You want new habits, you’re going to need to follow the Skinnerian plan. Period.

Interesting book to couple with this one would be Don’t Shoot the Dog, by Karen Pryor, who got her start training seemingly “untrainable” animals like orcas and other cetaceans. Fascinating book, once you digest it and apply the lessons to everyday life.

This “habit” idea is just another aspect of behavior, and behavioral conditioning. Basic principles of behavior modification are the same, whether you’re trying to get your wife to stop running the car low on oil, your kids to stop leaving crap on the stairs, or getting the dog to do tricks on cue. Once you have the insight, you can’t stop yourself from seeing it.

It’s the foundational basis for why I say so many “leaders/managers” don’t understand how their organizations really work. They’re blind to the influence of the environment that exists within their organization, with regards to behavior of employees and customers. We don’t teach this to people anywhere in life, and it’s a key tool for understanding and influencing the world around us.

I think that every leader, every parent, should have to demonstrate mastery of the principles by effectively training a dog or other animal. Can’t get your dog to behave? What hope of you having your kids behave, or of making your organization function as you want it to?