How to Cultivate the Right Work Habits

How to Cultivate the Right Work Habits
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Cultivate the Right Work Habits

Our organizational alignment research found that organizations that align their culture and talent with their strategy outperform their peers.  The ability to cultivate the right work habits to create organizational alignment, however, is much more complex than simple repetition over a period of time.  The ability to cultivate the right work habits involves the desire to change, the opportunity to change, and being held culturally accountable for change.

What Research Says about Cultivating the Right Work Habits
A most interesting study in India can teach us a great deal about cultivating the right work habits.  A Harvard Business School paper co-authored by Reshmaan Hussam et. al. reports on a field experiment on hand washing in West Bengal.

No one disputed that regular hand washing with soap could significantly improve the public health of this rural population.  But this simple habit of washing hands before meals did not become part of the culture despite everyone acknowledging the habit’s importance, understanding the risks of non-compliance, receiving carefully conceived campaigns, and getting free supplies.

What was getting in the way?

The Experiment on Habits
The field study sought to determine what would encourage and embed a positive new habit (hand washing with soap) in the daily lives of these Indian farmers and their families.  Researchers distributed almost 3,000 simple, wall-mounted soap dispensers with hidden time sensors inside.  They included a control group and various different levels of incentives.

After analyzing the results, the researchers found that both the monitoring and the incentives significantly increased the adoption of the hand washing habit.  And, even better, the good habit continued after the tracking and incentives ended.  Hussam’s conclusion matched our organizational culture assessment results, “Wherever we go, habits define much of what we do.  This work can help us understand how to design interventions that help us cultivate the good ones.”

The Relevance to Cultivating Good Habits in the Workplace
From a corporate culture and change perspective, the study articulated a goal (better health), monitored daily progress (time sensors), and provided incentives (tickets to be redeemed for food or gifts).  Similarly, to cultivate the right work habits in your corporate culture, there needs to be a corresponding combination – understanding that the habit will:

The Bottom Line
To develop, engage and retain top talent, smart talent leaders identify, support and reward the behaviors and habits that drive the strategic priorities forward.  Profit by the lessons from the West Bengal hand washing experiment.  Communicate the overall goal, track progress on an individual and team basis, and provide meaningful rewards.

To learn more about winning talent strategies, download The 3 Big Corporate Culture Myths about Talent

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