Discovering Your Strengths Addressing Problems and Framing Solutions

Addressing Problems and Framing Solutions Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (Chip and Dan Heath, 2010) Based on model from The Happiness Hypothesis: Applying Ancient Wisdom to Modern Problems (Jonathan Haidt, 2006) The Adaptation Principle The voluntary activities you undertake vs. conditions of your life The Progress Principle: “Things won are done. Joy’s soul lies in the doing” -Shakespeare Let’s start off by talking about the book “Switch”. In general, Switch teaches us ]make those changes by showing us to look things from a different more positive perspective. Change can be about you , a job, friends, or even family. But we all know change is very difficult to make especially with little motivation. Switch is based on the model from the happiness hypothesis: The happiness hypothesis basically sums up that what we think makes us happy may work short term but not long term Adaptation principle:Many of us think if we won the lottery, we can buy a big house, a nice car, anything we want. Yes, this will make us happy but only temp. Adaptation will not make us happy. Why? Because we are creatures made to adapt, sometimes it's hard but eventually we come to terms with it. Voluntarily vs. activities you undertake: So what really makes us happy? When we spend our time doing things we feel passionate about (reading books we like, spending time with or loved ones). There conditions of life, things we can and can’t control, such as gender, or things we can control our career and how much money we make. But neither dictate our happiness because it is easy to adapt and. But things we undertake (spending times, with family, doing habits we like) voluntarily activities we choose to undertake will increase our happiness in the long run because they take effort and attention. They won’t disappear out of awareness, adaption is not as easy. Basically we need to work hard and enjoy it to really be happy. Example: The Progress Principle: Happiness comes from making progress towards our goals. `Graduation--happiness doesn’t come from making progress towards our goals.

The rider is the rational side to ourselves: the part of us that likes to think, and analyze, plans to the future The elephant: The elephant as you might guess is the emotional side of us, our gut response, we feel pain pleasure. The rider and the elephant disagree often. Just like the mind and heart disagree. Lastly, The 2 come together by shaping the path: change takes place in every level (individual, organizational, and societal) what all of these changes have in common is that for change to happen, something and someone has to start that change. Most importanlty, we need both of these to come together to really make change happen.

Framework Direct the Rider – what looks like resistance is often lack of clarity. If the rider doesn’t have a clear direction it will go in circles. Think of a diet, the rider already has planned out how we will lose weight, we will wake up early, go to the gym, eat lettuce for the rest of our lives, and be happy. The rider is that business guy, he knows what he wants and he is ready to execute the plan. We satisfy the rider, with surveys, plans, ways to execute our change.

Framework Motivate the Elephant – what looks like laziness is often exhaustion The Elephant wants to feel good, in every situation... The elephant wants to feel good The elephant helps connect our rational thoughts with our feelings and what makes us happy. When you try so hard to stay away from fast food, your mind is going in circles and it’s exhausting. It can get to a point where your so tired you just give in. (example of GRE).

Framework Shape the Path – what looks like a people problem is often a situation problem It takes more than just mastering the rider and the elephant. We are shaped by our environment. Therefore, shaping the path and tweaking our environment is the third major contributor to change.

Find the Bright Spots Bright spots are the best hope for the rider to promote change. Bright spots not only provide direction for the Rider but hope and motivation for the Elephant Small changes can have a big impact What's the riders strengths? : thinker, planners, contemplate, and analyze a situation What's their weakness: A tendency to spin its wheels and overthink everything, we are stuck in a cycle of negative emotions (Analysis paralysis) Relationship problems.---spinning wheels but when was the last time that we thought about things that were going well. To make progress we need to find bright spots, Whats working, whats going good, and how can we make more of that?

Script the Critical Moves Ambiguity exhausts the Rider Uncertainty makes the Elephant anxious (trainees, employees are usually uncertain and anxious initially) Schwartz’s research on choice… Can’t script every move, but can script critical moves If you seek out a solution as complicated as the problem, nothing will change, Rider will spin wheels 1% milk, shop in home county… Ambiguity exhausts the rider. Uncertainty makes the elephant feels anxious. Because he or she is spending great amount of energy trying to keep the elephant on the right path, especially if they aren't even sure where the path is going!. Successful change requires that we translate our goals into real life concrete behavior. You need have Crystal clear guidance, but most importantly think about what specific actions need to be taken to see that behavior. Don’t think big picture, think about small specific actions to see that change.

Point to the Destination Want a “destination postcard,” a vivid picture of near term future that shows what is possible It directs the Rider and motivates the Elephant (you’ll be 3rd graders soon) SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Timely) are helpful, but don’t generate emotion Destination postcards show Rider where you are headed and shows the Elephant why the journey is worthwhile t directs the Rider and motivates the Elephant (you’ll be 3rd graders soon)

Find the Feeling From Heart of Change by John Kotter and Dan Cohen – people usually believe change happens through: Analyze, Think, Change They assert successful change efforts are usually: See, Feel, Change When change works, supervisor speaks to both the Rider and the Elephant You can’t think yourself into better behavior, you have to behave yourself into better thinking. Sometimes we think good intentions is good enough but sometimes we need to simply act on it to change.

Find the Feeling When people fail to change its not usually because of an “understanding” problem, e.g., people know cigarettes are bad. When it comes to changing other people’s behavior, our first instinct is to teach them something. We used to think cigarettes were okay because cool people smoked. Target example:

Self-Deception We are all lousy self-evaluators Lake Wobegon effect--overconfidence Dan Gilbert research… Positive illusions pose major problem regarding change Most problems are not burning platform situations (just need to buckle down and execute), but are complex, ambiguous, and big... So….

Shrink the Problem To get the reluctant Elephant moving, you need to “shrink the change” Motivate action – close gap to the finish line (Elephant is already demoralized) Make progress known Small wins (meaningful and within immediate reach) In other words, if you don’t want that elephant to become hesitant, then you need to make that change appear small and simple. The elephant doesn’t enjoying completing any task without imitated gratification. They want the price right away. So your job is to make that gap between the finish line and where your at appear smaller. Establishing hope is the key element for this. You must acknowledge your progress and make it known that progress is happening. How do we do this? Small wins: small wins are like small pebbles of progress. They have 2 basic qualities. They are meaningful and within immediate reach.

Shrink the Problem Five Minute Room Rescue Not milestones, but “inch pebbles” Engineer to early success to create hope Use scaling. Supervisee reports being at 2 or 3. Supervisor notes being 20-30% of the way there. What would it take to get you to a 3 or 4? “What’s the next action?” Five minute: clean your room for 5 minutes Worry for 15 minus

Grow Your People Elephant hates to fail, creates flight reaction Create the expectation of failure along the way Carol Dweck Mindset Growth mindset Fixed mindset- Junior high students – “brain is like a muscle” training The elephant really really hates to fail. So how do we keep it motivated. Ways to grow your people. Teach them about a growth mindset vs fixed mindset. Fixed mindset--- people believe their mindset is static, their skills stop at one point or they stay the same. This tends to lead to individuals avoiding challenges due to the fear of failure. Growth mindset--- people believe their abilities are like muscles, they can be built up with practice. They will accept the challenges even if it means failing.

“Everything can look like a failure in the middle.” Rosabeth Moss Kanter Harvard professor

Failure Tell trainees not to trust the initial good feeling at beginning of learning. The message paradoxically is optimistic – you will struggle, but succeed in the end. Special education teacher – only gave A, B, C, and “Not Yet”

Tweak the Environment What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem Encourage change by removing friction from the path Successful tweaking should help the right behavior be easier to perform and wrong behavior tougher to perform. Lastly, let’s talk about shaping the path: Change requires a clear direction. This can be done by either helping the rider or helping the elephant. Make it clear what the motivation is. What is giving you that drive to change. Successfully tweaking the environment should help the make the right behavior easier to perform while the wrong behavior tougher to perform.

Build Habits https://youtu.be/tTb3d5cjSFI Self-control is exhaustible resource Habits – behavioral autopilots “Action triggers” create instant habits Willpower findings—Willpower is the motivation to exercise will. A person with strong will power will assert decision even if they face strong opposition. A person with little willpower will give in easily. Willpower and IQ Muscle… https://youtu.be/tTb3d5cjSFI To produce change, you must change the habits. In order to change the right habits there must be 2 things met: 1) the habit must be easy to embrace 2)the habit should serve or advance your goal somehow. Will power and IQ ---you can be smart, but you need willpower to get the good grades in school WillPower: Willpower is the motivation to exercise will. A person with strong willpower will assert decisions even in the face of strong opposition or other contradictory indicators. A person with little willpower will give in easily Willpower is a finite resource and we can use it up (cookies and radishes)

Checklists Checklist Manifesto Help to avoid blind spots Directs the Rider, shows the right thing to do Not equated with simple Keeping it simple helps with focus. Include internals, such as attitude, beliefs, self-talk.

Change Change tends to follow the pattern: Clear direction Ample motivation Supportive environment Restated - change occurs because the Rider, the Elephant, and the Path are all aligned and in support of the Switch.

Intention When things aren’t working, ask about the intention (which is almost always good). Implementations intentions…

Challenges Discussion of how to apply concepts…