Forming New Productivity Habits: Theory & Practice

Forming New Productivity Habits:Theory & Practice

Agenda Challenge: Why new methods don’t “stick” and what keeps certain workers reluctant to change? Solution: How to introduce new working habits and make them “stick” - 5 practical recommendations Examples: Building particular productivity habits - Granular workload management and Culture of sharing Q&A Takeaways

Example of a Habit “ Walking 8 to 10 miles a day improves your productivity… and calf muscles! “ Not really a quote by Nikola Tesla Scientist and Inventor

Why are habits important? "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.“ (Aristotle) About 45% of our everyday actions are habitual

Even simple habits take time to build “Rewiring” the brain for a new habit takes 66 days on average. Depending on the complexity, it might take up to 8 months.

Four stages of learning a new skill Unconscious competence Conscious competence Conscious incompetence Unconscious incompetence

Psychological reactions to change

Productivity habits in organizations… • …“program” your organizational culture for growth and success • …form your team’s “memory” • …contribute directly to your SMaC recipe (Sustainable, Methodical and Consistent)

Solution: Leading by example “Just by providing a good example makes it possible for other people to see better ways to do things.” (Scott Berkun)

Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand

Solution: Sharing the power to change (peer pressure) “Social facilitation” concept: some competition might be motivating

Solution: Horizontal or vertical rollout Start withpart of the team and then plug in the rest of it Split the new habit into parts and adopt them one by one • Valuable benefit: small wins

Solution: Motivation triggers To drive change, you need to: • direct the Rider – rational side • motivate the Elephant – emotional side • shape the Path – external environment + instructions (Chip and Dan Heath)

Solution: Blending new habits into existing ones Leverage positive habits to write new ones on top of them. For example: Bring work data onto people’s favorite smartphones.

Example: Granular workload management Dangers of big assignments: • poor visibility into progress • insufficient control • psychological pressure on employees (“where do I start?”) • low-productivity performers can “hide” behind them

How can you make granular tasks work? • Use a sliding scale in planning • Let the team plan Bonus benefits: • People are motivated by sense of responsibility • Small wins in action • Fighting procrastination

Example: Culture of sharing The top quality of a good team member: “He shares info” (RW Wizard survey) Extra tips: • Encourage informal “social sharing” • Leverage cloud solutions

“Successful people are simply those with successful habits.” Brian Tracy Motivational Speaker

Thank you! Questions?

Forming New Productivity Habits: Theory & Practice