Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything(17)
I’ve found that people don’t naturally think in terms of specific behaviors, and this tendency trips up almost everyone.
People use the word “goal” when they are talking about aspirations or outcomes. If someone says “goal,” you can’t be sure what they are talking about since the word is ambiguous. For that reason, “goal” is not part of the vocabulary in Behavior Design. Use either “aspiration” or “outcome” for precision.
I once worked with a major bank on a savings initiative. The objective was to encourage customers to have an emergency fund of five hundred dollars. The bank’s web pages had articles, experts, and data that made it clear that if you didn’t have money for emergencies then you would get into financial trouble when you got a flat tire or clogged toilet that required a plumber.
“So what behavior are you asking your customer to do?” I asked.
“Save five hundred dollars for emergencies,” the project leader said.
To this group of highly educated, intelligent, and wonderful people, that seemed pretty specific. But notice that they were talking about an outcome, not a behavior.
I wanted to make this point, so I challenged the team in a playful way: “Each of you, save five hundred dollars right now.”
They laughed. And they got my point.
Then we went to work. I focused our session on finding specific behaviors their customers could do in order to create an emergency fund, and these are a few of the ones we came up with.
Call your cable company and scale back your service to the lowest level
Empty your pocket change into an emergency-fund jar every evening
Announce a garage sale, then put all the revenue into an emergency fund
In the end, we came up with more than thirty different specific behaviors. Some were better than others, but all of those behaviors had a shot at helping the bank’s customers take concrete steps toward reaching the savings outcome.
The bank leaders realized that motivation wasn’t the missing piece in their puzzle. Instead, they needed to match their customers with specific behaviors that were easy and effective. They learned that their web pages should focus less on the “why” and focus more on the “how to.”
Healthcare providers also need to shift their focus in this way. If you’ve ever been to the doctor and been told that you need to eat better and exercise more, you’ve probably wondered what “eating better” entails and how you do that.
I start professionals in the same place where I start people who do Tiny Habits. And it’s exactly where you can start.
STEP 1: GET CLEAR ON YOUR ASPIRATIONS
Steps in Behavior Design
Step 1: Clarify the Aspiration
The first step in Behavior Design is to get clear on your aspirations (or outcomes). What do you want? What is your dream? What result do you want to achieve?
Write down your aspirations or outcomes and consider whatever you write as something you will probably revise.
If you wrote down “lose weight,” ask yourself, “Is that really what I want?” Maybe it is. Or maybe it’s that you want to feel better in your clothes. Or you want to control your diabetes. Or you want to start paddleboarding, but you feel like you’re carrying too much weight.
Getting clear on your aspiration allows you to design efficiently for what you really want. You might assume your aspiration is to be more mindful. But when you think about this, you decide that what you really want is to reduce stress in your life. And reducing stress will be easier than being more mindful. You could take a daily walk outside, play a musical instrument for ten minutes, or cut back on watching TV news. In this step, revise your aspiration or outcome so it taps into what really matters to you.
(A note on starting with aspirations versus starting with outcomes: You can start with either. However, I like aspirations as a starting point because they are more flexible and less intimidating than specific outcomes.)
STEP 2: EXPLORE BEHAVIOR OPTIONS
Steps in Behavior Design
Step 1: Clarify the Aspiration
Step 2: Explore Behavior Options
You get down to specifics in step 2. You select one of your aspirations, then come up with a bunch of specific behaviors that can help you achieve your aspiration.
You are not making any decisions or commitments in this step. You are exploring your options. The more behaviors you list, the better. You can tap into your creativity or maybe ask friends for their ideas.
I created a way to help people explore behavior options. This tool is called the Swarm of Behaviors (or Swarm of Bs). Here’s how it works: Write your aspiration inside the cloudlike shape shown in the graphic. Then start filling in the boxes with specific behaviors.
Swarm of Behaviors
Let’s say I’m guiding my friend Mark through this process, and he is clear about his big aspiration. He writes “reduce my stress” inside the cloud.
Next, I would say, “Mark, if you could wave a magic wand and get yourself to do any behavior that would reduce your stress, what would it be?”
After Mark comes up with his first behavior—getting a massage each week—I’d say, “Great. What else?”