|
TALSICO™ |
Which do you change first: Behaviors or Beliefs?™ |
|
|
|
by: Barry Henson - VP, Talsico International As manufacturing professionals one of the issues we need to address as we introduce performance improvement initiatives is the question - in order to achieve consistent behavior which should we focus on changing - the employee's behaviors or beliefs?
While we can force behaviors without addressing beliefs, behavioral consistency is driven by a supportive belief system. In other words, people behave in ways that are aligned with their beliefs. For example, I have a particular way of setting-up this machine that I believe is faster and gives me a better result. This may or may not be true, but I believe it and so it drives my behavior. So how do you as a manufacturing professional help your employees develop a belief or set of beliefs that support the behaviors you want on the job? The answer is self-discovered truth . . . Self-Discovered Truth:
Beliefs are formed out of our experiences. These beliefs form a set of filters through which we see the world and interpret events and information. This explains why two people given exactly the same information can come away with different interpretations for what they have just heard. Telling people what they should believe, e.g. "this is the best way of doing this task", is a fairly ineffective way of changing their beliefs.
The important lesson here is that 'telling' an employee about a more effective way of carrying out a task is a relatively ineffective way of developing beliefs that will support the consistent use of this new behavior. The most effective way to develop a supportive belief system is to structure learning experiences that allow them to 'discover' the truth. You're not out of the woods yet: But what if self-discovered truth isn't an option? Let's take safety as an example. In the 1970's the Australian government introduced a program to encourage voluntary wearing of seat belts. As part of this campaign they spent a million dollars (a lot of money in those days) on an advertising campaign educating Australians about the benefits of wearing seat belts. These campaigns encouraged people to wear seat belts and quoted the results of European studies concerning reduced fatalities and reduced severity of injuries. The results? Only a very small percentage of people took to wearing seat belts. The general public was not convinced that the potential benefits, keeping in mind that seat belts only benefit you if you are in an accident, were worth the inconvenience and hassle. Clearly the Australian government's advertising campaign had failed to change people's beliefs and encourage the desired behavior, nor was self-discovered truth an option. Faced with their inability to change the public's beliefs, the Australian government reversed tacks and made wearing seat belts mandatory. To force the behavior they introduced a stiff fine for people caught not wearing seat belts and they set up random police checkpoints. The results? People immediately took to wearing seatbelts in order to avoid the fine. Here is where things really got interesting... Cognitive Dissonance -
where your behaviors and beliefs must be consistent: Forced into a specific safety behavior (wearing seat belts) people began altering their beliefs to justify this change in their behavior. This is a classic example of a psychological principle called Cognitive Dissonance, which simply put states, behaviors and beliefs seek alignment. If your behavior and your beliefs are NOT in alignment you will feel anxiety until you bring them back into alignment by changing one or the other. One of the interesting things about cognitive dissonance is that it works in both directions: (1) you can structure exercises that help a person change their belief and they will seek to being their behavior in line with their new belief, or; (2) you can impose the new behavior and given no alternative, the person will re-align their belief to justify the new behavior. A note of caution here: if you impose a behavior on a person and it conflicts with a very strongly held belief, you may place them in a position where they feel they have no option but to leave. A firm understanding of behaviors and belief systems is critical to introducing and sustaining performance improvements. For more information on learning strategies and tools that can assist you in breaking old habits and embedding new behaviors please contact us at either of the addresses below: © Talsico 2003 All rights reserved
|
|
|
North America 1-877-591-2848 |
Australasia 61-2-9542-8055 |
|
®
How
do you develop consistent behaviors?
The
most powerful way to change beliefs is through 'self-discovered truth',
where the individual learns or discovers certain facts for themselves and
as a result these are seen to be true. One of the most common
examples of self-discovered truth is how a child learns that a stove is
hot. At first the parent warns them "Don't touch that stove,
it's hot". This warning is typically repeated multiple times
until one day the child comes a bit too close and ouch! The child
has just 'discovered' that stoves are hot.
