Change Anything
By Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler
Business Plus, 262 pages, $29.99
One of the most famous experiments in social science occurred when American psychologist Walter Mischel studied children who were asked to sit in a room for 20 minutes with a marshmallow in front of them they were asked not to eat – with the promise they could have two marshmallows later. He found that those who could rein in their impulses subsequently did better in almost every area of their life.
That sent a message: If you don’t have the willpower, you won’t succeed at life. And that’s a dangerous belief, a group of trainers and change experts argue in a new book. Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler say that when we try to break out of bad habits, what stymies us is not our lack of motivation or willpower but sources of influence that we are blind to.
“When it comes to long-standing habits, what you can’t see is usually what’s controlling you,” they write in Change Anything.
To test their ideas, they brought a group of Grade Five students into their lab, and gave the youngsters a series of four tasks for which they could earn a total of $40. The youngsters were warned they would be offered opportunities along the way to spend their earnings, buying sweets and toys at ridiculously high prices. “As the kids talked about the money they could earn, it was clear they all had exciting plans for the loot. They all seemed motivated to resist the temptation to spend,” the authors note.
You can guess the results – and you would be partially right. The first 15 kids emerged from the study, on average, with less than $13 of the possible $40 in their pocket, many lamenting how stupid they had been.
But a second group of 15 kids saved an average of $34 of the $40, not because they had more innate willpower but because the researchers manipulated the situation to wield six sources of influence on their behalf – the same six sources of influence you must manipulate in your favour when trying to change:
Personal motivation
In the research project, the spending subjects were invited to taste their favourite treat but the saving subjects were asked to think about something they really wanted to buy with their $40. The authors say the change tactic is this: If you interrupt you impulses by connecting with your goals during crucial moments when your willpower may be wilting, you can greatly improve your chances of success.
Personal ability
The savers were taught to keep a running total on a sheet of paper of how much they spent or saved. To succeed at changing a persistent and resistant habit, you must learn new skills that help you to cope.
Social motivation
The spenders were joined by three other kids, confederates of the research team, who spent like crazy. But the three kids who joined the savers were different: Two spent freely, while the third said that she was trying to save and encouraged the subjects to do the same. The authors advise that bad habits are almost always a social disease, and you need to turn the “accomplices” around you who encourage your bad habits into “friends” who help you change.
Social ability
The savers – but not the spenders – were reminded by their “friend” that the prices in the store were outrageous and that if they waited 10 minutes they could get more for less elsewhere. Just as you need to learn new skills, changing deeply entrenched habits requires help, information and support from others. “Get a coach, and you’ll make change more likely,” the authors observe.
Structural motivation
Savers were paid in cash, which meant if they bought something they had to fork over the real thing. The spenders, meanwhile, had their money in an account from which they could blissfully deduct for purchases. The change tactic: Directly link shorter-term rewards and punishments to the new habits you’re trying to form, and you’re far more likely to stay on track.
Structural ability
Spenders walked into a room surrounded by tantalizing pictures of candy, but the savers saw no such images in their room. “Small changes in your environment can have a surprising effect in your choices. For example, add a few visual cues that help you focus on your goals, and your behaviour will change rapidly,” the authors write.
These six factors were introduced in the authors’ earlier book, Influencer, aimed at people in leadership roles and offering advice on how to change others. In this book, the factors are channelled for making personal change. The authors explain each factor in detail with lots of examples, and then move on to show how the influence can be used for career change, weight loss, financial fitness, and countering addiction.
If you are contemplating personal change, this may help you overcome the unseen influences that might otherwise defeat you.
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POSTSCRIPT
A key element in encouraging change is to use carrots and sticks.
Change Anything tells of an accountant who needed to improve at work, boosting her knowledge of tax law and her billable hours. With a 10-week action plan, she put $200 in $20 bills in a jar, and if at the end of a week her life partner agreed she had made her goal for that period she would take a $20 bill out and place it in another jar marked “new bicycle,” for a present to herself.
If she didn’t make the goal, the $20 went into a jar labelled with the name of the political party she opposed – which, in the end, she held to just a $40 donation.
Special to The Globe and Mail
