Harvard Business Review: Use If-Then Thinking to Change Your Behavior

I like the Harvard Business Review emails. You should consider subscribing to them if you like them as well. Here is one of my favorites to date:

Use If-Then Thinking to Change Your Behavior

 

We all have habits and behaviors we wish we could change. But just being aware of a bad habit isn’t enough. To truly fix it, start by considering your goal (say, “I want my team to know that I trust them”) and the obstacles you expect to face along the way (“I struggle to delegate”). Next, frame what you will do about the obstacles as if-then statements. To address the delegation obstacle, for example, you could tell yourself: “If I start to feel uncomfortable about not completing the work myself, then I’ll ask for updates on it in our next team meeting.” Eventually the link between the cue (the “if” part of the statement) and the action (the “then”) will become strong enough to help you change how you react. By using if-then statements, you can think through what will get in your way and make a plan to overcome it.

Adapted from “Two Techniques for Helping Employees Change Ingrained Habits,” by Joel Constable

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