Skill Not Will - A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

At the most recent Association of American Medical Colleges conferences, there was a presentation by Joseph Gerry from Vitalsmarts  who talked about research about behavior change.

BEHAVIORAL INFLUENCE IS FOUR TIMES THAT OF MEDS!
Mr Gerry cited an article by McGinnis (J.M. McGinnis, P. Williams-Russo, and J.R. Knickman, “The Case for More Active Policy Attention to Health Promotion,” Health Affairs 21, no. 2 (2002): 78–93.) that attributes 40% of deaths due to behavior. In contrast, medications, procedures, labs and tests only contribute 10-15%!

SOURCES OF BEHAVIORAL INFLUENCE  His theme for his presentation was about the six areas that need to be working to promote behavior change.

THE SIX SOURCES OF INFLUENCE

1. Personal Motivation – overcome your own reluctance and resistance
2. Personal Ability – learn how to master the necessary skills for success
3. Social Motivation – enlist help from leaders or other opinion leaders
4. Social Ability – leverage teamwork
5. Structural Motivation – reward your early successes 

6. Structural Ability – surround yourself with a supportive physical environment  

If you want to make change, you need to use four or more of these sources of influence to change bad habits. If you use all six, you can be 10 times more successful.
 
Per research from his organization, if a person has four areas working for them, they have four times the likelihood at making the change.
 
PRACTICING CHANGE - The average number of times you need to make the change (before it sticks) is 23!!
 
SKILL NOT WILL - Another area highlighted was that we overdepend on motivation ("If only I wanted that enough!") and under-rely on learning skills to promote change. He refers to this as the 'will power trap.' My this over-reliance we merely abuse ourselves (at our failures) rather than learn from our mistakes. The barrier to change is our blindness to this fact - not our motivation.  See the blindness video here or click below:

 
HOLD TWO VIEWPOINTS In the presentation, Gerry encouraged the audience to become "the subject AND the scientist." By identifying how I am excellent at avoiding exercise, for example, I have a long list of what doesn't work - what skills to not-exercise that I have. By writing them down, I can generate the skills I need in order to make a change.
Check out the Changeanything.com website with a custom change plan here.
 
SO WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE? Per Gerry - we aren't unmotivated, we are blind and outnumbered. So we have to first see what we are (and aren't doing) and identify the skills we need.
 
WHAT EXPERT SKILLS DO YOU HAVE IN NOT-CHANGING? (aka "I'm aware that ultimatums don't work for me'; "I'm excellent at procrastination) WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED?
 
DO YOU HAVE GOOD COACHES TO HELP WITH THE CHANGE? (OR DO I HAVE ACCOMPLICES INSTEAD OF HELPFUL FRIENDS?)
 
HOW DO I DRAFT A CHANGE STATEMENT (or personal motivation statement) AND FRAME IT IN A MODEL OF SOMETHING DESIRABLE?
 
I think that part of the success we've had within the Philadelphia Ujima Collaborative is that we include a number of the change factors.
 
To read more - Check out tutorial videos at change anything.com website