Coming up with the effective ways of making the workplace better is the easy party. The difficult stuff comes into play once you try to implement that change into the workplace, once you try to making the new stuff stick. And for some reason it seems, that even after months of doing things differently the newly established patterns can easily be knocked off and old habits can resurface.
One of the most encouraging things we can tell you about implementing new habits in the workplace is that it takes time. So don’t get frustrated if you don’t see the change immediately or consistently. Studies have shown that it takes about 21 consecutive days to form a new habit, but it takes only a moment to break a new habit.
In order to make your changes stick successfully you need to work on behavior modification. When attempting to modify behavior the one practice that has produced long term results with any degree of consistency is positive reinforcement or desired behaviors (think early Psychologists).
So basically with positive reinforcement you’re giving rewards to employees for properly doing the new methods around the workplace. You can choose which types of rewards they will be receiving, but money is generally loved by most employees so perhaps offering a small bonus is a great start.
The most key thing to positive reinforcement is that you want to be sure you stop reinforcing the old. While reinforcement of desired behaviors is necessary to create change, faced with conflicting reinforcement people will revert to what is comfortable and familiar.
It’s not enough to provide positive reinforcement of desired behaviors. We must also stop rewarding behaviors that conflict with the outcomes we hope to achieve. Continue to reinforce the new habit until it becomes easier, more familiar and more comfortable than the old way of doing things. Otherwise, at the first difficulty, source of frustration, or indication that no one is watching, many people will slide back into those comfortable old habits.
