Habits Are Malleable Throughout Your Entire Life.

Simply Giving Employees A Sense Of Agency- A Feeling That They Are In Control, That They Have Genuine Decision-making Authority - Can Radically Increase How Much Energy And Focus They Bring To Their Jobs.

Cravings Are What Drive Habits. And Figuring Out How To Spark A Craving Makes Creating A New Habit Easier.

But Countless Studies Have Shown That A Cue And A Reward, On Their Own, Aren't Enough For A New Habit To Last. Only When Your Brain Starts Expecting The Reward--craving The Endorphins Or Sense Of Accomplishment--will It Become Automatic To Lace Up Your Jogging Shoes Each Morning. The Cue, In Addition To Triggering A Routine, Must Also Trigger A Craving For The Reward To Come.

Shampoo Doesn’t Have To Foam, But We Add Foaming Chemicals Because People Expect It Each Time They Wash Their Hair. Same Thing With Laundry Detergent. And Toothpaste—now Every Company Adds Sodium Laureth Sulfate To Make Toothpaste Foam More. There’s No Cleaning Benefit, But People Feel Better When There’s A Bunch Of Suds Around Their Mouth. Once The Customer Starts Expecting That Foam, The Habit Starts Growing.

Then One Day, We’ll Put The Reward In The Old Place, And Put In The Rat, And, By Golloy, The Old Habit Will Rememerge Right Away. Habits Never Really Disappear. They’re Encoded Into The Sturctures Of Our Brain, And That’s A Huge Advantage For Us, Because It Would Be Awful If We Had To Relearn How To Drive After Every Vacation. The Problem Is That Your Brain Can’t Tell The Difference Between Bad And Good Habits, And So If You Have A Bad One, It’s Always Lurking There, Waiting For The Right Cues And Rewards.