Building Better Habits at Work – 3 Tips from the Experts

Building Better Habits at Work is Not Easy
The process of building better habits at work and developing top talent is fraught with challenges. It is not easy to break out of the old pattern and consistently practice the new. It takes discipline, focus, monitoring, and commitment.

Whether you’ve decided to develop healthier eating habits in your personal life or you need to change the habits of your employees to more clearly align with where the company is going, you need a plan and some inspiration.

Can Building Better Habits at Work Be Done?
Regardless of how many times you have tried to change eating habits and failed, we know that it can be done — plenty of people have been successful at losing weight and making better food choices. And regardless of how challenging it can be to change habits of an entire work force, we know that some companies have succeeded at building better habits at work to get better results.

Stories of Success
We probably all have a friend whose perseverance we admire — the friend who runs every day without fail, or the athlete who follows the same routine through thick and thin, or the work colleague who won’t answer email until the end of the day, or the boss who never misses your one-on-one whether in the same time zone or not.  What do these masters of long-term habit change have in common?

Building Better Habits Tips from the Change Champions

1. They Like and Prioritize the New Habit
   The new desired habit becomes such a part of their daily routine and existence that they feel incomplete without it. They plan their lives around the habit.  They can stick to it no matter what.

   How can you make the desired habits this important to your target audience?

2. They Anticipate the Challenges
   People who consistently succeed at building better habits prepare and plan for conditions that will work against them — the day it snows or the day that new deadlines are announced at work. Decisions have to be made.

   Will you give up the new habit or can you work around the situation and stick to your plan?  How about running at the indoor track at the gym or adjusting the scope of your current project to meet the new deadlines.

3. They Keep Score
   There’s something so satisfying about ticking off the to-do list day-by-day as you practice a good habit. And, at work, it is gratifying to see others practicing the new habits.  You can see the progress through monitoring and tracking.

   Recognize how much better it is when everyone does the right thing!

The Bottom Line
Habits can be changed. Take some tips from the habit change experts, make the commitment, and do what it takes to keep at it.

To learn more about building better habits, download How to Transfer of Skills and Knowledge – Connecting the Disconnects