Nicole Sheikh, MBA Advisory Board Member and Alum, writes on the ways we as individuals can change habits as the organisations we work for strive to adapt to unprecedented change and uncertainty.
If you feel like there’s something in the air at your workplace, you’re not wrong. Public and private sector industries are wrestling with how they prepare for and respond to a world that’s shifting around them. A world for which they need to find new ways to serve employees, customers, and communities.
Broadly speaking we have higher expectations of what organisations can and should do for us. We want more and faster. We want environmentally conscious decision-making and to know that we are building back better. We are constantly adapting to new and changing technology and are individually affected by global events in unprecedented ways.
All this upheaval is changing how we think about our workplaces. We hear phrases like ‘the great resignation’and ‘the great reflection’ and wonder what’s happening to the world and how we fit in it. It appears that we have become more focused on personal value and purpose and want our work to mean something. What a perfect storm of challenges to be facing.
To face these challenges, organisations need new ways of operating, which likely means large-scale change. At their core, and no matter their mission, organisations are basically lots of people working together towards a common goal. So, if we need organisations to change, as members of those organisations, what can you do?
When it comes to change, this is never simple or easy. Some people are all in, and others, not so much, which leads me to wonder… What might hold us back from changing our behaviour?
What do we mean by behaviour change?
Bear with me as I get a little ‘sciencey’. We all have neurons in our brains that process and send information. As we discover the world around us, we build connections between our neurons. The good news is, these connections can change. The bad news is, this can be hard, especially if our behaviours are now habits that we may not even be conscious of.
For example, if I take the same route through a field of grass, over time I’ll start to make a path. The more I take this path, the more it’s worn. This path is our behaviours and habits. The more we repeat the behaviour, the more we build the habit and the easier it is for our brain to process the information.
So, to change habits, we must change our well-worn paths or carve new ones.
Sounds simple right? You would think so, but maybe not. If it was simple, we would all be a perfect weight, sleep 8 hours a night and wash the dishes instead of binge-watching TV.
So, we know this is hard but what are the barriers?
Changing our behaviour is as much about un-learning as it is about learning. Psychologists have spent a long time researching what’s underneath our behaviour and why it’s hard to change. Creating good habits appears to be where research is telling us to focus, with behaviour science experts such as James Clear and BJ Fogg, suggesting that our goals are the outcome we want, and our daily habits are the system that will get us there. So what are the three big things that hold us back from starting small, building good habits and breaking bad ones?
It helps to think about who you want to be, not who you are now…
Over the years, researchers have investigated the idea that our ‘self-concept’ can influence and shape our behaviours. To change your habits, James Clear suggests starting by thinking about your identity, about who you want to become. Do you want to be a runner, a life learner, or perhaps a writer? If you focus on your identity and create the habits that will get you there, you can become the type of person you want to be. For example, I’m a life learner (identity) because I read an article every day (habit). Our habits aren’t about having something, they are about becoming someone.
It’s all about the reward….
There are three elements to every habit, and we build habits through repetition:
- When I see the clock hit 3 pm (the cue)
- I go to the café (the action or routine)
- Then I get to talk to my friends at the cafe (the reward)
This is known as the habit loop. If you are rewarded for something, it’s more likely you will keep doing it. Tapping into the habit loop can have a big impact on changing behaviour.
Don’t try to do too much…
Behavioural change research says that it’s harder if you try to do more than one thing at a time. Instead, you’re more likely to succeed if you start small and stay focused. Once you nail one habit, you have more headspace to re-focus on the next one and it becomes much easier. Basically, don’t bite off more than you can chew, just focus on changing one thing at a time.
So, what does this all mean?
Life can feel overwhelming for many of us and the road ahead to reimagining the way we work may feel daunting. Too often we convince ourselves that large-scale change requires large-scale action.
The good news is, we can all contribute to reimagine the future of work, and we don’t need to do it all at once.
Remember, you can decide who you want to be in this reimagined world by…
- Thinking about who you want to be in your career, not who you are now, and taking small steps to get there,
- Rewarding yourself for good habits, and
- Focusing on changing one thing at a time.
Good luck!
Nicole Sheikh
Nicole is an accountant, a Deakin MBA graduate, a non-executive board member, a mum, and a small business co-owner based in Canberra. Nicole has over 20 years of professional experience working with both state and federal government. Nicole’s varied experience has led her to develop an understanding of public sector policy, stakeholder engagement, corporate governance, and risk management. Nicole’s strengths center on combining strong levels of integrity, emotional intelligence, and empathy-based leadership to build strong teams. Nicole also runs a long-standing small business with her family in Canberra.