How To Design Better Habits
It can be daunting as a fire service leader to stare down a big problem in your organization. But so often, we overlook how small changes can have a massively big impact when positioned in the right place.
And the right place is often the environment.
Humans naturally want to take the path of least resistance when it comes to their habits, and those habits form as a result of the shape and composition of their physical surroundings.
When we’re trying to change a habit in ourselves, the shift can be as simple as replacing soda with bubbly water in our fridge. That way, when we reach for a cold drink, the healthy alternative is the only thing available. Most humans are far too uninterested in that moment to waste energy driving themselves over to a convenience store and will drink whatever is in front of them. Bubbly water for the win.
The same rules of habit change can also apply to the fire station. If you want your people to change, tweak the environment so that the behavior you want to promote is the only option. Make the old behavior impossible.
One department we worked with was experiencing a high volume of angry calls to the HR director. These calls often became venting sessions, with callers being gruff with the director and taking far too long to get to the heart of the matter. The calls became so frequent and draining that she was beginning to burn out from receiving them.
The switch? All complaints to the HR department had to be submitted in writing, effective immediately and with no exceptions. The HR director sent all calls to voicemail and crafted a new message instructing callers to email her instead and notifying them that she would respond within 48 hours.
This created a healthier boundary between employees and the HR director and broke the habit of making her their personal scapegoat or complaint hotline. She was also able to immediately filter and prioritize issues by skimming the email instead of wasting precious time waiting for the caller to reveal what was bothering them over the phone.
Systemic change becomes much more automatic when the path of least resistance is adjusted to support the new action and the old behavior becomes much harder to accomplish. That way, laziness is on your side.
Remember to use physical changes as much as possible to avoid people reverting to their old ways. If the HR director still took some calls, folks would learn fast that the new rule was unenforced and go back to ringing her up.
What is one change you’re hoping to enact in your crews?
More importantly, how can you adjust the environment so that the behavior you want becomes the easiest and most natural choice? Or the only choice?
If you want more strategies to help you lead change, strengthen your organization, and tackle the challenges that come with leading a modern fire service, subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep the information flowing.