I believe most people appreciate that the best habits are learned from recognising a need for change, deciding what to change and then refining the way you implement that change to bring the outcome you’re looking for. Once you’ve achieved the outcome you’re looking for, then continually practicing that best practice to turn change into a habit.
I’ve found there to be 4 key steps in creating a positive habit and I use the word positive deliberately because it’s sometimes true that negative habits are easier to form and accept, and consequently get stuck in.
I’ll use a common habit we’ve all accepted, and that is mobile phone notifications. I wonder when did we as a society agreed that best practice is to pick up the phone every time it pings? Now I’m a pretty sensible chap and even I have to consciously turn off or ignore notification pings until a suitable time, so I’m not distracted from what’s important by someone else’s version of what’s urgent. Read more about important vs urgent here.
It’s the same in business. It’s easier to get dragged or stuck in negative habits than it is to identify best practice and work on turning those into habit.
I’m reminded of that wonderful quote “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Even though we know that to be true, many are still stuck doing exactly that because what’s become comfortable for them, even though they may know what they should do, has developed into habits that are just too hard to break.
Take Julian for example, he’s been running his business for a few years now, he and his team are pretty busy and, on the surface, all looks well. But by his own admission, he’s stuck. Doing the same things over and over has become habit and the growth he always wanted still eludes him. He’s trying lots of different things to break through but because he’s not turning his best practice and efficiency revelations into habit throughout his business, he’s still where he was last year in real growth and profitability terms. I’m sure you can see why that’s just not sustainable.
What’s the answer – learn how to turn your improvement and efficiency gains (best practice) into long term organisational habits that allow you to consistently level up.
I think many fail when turning best practice into habit because they try to jump these 4 steps. As I always say, unless you truly understand what the value is in the outcomes you’re looking for, no amount of action or best practice will move you towards levelling up your habits.
The first step – Trigger
This is either a challenge that keeps coming up, or goal you’re aiming for, that at one moment in time, drives you toward a decision to change.
Let’s look at an example.
Marketing – you keep trying lots of different things to gain additional traction in your target market but none seem to give you the return you hope for. Why – because you are in the habit of using the same approach but different tactics when what’s actually needed is a different strategy. Best practice if you will, in your target market which you can now systemise into an organisational habit. I know that may sound a little tenuous but the key point here is that new habits are formed when the desire for the reward outweighs the reward for the current version of the habit.
In this example, the desire for change means you are no longer comfortable in believing just one more try will yield results. This brings us neatly on to step 2.
The second step – Desire
What’s important to note here is that I’m taking the point above to the next level. The desire for change creates the trigger to act. The desire in step 2 is about your level of motivation to act, not your motivation to achieve the outcome satisfied by the reward.
The third step – Action
This is the actual action taken and it’s jumping to this step too soon that causes many to get stuck. Many jump from trying to overcome a challenge or achieve a goal (the trigger), straight to trying different actions to get there without first establishing a real and true desire to act. It’s the desire step that influences a change in habits.
The fourth step – Reward
Simply put, this is the positive reinforcement or benefit from the feeling the desire brings, which turns a best practice action into a lasting habit. Remember, habits are formed by people using best practices within organisations, and people work through emotions and feelings, even the most pragmatic of people make decisions driven by feeling and emotions.
Let’s look at another example with all 4 steps included.
Recruitment – you want to build a world-class team that is the envy of your competitors.
Trigger – I want a world-class team
Desire – Recognition from my competitors and piers that we have the best team in the industry. Note this is an emotional desire.
Action – Recruiting and retaining the best people we can attract.
Reward – The feelings and emotions recognition brings which positively reinforces the behaviour which in turn drives habit forming.
What I hope I’ve been able to show you is that lasting best practice habit forming doesn’t just come from committing to a goal or overcoming a challenge, it comes from the feelings and emotions the on-going achievement and fulfilment of the desire behind the trigger brings you. It’s not a one stop and it’s done, which can be tempting to believe especially when thinking about business goals. Best practice habits are constantly and consistently evolving because those lasting habits are driven by the human need for recognition and fulfilment – only then will your best practice actions turn into lasting habits.
To talk about applying this principle in your organisation or anything else related to starting, scaling and selling businesses, get in touch with me here: https://calendly.com/markjarvis/grow-scale
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I help owners, founders and leaders create a scalable business that works without them, build a world-class team, and 10x profitability. Book a call with me here to see if we could work together.
Remember, there are only three types of people – those who make things happen, those who wait for things to happen, and those who talk about why things don’t happen for them. Which one are you?
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