It’s happened to all of us.
There’s a route we’ve always taken from A to B, a route that’s always been perfectly okay. Then one day, we discover a much better route and from then on, that’s the way we go.
This discovery and change of habit feels good because our brains love it. Short cuts and smart habits make our lives easier, more efficient and more enjoyable.
And what works for car journeys works for everything else, especially in the workplace.
Which is where we come in.
At Unleash & Engage, we can improve all aspects of any business. To do this, we first look at the habits of the people who work there.
Very often, we find habits that are hindering, rather than helping, the business. They’re ingrained throughout the organisation, often damaging trust and creating systems which slow everything down and make it more costly.
When asked why those systems are still in place the answer is always the same. “That’s just the way we do things”. Or sometimes, “It is what it is”.
To which we always reply, “Well, It doesn’t have to be”.
We’re all defined by what we repeatedly do and if we do something often enough, it becomes a habit. Once entrenched, bad habits can be hard to change without help.
So we start by helping people and businesses to identify the habits that hinder, replacing them with habits that help.
We then coach people to devise better, more rewarding habits. Habits that build trust and make things happen more quickly. After that, we help them build those new habits into much better systems and processes, which they’ve tailored to their own requirements.
Once this happens, people are seldom tempted to sink back into their old ways. Why would they? Those old habits may still be lurking in the background but, like that old route from A to B, they’re not as appealing or as useful as the new ones.
So rather than fight old habits, we quietly forget them to focus on the new habits and the feelings of achievement and reward they bring. And since the new habits almost always boost performance, they then become “the way things are done”.
That’s not to say they should be the way things are done forever.
In the future, they too may need to be improved. Situations change, businesses evolve and different new habits will inevitably have to be established.
And this, we feel, is the best part of what we believe and how we work. Having changed rigid and cautious mindsets for good, we’ll have given people the skills, knowledge and confidence to keep improving their habits long after we’ve gone.
Because if there’s one thing experience has taught us, it’s that the “best way of doing things” today almost certainly won’t be the best way of doing things tomorrow.