Our lives are shaped by habits, whether we like it or not. Many make everyday life easier, while others are annoying and do more harm than good. Habits are a lifeline that help us cope with the complexity of the reality that surrounds us. They guide us through life, because otherwise the human brain would be overwhelmed by the many everyday details that would have to be processed over and over again. Habits offer stability and orientation and help us not to get lost in trivialities.
Most of our daily actions are habits. We are controlled by the autopilot in our brain without even noticing it. About half of our daily actions are carried out according to an unconscious program."Many people think that our behavior is guided by specific goals,"says psychologist Wendy Wood. In fact, this is true—but only when we do something for the first time. With each repetition, the process becomes easier until it eventually becomes automatic. Events that occur together in space and time are also linked to each other in the course of automation. This creates a habit loop that governs our everyday actions. As soon as the brain recognizes the familiar situation, i.e., a stimulus is triggered, we automatically perform the learned activity. Every time we act as usual, the limbic system also releases reward substances. This makes us feel validated in our actions and we no longer have to think about how we act in the morning after the alarm clock rings, for example. We automatically get up, go to the bathroom, shower, brush our teeth, and then turn on the TV on the way to the wardrobe—without consciously deciding to do so.
Habits and the brain
When a system runs automatically, the challenge is that the brain does not distinguish between good and bad habits. It is good and useful that we have our fixed routines for getting up in the morning and going to work. But when we decide to change an undesirable habit, it takes a lot of energy to react differently than usual to our well-established routines—for example, when we want to quit smoking or eat less chocolate.
The reward chemicals released by the brain create a desire for more and thereby change the brain—this is how habits manage to perpetuate themselves. Of course, we can try to force ourselves to change our behavior—but it's not easy. "There is hardly anything more difficult for our brain than breaking habits," confirm brain researchers. The more often we repeat an action, the more firmly it becomes anchored in the brain and linked to certain stimuli – and the more difficult it becomes to change the habit. Success is often sobering, with most good intentions vanishing into thin air because the habit is simply too strong. How can we still manage to flip the switch and turn an automated action back into a manual one?
Changing habits according to Dr. Doris Wolf
According to Dr. Doris Wolf, new habits cannot simply be changed overnight; they have to be relearned. We have to actively resist the temptation and consciously decide to act differently so that the brain stops automatically following the established path. When relearning habits, the following phases are usually gone through:
Recognize and accept:
The first and easiest step is intellectual insight. We have examined a habit and, contrary to our previous positive assessment, we now judge the behavior negatively.
Theoretically, we already know how we should behave—the challenge lies in putting this into practice.
Reflect and practice:
We consider our new thoughts, which we gained in the first step, and imagine how we would behave according to the new assessment.
Conflict between head and gut:
This phase is the most difficult stage. We think our new thoughts, assess the situation realistically, and behave in accordance with our new attitude. But a negative feeling remains because the stimulus is still there, but the reward is not forthcoming. In this situation, we often find ourselves thinking that we are just talking ourselves into something and lying to ourselves. In fact, this is true, because we are convincing ourselves of something that we have simply seen differently until now. This impression arises because we now want to correct and, in a sense, overwrite what we previously convinced ourselves of. In this phase, there is inevitably a contradiction between our gut feeling and our head. Only when this feeling creeps up on us can progress be made and noticed. Now two things are needed: courage and patience. This is because the body cannot help but react according to the new assessment and the associated behavior after a certain amount of time. Depending on personality, it takes between 20 and 250 days for the subconscious to really engage with the new assessment and the associated action and for it to become a habit. A person's character plays a decisive role in this, because the more they are caught in the hamster wheel of their habits, the longer it takes them to let go.
Consistency between head and gut:
The old feelings slowly fade away and the body responds appropriately to the new assessment. Although we are still very aware that these thoughts are new, we already feel that the new behavior suits us.
New habit learned:
You've done it! You respond to the stimulus directly with the correct assessment, behave accordingly, and feel accordingly. A new habit has now been developed.
One example of this relearning process is acquiring new eating habits. Let's imagine that you have decided to drink your coffee without sugar in the future because it is harmful to your health. The first phase of intellectual insight occurs the moment you decide to think, "Sugar is harmful. I want to drink my coffee without it." The second phase of the exercise begins the moment you pour yourself a cup of coffee and remember that you don't want to add sugar. And then you reach the third phase: your head tells you "sugar is harmful to your health," and your body tries to convince you that coffee without sugar can't taste good. If you listen to your body, you will add sugar and never learn to love black coffee. You will then behave according to your old program and your old habit. If you want to break your old habit, you must ignore your body's feelings and not add sugar. You must behave according to your new attitude that "sugar is harmful"and pretend that you already believe this assessment. If you do this often enough, you will enter the fourth phase: you will begin to enjoy coffee even without sugar. The fifth phase of the new habit comes with further practice. If someone secretly stirs sugar into your coffee one day, you will ultimately reject the "sweet coffee" with disgust. This relearning can also take place without directly realizing when and why you began to enjoy coffee with sugar in the first place.
Effect of habits and their changes on others
People are generally irritated when familiar systems are disrupted and changed. They are initially critical of anything new. An example from sport, which goes back to Prof. Peter Kruse, sums it up: In 1968, Dick Fosbury revolutionized the high jump in athletics. Contrary to the technique commonly used at the time, he cleared the bar with a backward movement. Today, this "Fosbury flop" has become the norm for us when we watch high jump on television. Even though the other athletes were skeptical at first, in the end, the habits of an entire sport were shaken up and changed.
People need security, which is why they react negatively to planned changes, freely following the motto "We've always done it this way." Even when there is evidence that a change in the system will lead to greater success, most people do not want to give up their old habits. Dick Fosbury also had this experience: most athletes boycotted the new style, even though it was obvious that the changed technique enabled a higher jump. It was only when Ulrike Meyfarth successfully repeated it at the 1972 Olympic Games that the Fosbury Flop gained the acceptance it deserved. Most people first need a mental safety net—or, to stay with the high jump analogy, a thick safety mat—before they dare to break new ground. Dick Fosbury also relied on this: the sand pit behind the bar was replaced by a thick mat. This ensured that nothing bad could happen to him with his revolutionary jumping style. Of course, breaking with habit also carries a certain risk – but we can only develop further if we break habits and try new things.
Structured management system: developing employees, sharing management responsibility
Habits give us guidance and security not only in our private lives, but also in our professional lives. Habits regulate management processes, for example, and employees and leader work together more effectively thanks to automated procedures and well-established processes. leader also faced with the challenge of breaking bad habits in order to develop their employees more efficiently. An example: You have probably experienced being called into your boss's office and being told what tasks you have to do and how. There is no room for individual solutions, and employees do not have the opportunity responsibility take responsibility themselves and achieve a certain degree of self-management. According to the five steps outlined earlier by Dr. Doris Wolf leader must make a conscious decision leader actively address this habit in order to change it for the better.
In this situation, intellectual insight means that the leader that it makes more sense and is better for the employees if she asks them questions instead of presenting them with a fait accompli. This is followed by practice in a direct employee meeting: the leader the employee a new task – but instead of giving instructions as usual, she asks the employee what he could do to solve the task. Both leader the employee now find themselves in an unfamiliar situation. The employee is probably unsettled because his boss is not behaving as usual and he does not know what to make of it. For both, the third phase follows, with a conflict between head and gut. The leader the new behavior strange. She knows that it is better to encourage employees to take the initiative themselves. However, as long as the employee is irritated by their boss's new behavior and does not know how to deal with it, doubts remain as to whether this approach is really better than the old habit. Only when both sides gradually get used to it with each additional practice session do the old feelings subside and it feels right for the leader the employee. Once this point is reached, the employee will also dare to respond to the question and develop and present their own idea for solving the task. The new habit has thus been learned, and asking questions instead of giving instructions has become a new habit in the management system.
Habit changes of this kind not only take time, but also need to be systematically guided. With its Leading Simple management system, the Grundl Leadership Academy helps to initiate such change processes in companies and empowers people within the company to fulfill their leadership responsibilities.
If you would like to know how the transformation process in companies with LEADING SIMPLE succeeds, you can find further information on our website:
www.grundl-akademie.de/mitarbeiterentwicklung-der-transformationsprozess
