Most of organizational change consists of breaking old habits and creating new ones. The status quo, after all, is just doing what you’re used to doing, on autopilot. To influence change, install new habits.
Habits are the activities and behaviors that require no planning or intentional thought process for them to occur. Some of the habits you might want to look at breaking or installing are:
- What information you use to make decisions
- Forms and processes
- Who to call when you need something
- Meeting rituals
- Automatic judgments
- Routine activities
By the end of your change initiative, you want the new way to be automatic; in fact, the initiative is not fully complete until that happens. Break old habits by adding reminders and removing enabling artifacts. Install new ones through practice and repetition until the new way feels natural again.
What new habits might you install? (And which habits might you break?)
Read more of the 99 Ways to Influence Change.