7 - Building a robust habit - Katy Milkman on her book – How to Change – science of getting from where you are to where you want to be

Katy speaks about Andre Agassi and the approach Brad Gilbert took with him when he was going through a slump. She says that Brad suggested that Andre would have to devise a strategy that’s specific to each opponent and come up with a tailored approach to win and this new approach helped Agassi climb back to the top and win many more tournaments. Katy suggests a similar approach to tackling behavioral change.

Katy speaks about how we all can leverage the power of a fresh start to drive behavioural change. She goes on to say that if we look hard enough then there might be several fresh opportunities we could find in our lives. Very often, we think Jan 1 in a year as a fresh start and have resolutions. But Katy goes on to say that we can have a similar approach if we think wider about a new start. She also refers to an initiative at Google that looked at key moments where people are more likely to engage in a certain behaviour.

Katy refers to the song “Spoonful of sugar makes the medicine goes down” and speaks about how kids naturally warm up to the notion of doing something that seems like fun but adults sometimes don’t appreciate it enough. She goes on to say how we could think about combining activities to ensure that we increase the odds of doing it.

Katy speaks about how gamification of something is an art and if done well can really draw people into activities that they might otherwise consider boring. But she also goes on to say that if such games are not intuitively fun to people, they may not enter the magic circle, i.e. they may not embrace the implicit rules of behaviour that’s required for everybody to have fun. She talks about how individuals and organizations should think about this.

Katy speaks about the power of constraints and commitment devices which can help us move towards our goals. She refers to what Victor Hugo did when he was faced with a deadline in 1830 to publish his new book – The Hunchback of Notre Dame. When he had only 6 months left, Victor collected all of his clothes, removed them from his chambers, and locked them away. He was left with nothing to wear except a large shawl. Lacking any suitable clothing to go outdoors, Hugo was no longer tempted to leave the house and get distracted. Staying inside and writing was his only option. Katy speaks about the notion of commitment devices which borrows from this broad idea.

Katy speaks about one of the attributes of Dr Max Bazerman, her advisor (who has a track record of having several of his students in reputed colleges around the world) when she was a PhD student. She speaks about how he would behave when his students would often face a bump or deal with a rejection and come to him for advice. Katy says that rather than focusing on critiquing the work content, he would focus on encouraging the student, highly counterintuitive for a lot of us.

Katy speaks about what it takes to build a robust habit. She speaks about two archetypes – Flexible Fernando and Robust Rachels to illustrate the point. She goes on to say that Fernandos end up building a habit that’s likely to stick despite the vagaries of real life as compared to Rachels (any gender related themes are just a mere coincidence!). She expands on this topic here.

Katy speaks about the magnitude of change that one can typically hope to undertake. She refers to the example of Ben Franklin who decides to make a fresh start after a phase of debauchery. He goes on to make a list of 13 virtues and starts tracking himself on those. Katy shares her perspective around how much to take on in a change initiative.