Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast — Part II
It can take awhile for change to stick. Just because you try something once and it goes OK doesn’t mean that that is the new default behavior. New habits take around 21 days to stick and get into muscle memory. One action does not make for 21 days. It takes repeated exposure and repeated action for it to stick. This requires patience, something many of us are not long on. We’re not going to be great out of the gate with the new behaviors. We need some time to make it work. We also need some time to prove to ourselves and each other that it works.
Look at adopting a new software system for an organization. Moving people to a new CRM, for example, is asking a lot when it comes to behavior change. Especially for the Luddites among the team. (They’re out there.) Most people are not wildly enthusiastic to learn new tech. Some people don’t get why new tech is necessary. Some prefer the old CRM system. Some still even prefer pen and paper records. (Yes, still.) Even after they kind of get why new tech is necessary, they don’t want to march forward. They’ll delay. They’ll wait it out. They’ll use the old system and think they’re under the radar. They’ll be passive-aggressive. They’ll go through all the psychological states of grief of giving up the old way of doing things before they finally throw up their hands, capitulate, say OK and begin using the new CRM system begrudgingly. People have their reasons for their intransigence only you need to see through it to guide them to the software Promised Land. That, and you can make their commissions predicated upon proper data entry into the new CRM. If it isn’t in the CRM, it isn’t real.
Look at how hard it would be to have a successful CRM software rollout if it was met with a culture of end user resistance. Many companies have had to deal with this internal strategy blockade. Some were blindsided by it. Despite management protestations of “It’s good for you” and “It’ll make you so much more productive” and “It is designed to keep us all on the same page,” these selling points were insufficient to successfully change peoples’ behavior to start using the new software system. Culture just ate this strategy for breakfast.
Like mandating good customer data be entered into the new CRM first in order to get commissions paid out second, people have to get what’s in it for them before they’ll take the leap to do something scary. If they don’t get what’s in it for them, they won’t leap. They’ll stay put. They’re not going anywhere unless forced or else they deem it worthy to them. Leaders have to deal with this.
The solution is just like weight training: repetition, repetition, repetition. The key to developing new behavior is reps. You’ve got to run the miles and put in the reps in order for the new behavior to stick. Easy to say; tough to get people to do repeatedly. Remember: all behavior change is hard, especially when it scares us. Especially when it comes to teaching Luddites new tech.
Look at going to the gym for the first time. Your first couple of gym experiences are intimidating. You aren’t sure what to do once you’re in there. You’re new. You’re overweight. You’re looking to change. You’re here and not on the couch. But since you’re new, inexperienced and unsure of what to do next, gym newbies are in a tough spot. Couch culture has a long history of eating gym strategy for breakfast.
Enter the personal trainer. A dedicated personal trainer can be a lifesaver to people. They act as teacher, guide and coach to those seeking physical help. On the initial visit, they sit you down, talk with you, ask you questions about your physical history, and drum up a plan with you for food and physical activity. They are there to guide you. They are also there to act as an accountability coach to help keep you on track with your food and your workouts. For many of us, going to the gym for ourselves isn’t enough. We need an accountability partner in order to get us to show up. It doesn’t really matter who it is. It just needs to be someone we can be accountable to: a friend, a colleague, a coach. Someone whom we do not want to let down if we’re a gym no-show. You gotta show up. You can’t phone this one in. And, ideally, you never stop going to the gym.
The trainer coaches you on what machines to use at the gym, which exercises are right for you, which stretches you should concentrate on, and how many reps of each you ought to do. They guide you from early stages to help you gain more confidence in your physical activities. You get better. You feel better. You slowly start to notice changes in the way you feel. You start to think you really can do this on your own. Maybe you don’t need an accountability partner now after all. You begin gym sessions without the trainer just to see whether you can do it. Turns out you can. Yes, you are capable. You just needed someone to help you change your behavior.
While it is debatable in exercise science circles, You should eventually be your own coach in the gym. You learn enough and become disciplined enough to show up, to do the reps, to put in the miles. to do the proper stretching, and to wash, rinse and repeat. You can do this despite there being a time in your life where you couldn’t. It just took some coaching to get there. You had to get and feel what’s in it for you at the gym for it to really hit home. It is one thing to know what benefits you’re going to get by going to the gym regularly. It’s another thing to know what those benefits feel like by going to the gym regularly. Feeling it seals it, and acts as the glue that binds it all together. You think, while I don’t really want to go the gym this afternoon, I know I’ll feel amazing once I’m done and leave. And you go.
