BITE TWO
10 MIN READ
4 SIMPLE STEPS FOR ACTION
Do you ever wish you could just make people act like you want them to? Like a genie in a bottle, you cross your arms, nod your head, and hey-presto, they are acting like you need em to.
Never going to happen hey? Good news is though, you can put others into the place of most potential to change. This is your job as a coach. Read on to hear how.
James Clear has a great book out called ‘Atomic Habits’. Totally brilliant. A must read. In it, he provides four simple steps to put yourself or others in the place of most potential to change. The following is adapted from his book, but if this makes any kind of sense for you, we can’t recommend highly enough to read his book in full. As a coach, it could be a game changer to your practice.
FOUR SIMPLE STEPS…
Make action obvious
Make action attractive
Make action easy
Make action satisfying
FIRST RULE: MAKE IT OBVIOUS…
The subconscious likes to act on autopilot, so if you don’t make behaviour change obvious, you will be fighting this basic human coping mechanism of acting without thinking.
Making the behaviour change obvious means your people will be able to identify and verbalise when, where and how the new behaviour will take place and what are the existing triggers that mean the new behaviour protocol should be initiated.
The best triggers are time and location. For example, I will [BEHAVIOUR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].
Can your coachee identify and verbalise the change they are seeking?
SECOND RULE: MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE…
Behaviour change is an uphill battle for mere mortals until the behaviour becomes a habit. So what can you do as a leader to make the behaviour change attractive to compensate for the pain of change.
Can your coachee identify how the new behaviour will either benefit them or elevate pain?
Can they sandwich the new behaviour within two existing fun or rewarding activities?
Can you identify how the new behaviour will alleviate pain in another area?
THIRD RULE: MAKE IT EASY…
Too many new initiatives in the workplace fail for being too complicated. Think easy, lowest common denominator, minimal effort, least clicks to complete.
Have a look through the behaviour change you are initiating and run through this checklist…
Are there any steps your coachee can eliminate?
What effort is not required?
How can your coachee set new behaviours that ensure they move forward slowly but never backwards?
FOURTH RULE: MAKE IT SATISFYING…
The human brain did not evolve to handle delayed gratification. This is a fairly modern concept and is hard on our brains to accept. So use this to your advantage to make any behaviour change have an immediate and satisfying reward. You’ll win the change more this way.
Get creative here. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, but it needs to be noticeable. A way to mark the success for completing the new behaviour.
What regular and meaningful reward rituals can your coachee commit to, to celebrate action?
Let’s now draw all the elements of the ACTION MODEL and the 4 SIMPLE STEPS into a practical worksheet to help you apply these in your coaching practice. Momentum, Tracking and Feedback… here we come…