Genevieve Taylor’s Blog

How to Change Bad Habits – Improvisations – MIT Sloan Management Review.

This article summarizes some insights first discussed in the book “Influencer: the power to change anything.”  They say that the following principles will help habits change in a workplace.  It is a nice list to read in comparison with the Oprah’s article on neuroscience and habit change.

Here are the principles they identify:

1. Linking to mission and values
2. Overinvesting in skill building
3. Harnessing peer pressure
4. Creating social support
5. Aligning rewards and ensuring accountability
6. Changing the environment

How to Change Your Bad Habits – Oprah.com.

This is a fantastic article on how to “rewire” your brain to change your habits – like exercising, etc.

In the workplace, we talk a lot about “merit-based pay”, “reward and recognition systems,” etc.  But the best rewards for rewiring your brain,  says the author, is to reward often, don’t be stingy, and stick with it every day for 3 weeks. She has great examples of rewards, too: things as silly as goofy characters, etc.

If we were to apply this to our sustainability change efforts, we might think more about how to make “feedback” for change instantaneous – whether it is merely recording our progress, or sending a joke out to those who participate, or other fun things.  What “instant feedback” ideas can you think of?