Changing Behaviours
. Changing one's behaviour is hard, eg only around 10% of people who underwent heart surgery made major modifications to their life-style. Yet these people had the ultimate motivation, ie possible death. Changing other people's behaviour is even harder!!!!!! Changing a group's behaviour is harder still!!!!
For example, with the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the world in 2020, officials have suggested behavioural changes required to reduce the impact of the pandemic. Some changes include thoroughly washing hands, social/physical distancing in public, limited number of people meeting, wearing facemasks, downloading locational apps, movement restrictions, quarantining, isolation, etc. Despite repeated assurances from technical experts and official enforcement, many of the public have ignored practising these behaviours despite the possibility of catching the virus and even dying from it. This demonstrates how hard it is to get group and individual behavioural changes even when there is a strong sense of urgency, ie becoming sick and even dying.
. The "stick & carrot" approach is seen as a threat. It is better to use attention, ie when we focus on something, different maps across the brain start to work together; they copy one another, forming a pattern (can include an insight).
. While human change appears hard, the brain has unlimited plasticity & connectivity. Also, when cells fire together, they wire together (Hebb's Law). This re-enforced by the importance of repetition. To help this process, need to focus attention on sensory inputs (sight, sound, smell, etc) to strengthen, or start, neural connections and best to build on strong, in-place connections as harder to start with new connections
"...paying close attention to an idea, activity, or experience helps create networks in the brain that can stay with you, wired together, sometimes forever..."
David Rock, 2009
On the other hand, too much focus means that we can miss things that are not in the focus area but this state allows us to respond quickly to threats or opportunities to improve the chance of survival
- Need to appreciate people's emotional states when you want to initiate or facilitate change; only try to influence people when they are in a suitable emotional state
. Attention should not appear as a threat. By focusing attention away from threats, you can create new connections with the right questions.
. Practise using solution-focused questions that focus people's attention directly on the specific circuits you want to activate. This is better than using the most common default approach to help others by just giving advice on 'what to do "or "what not to do"
. Some questions that may help include
"...If you stop and think more deeply here, do you think you know what you need to do to resolve this?
What quiet hunches do you have about a solution, deeper inside?
How close to a solution are you?
Which pathway to a solution would be best to follow here?..."
David Rock, 2009
These questions should help a person understand their own thinking, ie finds the gaps and raises their confidence (status)