THE POWER OF

HABIT

By Charles
Duhigg

WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO
IN LIFE AND BUSINESS

J e n Ru n k l e , P h D
Ru n k l e C o n s u l t i n
w w w. r u n k l e consulting.com

40 TO 45%
OF THE DECISIONS
WE MAKE EACH DAY
ARE ACTUALLY
HABITS,
NOT REALLY
DECISIONS.

And thats a
good thing,
because
otherwise we
w o ul d n t b e
able to get
a n y t hi n g
d o n e i n a d a y.

J e n Ru n k l e , P h D
Ru n k l e C o n s u l t i n
w w w. r u n k l e consulting.com

THE HABIT LOOP

An easy (until you try and change it)
three part process:
1. There's a cue, which is kind of a
trigger for an automatic behavior
to start unfolding.

Im hungry

2. Then there's a routine, which is

the behavior itself.

Open fridge door

3. And then there's a reward, which

tells our brain whether we should
store this habit for future use or
not.

Yummy leftovers

J e n Ru n k l e , P h D
Ru n k l e C o n s u l t i n
w w w. r u n k l e consulting.com

If you want
to change
a habit,

REMEMBER:
CUE ROUTINE
REWARD

1. Find a
diff erent
routine.
2. Find a
friend/grou
p who is
working on
the same
habit.

J e n Ru n k l e , P h D
Ru n k l e C o n s u l t i n
w w w. r u n k l e consulting.com

DURING AN NPR INTERVIEW,

A TOOTHPASTE STORY:
About 10 0 ye ars ago n o one in Amer ica b rush e d h is or her te e th.
Claud e C. H op kins , an adve rtis ing exe c, c han ge d that. " Clau de C.
Hopkins had mad e his name c re ating habits around products an d
makin g the m famou s," Duhigg says. " He had the se two simple
rule s: make a product into a d aily habit fi nd some simple cu e,
some thin g that's goin g to trigge r th e consume r and se cond of
all, you h ave to give th e m the re w ard. ... He intu ite d [the habit
loop] ye ars be fore lab orator ie s had p rove n th at it exists."
Th e cue Hopkins u se d to s e ll h is toothpaste was th e fi lmy plaqu e
th at forms naturally on te e th. " For years , pe op le had fe lt a fi lm on
th eir te e th and had ne ve r worr ie d about it, and you don't ne e d
tooth pas te to g e t rid of it," Duhigg says . Bu t th e poste r re ad:
" Ge t r id of that fi lm. Pep sod e nt give s you a b eautiful s mile .
People got into th e habit.
Th e fi nal s te p - a re ward w as ne e de d: In th is case , it was the
tingling, c le an fe e ling you g e t afte r brus hin g your te e th. J e n

Ru n k l e , P h D
Ru n k l e C o n s u l t i n
w w w. r u n k l e consulting.com

DURING AN NPR INTERVIEW, THE

AUTHOR GIVES A CORPORATE EXAMPLE
In the book we tell the story of Paul O'Neill, the CEO of Alcoa ,
the largest aluminum company in America and in the world.
When he fi rst got hired, everyone expected him to come in
and say, 'I'm going to concentrate on profi ts and effi ciency
and making people work harder.' But instead what he said
was, 'My No. 1 priority is transforming worker safety habits
within this company, so that we have zero injuries' which
is a big deal in a company where all of your employees
handle molten metals.
That's all I'm going to focus on is just transforming our
worker safety habits because he knew that if he could do
that, it would set off a chain reaction that would change the
culture throughout the company.
J e n Ru n k l e , P h D
Ru n k l e C o n s u l t i n
w w w. r u n k l e consulting.com

NEXT STEPS:
IDENTIFY YOUR ROUTINE
EXPERIMENT WITH
REWARDS
ISOLATE THE CUE
HAVE A PLAN
J e n Ru n k l e , P h D
Ru n k l e C o n s u l t i n
w w w. r u n k l e consulting.com