn from the inside-out…because a light bulb went off; something has changed in the way they see things and think. (i.e., a “rebirth of perception”)
- Story of Alcoa - (Aluminum Company of America) manufactured everything from the foil that wraps Hershey’s Kisses and metal in Coca-Cola cans to bolts that hold satellites together. Paul O’Neill was brought on as new CEO. His focus was on worker safety; he intended to make Alcoa the safest company in America…go for zero injuries. In addressing shareholders when first accepted position he said “If you want to understand how Alcoa is doing, you need to look at our workplace safety figures. If we bring our injury rates down, it won’t be because of cheerleading or the nonsense you sometimes hear form other CEOs. It will be because the individuals at this company have agreed to become part of something important: They’ve devoted themselves to creating a habit of excellence. O’Neill knew you can’t order people to change. He knew if he could disrupt habits around one thing, it would spread throughout the entire company. He knew that both union and non-union wouldn’t argue about safety. His plan for getting to zero injuries entailed a radical realignment. Bottom line, in order to protect workers, Alcoa had to become the best, most streamlined aluminum company on earth. Within 1 year, Alcoa’s profits hit a record high. In 2000, net income was 5 times larger than before he arrived…and Alcoa became one of the safest companies in the world. Company’s worker injury rate fell from at least 1 accident per week in almost every plan to 1/20 the U.S. average.
- One thing with this whole discussion that is important to be mindful of is the importance of recognition and feeling valued. A “Now That” approach to incentives is really more of a recognition and thank you (i.e., I Spy, safety celebration, etc.). It’s not expected, a nice gesture, and shows appreciation. Versus – “If/Then”…if you do this, then you’ll get that – which leads to people focusing on the incentive, doesn’t do anything to get them off auto-pilot thinking, etc.For companies who haven’t yet gone down the incentive path, I recommend developing a strategy that focuses on culture, career well-being and shifting thinking patterns first….with some basic support and environmental considerations as the focus. For companies already stuck in the incentive trap, then it’s looking for how to “correct” for the incentive – because once it’s there, you can’t just get rid of it.As far as correcting for incentives, we are finding early encouraging results with some of our groups (Individual WB Goal option w/ IC® - focus on whole self and THINKING). In repeat evaluation surveys, we are seeing a drop in the percentage of people saying they are participating in a rewards program due to the incentive and more saying they are personally interested in their overall well-being and appreciate the support and resources. In other words, it seems this approach is helping shift from extrinsic to intrinsic.NW Eye – re-launched wellness as WB Benefit of employment 3 years ago; training for leaders, WB Communication guidelines, etc. The year two evaluation of their WB Benefit and rewards program (new approach) is encouraging; we are seeing an INCREASE in intrinsic motivation and that the program design appears to be slowly correcting for the incentives. Fewer people this year compared to last year are saying the incentive (additional WB time off) was critical to their participation, and more people are saying they are participating out of being personally interested in their own WB.All managers have completed the ICDSPersonal WB Goal with E-mail coaching/reflective THINKING questions every 2 months. 85% of people who completed the WB Goal indicated it was somewhat or extremely effective in helping them to make lasting changes.HeartMath assessment and criteria supporting each area of WB (i.e., track spending for a week, etc.)95% of program participants would recommend the program to co-workers; 100% plan to participate again next year.Many examples as well of how having the WB Benefit and the focused rewards program is benefitting their families.