How to create a new habit

It's been estimated that anywhere between 75 and 90 percent of our daily behavior is habitual. In other words, most of what we do is not because it is the most efficient, most successful or most productive, but simply because we've always done it that way. We are, as they say, creatures of habit. While this is usually offered as a reason for being stuck, unhappy or unhealthy, I see it as an opportunity. 

If most of our daily routine is conducted unconsciously, all we have to do is change our habits and we can tap into these automatic behaviors. Said another way, if our life is already on autopilot, doesn't it make sense to spend some conscious effort planning the route?

So, we just need to change our habits, but this is easier said than done, of course. They are called habits for a reason. One of the first things you learn as a therapist or executive coach is that you shouldn't try to eliminate a client's behavior, but instead you need to help him or her replace the behavior. 

We've all experienced how this doesn't work. Have you ever tried to stop smoking, eating snacks while watching TV, biting your nails, etc.? When you stop a behavior, you feel naked -- it feels uncomfortable and strange. Sheer willpower might get you through an evening or maybe even a week, but the vacuum becomes too uncomfortable, and we look to fill it. But with what? If we don't have a new behavior that replaces the old, we will take the path of least resistance and revert back to the old behavior.

The solution, then, is not to "break" the habit, but to replace the habit. It's similar to what nutrition experts refer to "crowding out." Instead of trying to stop TV snacking altogether, they suggest chomping on a few baby carrots, apple slices or popcorn. You're still snacking, but you've replaced the unhealthy snacks with more nutritious foods.

But what if you want to create a new habit? For that, we'll turn to Dr. BJ Fogg, founder of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University and creator of the Fogg Behavior Model, which states that for any behavior (new or old) to occur, you need three elements: Motivation, Ability and a Trigger. 

In my recent interview with Dr. BJ Fogg, he said something very insightful. Actually, he said a lot of things that were insightful, but the one that hit home for me was that he said most people when they are trying to start a new behavior, such as jogging in the morning, making sales calls or writing in a gratitude journal each day, focus on the first element -- Motivation. This is also where most self-help books, business coaches and others focus their attention. Unfortunately, this is usually the wrong place to start. We can get excited to exercise in the morning, but still fail to do so because we aren't sufficiently reminded.

According to Dr. Fogg, a much more painless place to start is the Trigger. The Trigger is the reminder, the call to action or the cue to take notice or do something. Remember, you need all three elements. You may have the Ability to exercise and you may even have enough Motivation to exercise, but without a Trigger, you won't do it. The key, then, is to create at least one Trigger for each new habit you want to create. Use the environment as much as possible. In the jogging example, I've coached people to leave their workout shorts and shoes next to their bed, so their Trigger is that they literally step into their jogging gear as they get out of bed.

What Triggers can you create in your environment that will remind you to engage in a new behavior? The possibilities are limitless. Have fun manipulating your environment to help you create new and better habits. Remember, if our life is already on autopilot, we might as well set a great destination.

How to create a new habit: Robert Pagliarini

How To Evolve Your Own Job And Stay Relevant

It’s dangerous to rely on your job description to tell you what to do, or to wait for your manager to fine-tune your job. It’s much safer, valuable, and satisfying to do it yourself. Here's how.
Your job description gets stale the moment when it is first given to you. Then you need figure out how to evolve it. As we come up on the end of the year, it is a great time to evaluate your role, your company, and the market relative to your job description and your career.

Don’t give this extra work of figuring out how your job needs to evolve to your boss or wait for direction. That is both a danger and a missed opportunity to stand out and contribute more value. Sort it out on your own and make a recommendation.

I have collected some questions that will help you figure out how to evolve your job over time to make sure you are staying relevant and adding enough value to the business.

1. Who uses my work and what do they need most?

• Who are the consumers of each piece of work that I do?
• Do they still use it? Do they still need it?
• Do they pass it on to others? Do those other people have needs I should understand?
• Can the content I deliver be modified to be more useful or relevant?
• Can the manner in which I deliver it be improved to be more useful or relevant?

Note: Stop producing work no one cares about. Ask. I know so many organizations that are over-busy producing reports, analysis, or sales and marketing that no one uses. Don’t burn up your time on things that no one cares about. Do actively learn what they find most useful, and tune what you produce to be more valuable.

2. What business outcomes does my work drive?

• What is the business outcome that happens as a result of my producing this work?
• How does my work impact profit?
• Does my work impact quality, innovation, efficiency, competitiveness, cost reduction, process improvement, sales effectiveness…
• Can I tune my work to create a better or different business outcome?

Note: If you can’t connect your work to a business outcome, maybe it doesn’t need to be done. You need to stay educated on the most important outcomes the business is driving and stay connected with them. Even if you are a cost center providing an internal service, you need to find ways to improve efficiency or usefulness.

3. What does my work cost?

• How much does it cost the company for me to do this work?
• Can it be done for less?
• What are the downstream costs of the things that I do?
• Who else does my work cause work or costs for?
• Is there a way to make my work more efficient for others?

Note Improve the outcomes your work causes, don’t just deliver the work. Always be looking for and finding ways to take cost out. If you produce a 50-page document quarterly, maybe the right, improved 20-page document would be even better. It would be hard to find someone who didn’t prefer the shorter version!

If you do things manually or in a chaotic reactive mode, how many people are impacted by this? How can you create a process to streamline the work, make it less complicated, and require fewer touchpoints, questions, or follow-ups?

4. What has changed?

• What has changed in the market since I started this job?
• What has changed in our customers’ business since I started this job?
• What has changed in our competitors’ business since I started this job?
• What has changed inside our company since I started this job?
• Do these changes require a change in the way my job is done?

Note: If you are not evolving your job, you will no longer be qualified when the market and business changes. Or, you will be doing the wrong job, and your job will get eliminated. Be the one to recommend changing your job to meet the evolving business needs.

5. Where do you see growth and ability to scale

• How much has the company grown since I started this job?
• How much does the company plan to grow in the future?
• What still works in the way I do my job if the company is much bigger?
• Which things about how I do my job don’t work if the company is bigger?

Note: When companies get bigger, all the jobs change. You can’t keep using the same way of working. It doesn’t scale. You can be the one to build a new process that will scale, or you can be the one who gets pushed aside by someone with experience at a bigger company.

6. How can I help others?

• What can I do to communicate better?
• How can I share more knowledge?
• How can I teach someone to be more effective?
• How can I help someone step into a bigger role?
• How can I help someone believe that something bigger is possible for them?

Note: If you are not helping others, you are not adding enough value. Another upside: If you are feeling unsatisfied about being in a corporate role that doesn’t make enough difference in the world, help someone. It feels meaningful--when you help someone else, you change the world for that person.

Don’t wait. I see a lot of people thinking that answering these questions is not part of their job. They wait for others to answer them, and await new instructions from their manager.

It’s dangerous to rely on your job description to tell you what to do, or to wait for your manager to fine-tune your job along the way. It’s much safer, more valuable to your company, and more satisfying when you do it yourself.

PATTY AZZARELLO

Top Five Ways to Make a Successful Network

“I get by with a little help from my friends.”

Just as Ringo Starr sang in the famous Beatles song, I wouldn’t have anywhere near the level of success I’ve achieved in my career without my network of contacts and friends. A strong network is one of the most essential tools to make your business work, and below, I’ve compiled the five best ways I’ve made my network operate successfully.

1. Social media is your friend

Social networks are a great way to sustain your already established network. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, for instance, are great venues for staying in touch with your networks. However, they’re not necessarily great venues for building your network—that’s why in-person meetings still exist.

The key to maintaining a network via social media is to participate: people in your network are often curious about your activities, and by posting relevant information often, you can actively keep yourself present to your audience and network. However, don’t forget that the phrase “too much of a good thing” exists for a reason: posting too frequently and over-sharing will often cause people to tune out your posts.

2. Be friendly and professional

Friendliness and professionalism need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, I’ve found that by treating business contacts with the warmth and affection that you might reserve for your dearest friends, you are often rewarded with that same respect and affection.

Many of my closest friends began as customers and clients. You might find that you and your new business contact are talking business one moment, and the next, he or she is travelling from Munich, Germany to attend your wedding (this actually happened!).

3. Execute a stellar introduction

It’s no secret that introductions are tricky, but they can be your strongest tools when executed effectively. When introducing two people, I’ve always tried to think about the business needs at hand, and I try to determine ways the two can mutually benefit each other. Most people tend to just introduce the people and then expect them to connect directly. This works occasionally, but not all the time.

I’ve found that an almost foolproof method is to provide a summary of each person’s background and the reason you’re making the introduction. When the introduction is put in context, it allows the two people to join the conversation with ideas of how they might be able to work together, and they have you to thank for that valuable initial meeting.

4. Look for quality, not quantity

All too often I see people attempting to build a large network of contacts by having what I like to call “headcount” contacts: these are people that you’ve met, but who might not necessarily be there for you in a time of need.

Remember, just meeting someone doesn’t mean that they’re going to be responsive to your requests and favors. From my experience, it’s more effective to have a smaller group of contacts that you can guarantee will be responsive to your requests.

To build these groups, think about reciprocity—you should always be on the lookout for ways to be of service to your contacts. If someone needs a hand completing a task, be that hand. If someone needs to get in contact with someone you know, be that link. Karma is a good friend to have on your side when trying to build a strong network.

5. Meet in person

Don’t get me wrong—Twitter and Facebook are great tools for networking, but they’re not the best. In order to build a strong network, there’s no better way than meeting face to face. In-person interactions lead to quality time and help build a foundation of trust and understanding.

This might sound counterintuitive in the age of social media, but a wall post or re-tweet has nothing on a handshake; social networks are a great way to stay in touch with people after you’ve met. People almost always react positively to someone after they have met face-to-face and had a non-digital conversation.

Let your network increase your net worth

Connections are important, but even more essential are quality interactions with those contacts and a mutual support that benefits both parties. As your network starts to grow, keep these five tips in mind. They worked for me, and I can almost guarantee they’ll work for you as well.

Top Five Ways to Make a Successful Network

The Future of You

Economic and technological changes are reshaping the nature of work. Having a great job does not guarantee your career success; your competence no longer depends on what you know; and being an affluent consumer matters less than becoming a sought-after product. Welcome to a new era of work, where your future depends on being a signal in the noisy universe of human capital. In order to achieve this, you will need to master three things: self-branding, entrepreneurship, and hyperconnectivity.

Self-branding is about being a signal in the noise of human capital. The stronger your brand, the stronger that signal. In today's world, self-branding matters more than any other form of talent, not least because the mass market is unable (or unwilling) to distinguish between branding and talent.

We are all individuals, but unless we are also a brand, our individuality will be invisible. Being a brand means showcasing that which makes you special, in a way that is distinctive (recognizable), predictable (consistent), and meaningful (it allows others to understand what you do and why). This is why David Beckham and Lady Gaga are much more successful than their more talented competitors — they understood that being a marketing phenomenon is more important than displaying outstanding soccer skills or musical talent, and focused more on self-branding than their counterparts did.

Successful brands are polarizing (they generate strong reactions) and simple. Strong self-branding means removing all non-essentials from your public reputation or, as Antoine Saint-Exupery put it, "perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Entrepreneurship is about adding value to society by disrupting it and improving the order of things: it is turning the present into the past by creating a better future.

We are all busy, but the only activity that really matters is enterprising activity or entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is the difference between being busy and being a business, and the reason why some are able to stay in business.

Everything that isn't already optimized or automatized depends on people, and every transaction between people is a business transaction. The most important commodity in human capital today is people who can grow a business, that is, work on the business rather than in a business.

Today's war for talent is the war for identifying, developing, and retaining true change-agents. Change-agents are hard to find, hard to manage, and hard to retain. Entrepreneurship is about being a change-agent; change-agents are signals, everyone else is noise. If you are not bringing growth, you are replaceable and recyclable.

Whether you are self-employed or employed by others, whether you work in a big business or own a small business, your career success depends on your ability to offer something new: new solutions for existing problems; new services and products; new ideas; etc. Everything that isn't new is old, and if you are doing old you are stuck in the past. In the age entrepreneurship, the future of you is new, and your value depends on your ability to do things differently. As the great Alan Kay pointed out, "a change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points."

Hyperconnectivity is about being a signal in the sea of data and making and shaping the waves of social knowledge.

We are all online, but what matters is being a relevant connector. Hyperconnectivity is not about being online 24/7; it's about optimizing the online experience for others.

Unless you are a hyperconnector, only Netflix cares about what movies you watch, and only your friends care about where you went for brunch. But when you are a hyperconnector, thousands of people will watch the movies you like and your brunch recommendations will shape reviewers' comments on TripAdvisor. In the era of information overload, being a trustworthy source of information is a rare commodity — it is the digital equivalent of being an intellectual and the latest state in the evolution of marketing.

The world's knowledge is too large to be stored anywhere; Wikipedia and Google aren't enough; the Library of Congress isn't enough. Hyperconnectors point us in the right direction. Anybody can upload a video on YouTube or tweet, but only a few can direct us to the videos or tweets we want to see.

The most important form of knowledge today is knowing where to find stuff. In fact, the ability to find stuff is now almost as important as the ability to create stuff. Hyperconnectors are the creative of the digital era because in the age of information overload, where everybody creates online content, effectively curating content is what really matters.

In short, the future of you depends on your ability to be a brand, a change agent, and a link to useful information. Paying attention to your personality and managing your reputation (how others see you) will turn you into a successful brand; paying attention to your ideas and defying the status quo will help you become a change agent; and bridging the gap between social knowledge and collective interests will turn you into a hyperconnector.

The Future of You
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

To Stand or To Sit at Work: An Auto-Analytics Experiment

It's a new year, and here come the resolutions that lead to new gym memberships and eventually, abandoned treadmills. Office workers are especially prone to make these promises to get healthy, with their desk jobs often making them sedentary. I am one of those workers (though, without the resolution), and I wondered if I could use the burgeoning field of auto-analytics — collecting and analyzing data about myself — to make my life more active without having to join a gym.

My foray into office fitness actually began years ago with a set of under-desk pedals. It was early into my first corporate job and I wasn't yet used to what I call "Spam Butt" — a dead, squishy feeling in the posterior that I associate with sitting for too long. The pedals cost me twenty-five cents at a yard sale. Not surprisingly, they squeaked and offered no resistance or feeling of exercise. They were good for a laugh (and how my colleagues did laugh), but if I wanted to be more active at work, I figured I'd need to switch from editing to coaching field hockey.

At HBR, I eventually began sitting on an exercise ball to combat Spam Butt. It was also good for a laugh (and great entertainment when colleagues' dogs or children stopped by), but it did help me feel more active at work. I even noticed an abdominal or two after a year. But while I was sitting on the yoga ball, a curious thing was happening all around me. Heads started popping up and staying up. Standing desks were all the rage. The latest wave of stories asking if sitting is killing you was making its way around my office. This one even featured a black claw of death about to snatch a slouching chair dweller. I was happy with the activity level I thought my exercise ball gave me, but how much was that really?

Then I read Babson researcher Jim Wilson's article "You, By the Numbers," and decided to really find out how much exercise it was. Wilson writes about the use of auto-analytics in the workplace with the hope that we use the tools to increase our self-awareness and become better at our jobs and more satisfied with our lives. With advice from Jim, my colleague researched headphones' effect on his productivity, and I launched an experiment to see if sitting in a chair, sitting on a ball, or standing would help me be more active at work.

My experiment was simple and imperfect, but that's part of the beauty of auto-analytics. You don't have to participate in a years-long research study to get enough information about yourself to put some data behind your decisions. I wore the Fitbit Ultra tracker (since surpassed by the Fitbit One), designed to measure steps, distance, calories burned, stairs climbed, and sleep. I spent two weeks each sitting in a chair, sitting on an exercise ball, and using a standing desk. I kept track of my steps per day in the office to see if one configuration made me more active than another. And, I monitored how I felt overall during each portion.

Would sitting in a chair prove to be the laziest of all, as I suspected? Would standing make me more apt to turn and walk to a colleague instead of emailing? Would the near constant motion of sitting on a ball trump standing? I clipped on the Fitbit to find out.

It was soon apparent that the promises of auto-analytics are huge, but still limited by our humanness. Set it and forget it only works if you first remember to set it. Several times, after taking the Fitbit off to workout in the rain or sand, I forgot to put it back on and thereby missed a day of tracking. And near the end of my experiment when I didn't take it off on a hot day, it met its demise — death by sweat from a 10K.

Still, after 6 weeks, the results were clear. No matter what I did, I was slug-like at work. There were pros and cons for each configuration. Standing thwarted Spam Butt but sometimes led to sore hamstrings. Sitting in a chair seemed like cheating, but was the most comfortable place to be when that 3:00pm energy crash set in. Balancing on the exercise ball was far better than sitting in the chair, but now seemed lazy next to standing.

No matter the configuration, my weekly results looked like this, which includes running and playing in field hockey games:

Yes, sleep is lumped into the sedentary category (and I do get a fair amount of sleep), but it's still disheartening.

In the end I found that whatever configuration I used, I only hovered around 2500 steps in the office during a typical workday. I'll leave it to the doctors and ergonomics experts to argue over the merits of sitting vs standing for overall health and productivity, but thanks to auto-analytics, I know that one configuration doesn't make me more prone to being more active than another.

With that knowledge, I now mix standing and sitting without agonizing over which I should be pushing myself to do. I try to walk around the office as much as I can, and even stretch at my desk from time to time. But my experiment confirmed what I suspected in my first 9-5. If I want to really be active at work, I'm going to need a coach's uniform.

To Stand or To Sit at Work: An Auto-Analytics Experiment
Susy Jackson