YOU, ME AND THE RUBBER BAND
Larry Cole, Ph.D.
Pick up a rubber band and try to identify the similarity between you and that rubber band? Got the answer? Okay, stretch the rubber band to six inches by holding it in both hands. Do you the see the similarity now? No? Release the rubber band and it returns to its original state. Surely you now see the similarity.
Yes there is a big difference between that lifeless rubber band and you and me…our ability to think. We've got the most powerful information processor known to mankind contained in our brain. Just think about what it is doing all day long to coordinate our bodily functions than keep us healthy and alive…or at least alive. But in spite of our raw intelligence and the capability to make choices, we are very much like that lifeless rubber band. Let me explain.
Could I ask you to fold your arms? Note if you put your left or right arm on top. Now refold them and put the other arm on top. It's uncomfortable, isn't it? This explains why you always put the same arm on top whenever you fold your arms-it's more comfortable. Unfortunately that comfortableness becomes an enemy as we try to change bad habits-we like to stay as we are. But staying as we are and changing personal habits are mutually exclusive categories-you can't do both of them simultaneously. So we work to change and let's continue with the simple example of folding our arms. Suppose that in our work life the decision has been made that starting this Monday we are going to put our right arm on top whenever we fold our arms. Some of us will have to change, including me. All of us can do it, perhaps some of us struggle a bit more than others.
We begin with good intentions, but what do you think I'm apt to do? Return to the old habit of my left arm on top. Why? Because it's comfortable. We need a better system than simply expecting people to follow instructions.
So management hires a training consultant to teach us how to fold arms. The training goes extremely well and everyone likes the trainer. After the training session what happens? We go back to what is comfortable and who gets blamed for the failure? You're right, the trainer.
Management hires another consultant who teaches us that every hour on the hour we are to conduct a sixty second practice session of folding our arms with the left arm on top. No problem, I can do that. That consultant leaves. What do you think I'm apt to do the remaining fifty-nine minutes of that hour? You're right - regress to the old habit, because it's comfortable. Of course, this consultant likewise shares the blame.
This is terrible. Management brings in another consultant who exclaims, "You know what to do, the challenge is consistently doing it." So that consultant encourages management to buy everyone a bright blue right-handed glove. Why? The glove serves as a constant reminder to put it on top when folding our arms.
After a couple months, everyone is pretty good at putting the blue glove on top when folding arms. Then the announcement is made to stop wearing the blue glove. What do you think happens? The rubber band phenomenon takes control of our lives- we return to our original state when the system is removed. You might conclude with our ability to think and make decisions that we would perform at a higher level than the lifeless rubber band, but we typically don't.
We must remember that training does not produce a behavior change. Simply training and hoping behavior change occurs clearly does not work and leads to a waste of many dollars. Systems drive behavior change so to change behavior we must likewise put in a system that encourages the desired behavior change. I guess we need to enjoy wearing the blue glove!