The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
“Habits, as much as memory and reason, are at the roots of how we behave.”
3 Main Messages:
Habits are built about the cue-routine-reward routine and can be controlled
By changing keystone habits you can change entire company culture
There is great power in small community groups
If you have ever driven your car down a familiar route home, deep in thought, caught up in a conversation or listening to music, and arrived at your destination without having really registered your route, then you know how habits can take over.
Our days are made up of habits, many of them unconscious - which sock you put on first, where you put your keys when you come in the house, the order you wash yourself in the shower. We do these things without thinking, and, using James Clear’s habit stacking technique, described in Atomic Habits, we can add on habits to these original ones to make our lives better.
But how do we form habits? Where do they exist in our brain? How do we change them, manipulate them, stop and create them? These are the questions that Duhigg asks, giving multiple examples of individuals, organisations and societies who have changed their habits and built habits for change.
The book starts by sharing the story of Eugene, whose memory loss impeded his conversation but whose habits allowed him to continue to live a life. Habits, it seems, are based in our basal ganglia, a tiny part of the brain which exists in all living beings. And all habits, according to Duhigg are based around the simple cue-routine-reward loop. He tells us: “If you use the same cue, and provide the same reward, you can shift the routine and change the habit. Almost any behaviour can be transformed if the cue and reward stay the same.”
Duhigg explains how this knowledge has been used for years to drill in the daily habit of brushing our teeth, in order to sell toothpaste; how it was manipulated in order to sell us Febreeze, trigger our eating habits in McDonalds and our shopping habits in supermarkets. He describes how Tom Dungy manipulated the cue-routine-reward loop to take Tampa Bay Buccaneers to greatness by “inserting new routines into old habit loops” and why they didn’t quite succeed. In a tale reminiscent of Ted Lasso (or conversely in perhaps another of the many cultural references in the show) the team bonded when the leader suffered and shared a great loss and when they untied in believing in their success. As Duhigg shows us: “belief is easier when it occurs within a community.”
This leads well into the second part of the book which shares stories of how huge organisations such as ALCOA, Starbucks and Target have identified “keystone habits”, through which whole cultures have been reformed for the better. Duhigg explains the power of a crisis such as the Kings Cross disaster and Rhode Island Hostpital’s turnaround. By using concepts explored in Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed, we know that sharing of information, knowledge and being open about mistakes and near misses are crucial in developing safe and robust cultures.
Part Three of the book explores how habits are created and used within societies. Duhigg explains why certain situations are the catalyst of huge change (think Rose Parks, Steven Lawrence, George Floyd) while many similar others fail to make an impact. He also considers the power we have over our habits and how this is viewed by law.
It is a fascinating and enlightening read; an explanation of the science behind habits and how our habits are manipulated by others. It is also a guide on how we can identify and change our habits and how this can be applied and used in organisations and societies for the greater good! If we can drive a car without thinking about it, then imagine what we can do when we really use our habits to their full potential!
