By Charles Duhigg
Random House 2012
402 pages
Nonfiction
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is an entertaining and
instructive look at how habit influences the behaviors of individuals,
organizations, and cultures. If you are seeking a self-help book that will instruct
you in how to get and maintain a good habit or get rid of a bad habit, this is
not the book to read. But it is a clear-eyed look at how habit influences every
aspect of life.
A Pulitzer Prize winner, Duhigg writes in a clear, narrative
style in keeping with his career as a reporter at the New York Times. He has
done his research, and his stories are entertaining. The section on the power
of habit in personal life was extremely engaging and made my husband and me look
at our daily activities with new eyes--the pleasure my husband gets from going
upstairs at night to a bed that he carefully made in the morning and the habit I
have of checking my email the very first thing in the morning, which is
pleasing to me because I like to get them out of the way first thing. We also
discussed the habits that we are not so proud of--the ones that drive each
other crazy. (Those I won't go into here!).
Duhigg traces back personal habits to
their origins and then looks at the ways in which those personal habits can
change. He tells the story of Tony Dungy, a pro football coach who became
convinced that the key to producing a winning team was to change players'
personal habits so that behaviors on the field would happen automatically. He
taught the team moves that would operate on a three step plan, find the cue,
change the routine, and feel the reward. Duhigg believes that to change the
habit, you must find the cue and the reward. Then you can change the routine
and change the habit. He adds one more ingredient--belief. Dungy took these
three steps, cue, routine, and reward, added in belief, and changed the makeup
of the way his team played. His team became winners because whenever they felt
the cue, they moved into the routine, and received the reward. However, it was
only when belief entered the picture that the team really became winners.
I particularly liked the chapters on corporate habits
because so many of them were very skillfully illustrated by Duhigg. He tells of
how Paul O'Neill changed one keystone habit at Alcoa Aluminum and turned the
faltering company around. Most significantly, he tells about how the climate at
Starbucks helps individual employees become responsible members of the
corporate and cultural community. There are a couple of horrifying stories
about how counterproductive keystone habits can be. For instance, the habits taught to the
employees in the London Underground were very disconnected from one another. On
the one hand, the employees knew their own jobs very well, but they didn't know
what the other employees' jobs were or how those jobs were interrelated. So,
when a small fire began in one of the underground stations, everyone continued
to do his/her own jobs, without taking any personal responsibility, and a huge
fire erupted which killed several people.
One of the major strengths of the book are the stories. One
amazing story line is about how Target figures out its' customers buying habits. For instance, their technology can tell when a woman is pregnant--before she tells anyone--and target
(no pun intended) ads to fit her condition. They determine probable purchases
because of subtle changes in shopping habits.
The reviewer in the New York Times had a criticism of The Power of Habit. He says, "The point is that habitual behaviors come in many
different forms, and squeezing them into one framework misses some of the
nuances of how to change behavior effectively. In recent years social
psychologists have developed many effective interventions to help people
improve their lives, only some of which involve breaking bad habits in the way
Duhigg describes." Duhigg's framework of cue, routine, reward may be too
small a framework.
I asked my husband what he learned most from The Power of
Habit. He said that he hadn't realized how much of life was dictated by habit.
He thought that he could identify the good and bad habits in his life, but now
he realizes that habit is everywhere in his life and the lives of the people,
the companies, and the culture around him.
I tried to hone in on a few personal habits that I am not
proud of and consider my options regarding those habits. I have had to chuckle
at myself. I am trying to keep a food diary in the weeks before I visit the
doctor in January. I am using an app called My
Fitness Pal. I have had to "do over" using this app several times
over the last several months because I stop using it when I have a day when I
want to eat something that I don't want to keep track of and have it show up on
my food log. I don't want to look at the daily calorie count on the days when
it is going to go over what I have allotted for myself. Denial is one of the
weak sisters of habit.
My husband and I read this book together and it engendered a
great deal of conversation. Sometimes we had to pull ourselves away from the breakfast
table and begin our day. Reading together has become one of the enjoyable
habits that we have created as a couple.
Duhigg closes The Power of Habit
The Power of Habit comes out in paperback on January 4. It
is a thought-provoking, highly enjoyable book. We both can recommend it.
New York Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/books/review/the-power-of-habit-by-charles-duhigg.html?pagewanted=1
Charles Duhigg's website: http://charlesduhigg.com/
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