We have interviewed Torben Wiese, founder of Habitmanager, who for 15 years has worked with habit breaking and habit building through lectures and workshops. He is the author of the books "Break the Habit" and "Bend the Fish". We talk with Torben about how habits affect you as a person and what collective habits in a team can mean for your cooperation and productivity.
What is a habit?
When do you define when something is a habit and not a conscious act? The definition of a habit is: "An unconscious action that is repeated over and over again over time." A thing has become a habit when you don't think about what to do. The brain likes habits for 3 reasons; they save time, they feel safe and you get a reward in advance.
So how can you create a new habit? According to Torben Wiese, all habits change at some point because changes are constantly happening in our lives. We have 3 different categories that we work with: the physical habits, the mental habits and the emotional habits. If you want to make a new habit it is important to ask yourself; what do you want to achieve with this new habit? and what you want to avoid? What are the benefits of the possible new habit? It may be that you will achieve greater motivation, create better performance, etc.
It is a question of planning, but also a question of execution. Many people are very good at planning, but they are not good at executing. You need to look at what planning tools you use and how they work, as this is where the change should come from. We asked, is there a difference between talking about habits in our work life or personal life? According to Torben, a habit is a habit. Of course, there is more "elasticity" in the habits we have at home, but in general, a habit is a habit.
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Habits at work
If we are talking about culture in the workplace and want to build a strong team, how can this be achieved? According to Torben, you have to start by asking yourself; why do we want to have a good team? What do we want to achieve with it? For example, do we want to increase our turnover? Do we want to show our employees that we value them or what is it that we want to achieve with a stronger team?
In general, there are three groups of people in a workplace: favourites (these are the people you have lunch with, you know their children's names, etc.), OKers (these are the people you don't know very well, but I only hear good things about them) and dislikers (these are the people you don't know what they do, they show no interest in other colleagues, etc.). In a strong team, at least everyone is OK and everyone feels safe. In addition, it is everyone's responsibility, not just a management responsibility, to change a team's habits.
Check out the article on: meeting management.
So how do we break a bad habit? There is no quick fix, says Torben. You have to avoid them over and over again, and that's easier said than done. You might have some stickers or post-its hanging in your cupboard to remind you what it is you need to change, and eventually it becomes a habit. It could be that you need to stop eating sweets, and then you can have some post-its hanging up that say "I'm not a sweets eater".
The conclusion is always to remember that you and no one else have the main responsibility for your habits, i.e. you cannot put the responsibility on others. It is about taking ownership yourself.
If you want to hear more about habits according to Torben Wiese, click here.
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