Triggers

The author alerts us to the fact that our personal and professional environments are filled with sometimes unnoticed stimuli that trigger positive or negative behaviors. For example, a television in the bedroom might encourage us to finish watching a season of a TV series, even though we originally wanted to go to sleep early. When we make an effort to pay attention to these stimuli, we give ourselves a chance to change unsatisfactory behavior on a lasting basis, by avoiding or eliminating them. The former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, for instance, launched a program to fight obesity by introducing a significant price difference between a 20 cl soda and the 33 cl version at movie theaters. This limited the temptation to choose the least expensive—but also the most caloric—option per liter. Likewise, we can identify and reinforce positive stimuli. For instance, we can ask a close friend to call us every night to ask if we have done our best to move forward on our writing project. Using examples borrowed from personal and professional life, the author shows how we can facilitate behavioral change.

The book offers several tools to identify where to focus our change efforts. One of the most convincing tools is to frame questions in active form, starting with “Have I done my best to …?” (facilitate interactions with a particular person; reduce my sugar consumption; facilitate meetings more interactively; etc.). This way of posing questions encourages us to feel responsible for undertaking the required changes and to value the efforts deployed in the process as highly as the final outcome.

A convincing book, useful to those who have trouble modifying unproductive habits or who support others through transitional phases.