CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIOUR: DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

What do businesses do when they want to grow and develop their employees? They do the equivalent of putting them in a classroom, sending them to a training course, even putting them on a workshop or training camps. What happens then? When we are exposed to these things, we are not actually changing our behaviour, we go on a course and then we go back to our working station thinking, where was I? What was I doing before I was interrupted by that workshop? And, we snap back to doing what we actually always did.

Change is difficult!

The reason we go back to doing what we actually did is that our brain is a fantastic habit machine. Our brain is hard-wired for inertia. And no amount of thinking or reasoning or appealing to rationality is going to change the brain, only actions can make a difference.

We learn and develop by doing things, by having real-life experiences that exist outside our normal range, not by being told how to do things or by giving reasons and rationalities. Start with small changes; disrupt habit patterns by doing something different! We do not know necessarily what comes out of it, but if you did nothing, nothing would change. And if you tried something there is a good chance of getting the desired result. Break down old habits, adopt a new behaviour, do something different. Small changes, do not require huge willpower or a major attitude change; these things are doable.

Another perfect example is of a man who was tough, decisive, he knew what he was doing with his life and above all he was successful. One day before leaving for an important strategy meeting suddenly, a colleague asked him to do something different, hold back let others have their say. He was astonished listening to it, yet she said “Look, give it a shot” and so he did. He went into the meeting and then he didn’t dominate, didn’t try to jump in, and observed the other people. To his surprise, he came up with good insights and eventually came in with some good ideas which never would have occurred to him.

So, if you keep re-using the same behaviour trait which got you to where you are, you may miss out on a whole host of new ideas and new opportunities that were there but you weren’t using them. You will stay on the same pathway and will stop growing. Give it a whirl, see what happens!

We always include the principle that if you just have a certain behavioral aspect that, for example going around with a hammer and approaching every job which you come up it, it will do well for some jobs but for others, I really doubt that it will work. Going through life with a full toolbox is the way to go. So whatever situation comes up you will know that you got a tool for every job.

So, change your behaviour and keep in mind that we have to do something different!