Why Don’t We Stick With Behaviour Change?

That’s the title of a terrific talk last night by Prof. Wendy Wood from the University of Southern California. An hour very well spent. Here’s the potted version: 
Knowing what’s good for you doesn’t mean you’ll change your behaviour. The 5 A Day campaign launched in the UK in 2003. Awareness is great: 85% of people know they should eat 5 fruit and veg portions a day, but the consumption of fruit and veg hasn’t moved since the campaign started. 
We don’t change habits because most of the time we’re not even thinking about what we’re doing. Instead we respond to cues, do what we’re doing automatically. In one study people were given stale popcorn to eat as they went into a cinema, and eat it they did - chewed through 70% of it. When the researchers tried it with people in a lab watching a film, did they eat stale popcorn? Some did, but plenty more turned their noses up. It’s all about the cues.

So, what is the secret? How can we make changes stick? Here’s what the evidence shows:
A survey of New Year resolutions found the ones people stuck at weren’t the good-for-you, ‘must exercise more’ type but the fun ‘see more friends every week’ type. Conclusion: we respond to rewards. If you want to start a new behaviour, make sure there’s a treat in it. 
If you’re trying to change a long established habit, think tactically: what can you do to make that habit more difficult, more awkward, less automatic. What cues can you remove? If you want people to walk instead of cycling, lay bumps in the path. If you want people to take their cups to the kitchen and not leave them on the table, make the table tiny, and maybe a bit wobbly too. 
But… it’s a complete myth you can change a habit in 21 or 30 days. It takes at least 66 days to change even a simple habit. So keep repeating, repeating, repeating.

We’d love to know what changes or new habits you’ve put in place, and how! 

Download our Facilitation Toolkit

Bringing a facilitator on board to shape and lead your workshops, creative meetings and team events is a really, really good idea.  It frees you up to concentrate on contributing ideas and thinking. And at a step removed, a facilitator can ask tough questions, and help you to think beyond what’s familiar. A facilitator can get you to where you need to be.

 But we also know that it’s not always possible, or appropriate to bring someone in. It might make sense to facilitate your own session or ask someone in your team to take on the role.

 And that’s why we’re excited to be sharing our Facilitator’s Toolkit. We’ve distilled the key to successfully planning and running a creative session into a set of 10 cards, which we still use ourselves. And now we’re making it available as a free download. Use the cards to help you plan a workshop or creative session, or turn to them if you get a little stuck. And if you want to give us feedback, we’d be delighted.

Download your free toolkit

With creativity, we'll thrive

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Work report cites creativity as a top 3 desirable skill for 2020. What’s interesting is how its value rises above other skills as technology becomes cleverer and more efficient where patterns and logic help in decision making. In future the ability to make imaginative leaps and break away from predictable approaches will be ever more necessary.  

NESTA’s 21st century skills report identifies the skills and abilities required for work by 2030, and is even more specific.  Fluency of ideas and originality are acknowledged as the abilities most heavily used in occupations which are likely to grow in future. In simple terms, organisations who aren’t investing in creativity now are missing a trick. 

Three practices to strengthen your creative abilities or build a creative culture:  
Be curious, and notice more;
Continually ask how could we use that?;
Embrace failure, and learn from it.  

Creativity is key for resilience and growth, and there’s another powerful argument in favour. We’ve noticed that when we work with people in imagining possibilities and prodding at ideas, there’s always an incredible energy. Tapping into creativity is satisfying and life affirming. 
It reminds us of what we love about what we do, and why we do it.