Hiding What You Know Is Sometimes As

Habits Are Malleable Throughout Your Entire Life.

Simply Giving Employees A Sense Of Agency- A Feeling That They Are In Control, That They Have Genuine Decision-making Authority - Can Radically Increase How Much Energy And Focus They Bring To Their Jobs.

Shampoo Doesn’t Have To Foam, But We Add Foaming Chemicals Because People Expect It Each Time They Wash Their Hair. Same Thing With Laundry Detergent. And Toothpaste—now Every Company Adds Sodium Laureth Sulfate To Make Toothpaste Foam More. There’s No Cleaning Benefit, But People Feel Better When There’s A Bunch Of Suds Around Their Mouth. Once The Customer Starts Expecting That Foam, The Habit Starts Growing.

However, To Modify A Habit, You Must Decide To Change It. You Must Consiously Accept The Hard Work Of Identifying The Cues And Rewards That Drive The Habits' Routines, And Find Alternatives. You Must Know You Have Control And Be Self-conscious Enough To Use It -- And Every Chapter In This Book Is Devoted To Illustrating A Different Aspect Of Why That Control Is Real.

Habits Are Powerful, But Delicate. They Can Emerge Outside Our Consciousness, Or Can Be Deliberately Designed. They Often Occur Without Our Permission, But Can Be Reshaped By Fiddling With Their Parts. They Shape Our Lives Far More Than We Realize—they Are So Strong, In Fact, That They Cause Our Brains To Cling To Them At The Exclusion Of All Else, Including Common Sense.