Change is Tough

Fighting your brain, the algorithms and deep pockets

Our brains are predisposed to certain behaviour patterns that have been, and continue to be, studied by the fields of neuroscience and cognitive psychology. These findings trickle down and are well understood by marketers, artists, performers, politicians, and influencers of all kinds. Even when you are aware of some of these biases and subconscious reactions, you will struggle override them. What is more, you will have been trained to follow certain triggers and to anticipate rewards for particular behaviours for most of your life through culture and our consumer-dominated lifestyles. Most recently technology firms, with the apps they put in our hands and the algorithms behind the curtain, have taken this gaming of our psychology to new levels of art and science. The scale and immediacy of access they have to us, our response to triggers, and measures to see results, makes us all lab rats.

So if I want to persuade you to take actions that are against the desires and goals of the marketers and other influencers, how am I going to do it? Even your own mind will resist. I can appeal to your better self, your higher motives, your rational conscious mind, but sadly, most of the time, this aspect of your thinking is barely involved at the point of making buying choices. The marketers make sure of this.

So I have been reading quite a few psychology, behaviour and neuroscience books and papers, with a few podcasts thrown in. What have I learned? Quite a bit. But how much of this can help me achieve my goals remains to be seen.

The techniques I intend to rely on are the same that you might use to make any changes against your habitual nature, like changing your diet, making changes to your relationships, getting healthy, or changing careers. We know that people (perhaps even you) do succeed in doing these things, and we also know that success is hard won and failure is an ever present threat. Success in changing behaviour takes sustained, dedicated effort in the face of obstacles and missteps. Failure is far easier, almost seductively so. How badly do you want to stick to that tough new regime, when you could just …(enter your own temptation here)? The success is likely to come down to persuading you that this change really matters to you. If I don’t get that, then you will be seduced by old ways and big marketing budgets and algorithms that know you better than you know yourself.

So for now, let’s just consider that behaviour change is tough, and it’s kind of a holy grail for a bunch of industries, and campaigns that want us to be better at something.

But I’ll leave you with a paradoxical thought. We all do make changes, and we accept and expect others to do so too. Things that would have seemed strange or unacceptable a couple of decades ago, are now the norm. Similarly we are now shocked that certain behaviours were ever accepted or tolerated. This shows that change does happen. It’s happening all the time. What we need to do is lead enough brave pioneers, like you, towards the tipping point, and to bring more people with you. Once it tips (and it will) we will become part of the culture that looks back in embarrassment that it was ever otherwise.

Be More Circular!