stem week 2 SMCC FALL2019

Chapter 3: The Golden Rule of Habit Change – Why Transformation Occurs
This chapter draws heavily on the career of an NFL American Football coach, Tony Dungy. Dungy transformed the fortunes of several NFL teams by using the golden rule of habit change. The Golden Rule is that “bad” habits are very difficult to eradicate. Instead, seek to change them/ reprogramme them/ overwrite them with a new routine. Cue stays the same, reward stays the same, craving stays the same, but the routine linking the cue to the reward is changed.

Cites (world renowned) Alcoholics Anonymous 12 step programme as one of the most long-standing habit change programmes. AA has had v mixed empirical evaluations, with particular criticism for the spiritual aspects of the 12 steps. But many have benefitted and suggests the 12 steps mimic what we now know about how the brain forms habits.

Re the spiritual aspect, proposes that it’s not belief in God which is the key. It’s belief in something that matters. And if that belief is strong enough, it eventually spills over into belief that change in oneself is possible. Cites longitudinal research into people using AA that found that without belief, habit change was possible, but prone to relapse when life got difficult eg bereavement, job loss etc. However add belief in something into the mix and habit change appears more resilient to life events. Lastly, suggests that beliefs are fostered in community/ group setting far more commonly than in isolation. Therefore, bringing people together to create belief is vital to successful creation of beliefs and associated change in habits.

Chapter 4: Keystone Habits, or the Ballad of Paul O’Neill – Which Habits Matter Most
Case study of Alcoa, a huge US aluminium producer appointing Paul O’Neill as its CEO. Against tradition, O’Neill set out worker safety as the number 1 priority. Stakeholders and shareholders initially wobbled and didn’t like this approach, but one year on revenue, profits and staff engagement had rocketed.
“You can’t order people to change, that’s not how the brain works” said O’Neill. “But I knew Alcoa had to transform. So I decided to start by focusing on just one thing. If I could disrupt habits around one thing, it would spread through the entire company.”

And so it did. Keystone habits say that success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead relies on picking one or two priorities, delivering them and using them as powerful levers, or “small wins” that set scene for other small wins to happen. Need to think about where the keystone habits are – the ones that will shift, dislodge or remake other patterns. O’Neill spent a lot of time in federal govt. He observed the best depts to be the ones who understood the importance of routines. The worst never thought about what they were doing. Understanding these principles and using them are two different things, the latter requires ingenuity.
Another example given of swimmer Michael Phelps. He used visualisation and calming as his cornerstone habits and believes that’s what set him apart from everyone else.

stemW1SMCCF19

The power of Habit

The Habit Loop – How Habits Work

  In this chapter , it tells about Cites various famous cases of patients with brain injuries, and experiments in MIT with rats highlights the importance of specific regions of the brain for habit formation. Possible to see brain activity change as habits are formed. Habits are framed as an evolutionary way of saving effort. If something is a habit, it saves brain power as don’t need to think about it. Sets out the habit loop;
Proposes that habit forming always follows same pattern:

1. Cue – a signal to trigger the habit
2. Routine – a specific action or set of actions
3. Reward – the desired outcome

By understanding habits in this way, we can begin to understand the components of what needs to be in place for habits to form. The absence of any one part of the loop will prevent the habit from forming. Observes that although easy to describe, it can often be really hard work to correctly identify each component.

Chapter 2: The Craving Brain – How to Create New Habits
Uses several examples from advertising and experiments to develop an argument that the habit loop above in itself is not enough for new habits to form. Cue, routine and reward are the components that need to be present. However, a new habit is only formed if there is fuel to power it; craving. Craving for the reward. Example is toothpaste (Pepsodent). A successful campaign used “film on teeth” as cue, routine of brushing teeth with product, and feeling beautiful as the reward. All other pastes at time used similar approaches. What set pepsodent apart was they added chemicals to create a tingly sensation in mouth after use which consumers craved. No other paste at time had done this. “I want to feel beautiful” was not enough to form the habit – it had to be accompanied by a physical sensation that the consumer craved. There is also a long case study about Febreze – no one would buy amazing product when its reward was positioned as “masks bad smells”. When rebranded as “freshens room/ clean air feeling” sales rocketed because, so the theory goes, they created craving for a feeling of fresh clean air that could be sensed.