Table Of Contents

PART I: The Habits of Individuals

1. The Habit loop - How Habits Work 2. The Craving Brain - How to Create New Habits 3. The Golden Rule of Habit Change - Why transformation Occurs

PART II: The Habits ofSuccessfulOrganizations 4. Keystone Habits, or the Ballad of Paul O’Neil “Which Habits Matter most” 5. Starbucks & the habit of success “When willpower becomes automatic” 6. The power of a crisis “How leaders create habits through accident and design” 7. How Target knows what you want, before you do “When companies predict and manipulate habits”

Part III: The Habits of Societies 8. Saddleback Church and the Montgomery Bus Boycot “How Movements Happen” 9. The Neurology of Free Will “Are We Responsible for Our Habits?”


4. Keystone Habits, or the Ballad of Paul O’Neil “Which Habits Matter most”

  1. change 1 Habit “some habits can ripple” -keystone habits- where to start individual -> habits groups -> routines

focus to bring people together “safety”

  1. cve-injury
  2. routine-contact within 24h
  3. reward

=> communication -> ideas


Keystone habits (K) Exercise -> eating better, less stressed, smoking less (K)Family meal (K)Making bed


Where to look?


2)relaxation:

tighten right hand -> fist } for each part of the body relax fist }

visualize perfect swim:

  • before sleep
  • when waking up

small wins

keystone habits

stretch - music - race // buildup of wins mentally prepare for failures “video tapes”


  1. lower infant death => improve mother diet (nutrition)

2nd way KeystoneHabits encourage change -> creating structures -> help other habits


write down meals once/week -> patterns

(K)-> structure


(K)daily gathering

(K)=> culture -> values

IBM research & selling … risk assesment


5. Starbucks & the habit of success “When willpower becomes automatic”

“When power becomes automatic” 1)(K) willpower -> self-discipline “automatic”

X “willpower is a learnable skill” skills remain constant ~ “willpower is a finite resource” v “willpower is a muscle that gets tired” => willpower workout v “willpower is a muscle you can train”

  1. specefic, detailed plans (*) Exception Handling “How to handle pain, prepare for inflection points” identify cue reward

-> institutional responses to challenges instructions for inflection points

“How to respond” “Starbux manual” -> script: cue -> reward blank pages -> role playing

Choose behaviour ahead of time = automatic willpower Set Goal, tell people that they will succeed

focus on boring Flash

  • rude vs kindness
  • sense of control over events
  • choice vs assignment

“people want to be in control of their lives”


6. The power of a crisis “How leaders create habits through accident and design”

  1. hospital, bad habits
  2. firm behaviors <- past routines reduce -. truce between rival groups

Nelson & Winter - Book != balancing authority -> habits --> real & balanced peace --> clear who is in charge

  1. during crisis are easier to remake
  2. “sometimes people need a jolt” crisis makes people open for change “good leaders cease crisis to remakeorganizationalhabits”

seek out moments of crisis


7. How Target knows what you want, before you do “When companies predict and manipulate habits”

  1. people are more likely to change habits on major life events (shopping)

  2. song -> pattern recognition (song hits) -> hit = familiarity “dressing some new things in old clothes” making the unfamiliar seem familiar

  3. war -> meat shortage -> food habits -> organ meats sandwich technique:

  • serve like other meals “slip it into meatloaf”
  • between sticky songs
  • fake randomness (target) “camouflage what you know”

8. Saddleback Church and the Montgomery Bus Boycot “How Movements Happen”

Rosa Parks

  1. Social Habits 3 part process
  1. start: social habits of friendships & strong ties between closeacquaintances
  2. grows: habits of a community & weak ties (neighborhoods and clans)
  3. endures: leaders give participants new habits (fresh sense of identity, feeling of ownership)

1 + 2 + 3 => movement becomes self-propelling, reach critical mass

(1) natural instinct embedded in friendship sympathy that makes u swilling to fight for someone we like when treated unjustly

  1. Will you help a friend of a friend? aka “weak ties” (2) “sense of obligation” aka ‘peer pressure’

strong ties + weak ties => momentum => with or against

  1. Saddleback Church 3 -> 2 -> 1 reverse “for an idea to grow beyond a community, it must become self-propelling” new habits -> where to go on their own “a movement is like a saga, for it to work everyone has to change

9. The Neurology of Free Will “Are We Responsible for Our Habits?”

  1. Responsability? gambling
  2. “wake & sleep are not mutually exclusive”
  • sleep walking
  • sleep terror -> brain shut down (cf brain following habits)
  1. to change a habit you must choose to