Managers in hospitality spend a great deal of time attempting to improve the performance of their teams through behavior change.
Behavior change is hard, in part because we go at it incorrectly. BJ Fogg and his group at Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab put together a list of common mistakes in behavior change.
Over the next few posts, I’ll discuss the relevance of each point to the service industry.
Let’s begin…
Mistake #1. Relying on willpower for long-term change
We all like to think that if we (or someone else) would just “try harder”…care more…put in more effort…we could change. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. It especially doesn’t work when a manager is trying to get someone else to change his behavior.
Willpower is not sustainable in long-term behavior change.
The Key: Imagine willpower doesn’t exist.
Mistake #2. Attempting big leaps instead of baby steps
If you want your training program to fail, unveil it all at once. Or have a consultant come in and do it in a day. Nothing worth sustaining over time can follow the “one and done” approach.
Start small. First, get your whole team to smile at each guest. Then get them good at the “welcome”. Then get them good at the “farewell.”
Figure out the end goal, and then break down the intermediate steps necessary to get there. Seriously. Don’t go for it all at once. It won’t stick.
The Key: Seek tiny successes, one after another.
Mistake #3. Ignoring how environment shapes behaviors
Our behavior is impacted by our environment. Read this:
“We put candies either on their desks, or six feet from their desks, in either a clear or an opaque bowl, and every day we refilled the candy dishes. And we found that a typical secretary on a typical day would eat about nine Hershey’s Kisses–which is about 225 calories–if they were sitting on her desk.
But if we moved the candy dish six feet away, they ate only four candies–or about 125 fewer calories a day. Over the course of a year, that would translate into 11 to 12 pounds of extra weight they would gain by having the candy on the desk instead of six feet away.
We asked the secretaries if six feet was just too far to walk, but they said, “No, it’s just that the six feet gave me pause to think, ‘Am I really that hungry?’” And half the time, they said no.” Source
It wasn’t about willpower…it was about environment.
What can you change about the work environment to encourage (or discourage) certain behaviors?
The Key: Change your life and change your context
More to come next week…
NIce. Thank you for this. Particularly impactful is the comment of willpower versus environment. I wonder, is the specific information in your research and expereince about the impact of structure on ability/willingess and success in change?