The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (49 page)

3.29
“Most of the time, it’s not physical”
Devin Gordon, “Coach Till You Drop,”
Newsweek,
September 2, 2002, 48.

3.30
during crucial, high-stress moments
In fact-checking correspondence, Dungy said he “would not characterize it as falling apart in big games. I would
call it not playing well enough in crucial situations, not being able to put those lessons into practice when it was all on the line. St. Louis had one of the highest scoring offenses in the history of the NFL. They managed one TD that game with about 3 minutes left. A team that was scoring almost 38 points a game got 1 TD and 1 FG against the defense, so I hardly think they ‘fell apart.’ ”

3.31
“What they were
really
saying”
In fact-checking correspondence, Dungy said “we did lose again in the playoffs to Phil, in another poor showing. This was probably our worst playoff game and it was done under the cloud of rumors, so everyone knew that … ownership would be making a coaching change. I think we had instances in the past where we didn’t truly trust the system, but I’m not sure that was the case here. Philadelphia was just a tough match-up for us and we couldn’t get past them. And not playing well, the score turned out to be ugly. However, it was one of our worst games since the ’96 season.”

3.32
began asking alcoholics
John W. Traphagan, “Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for Use in Health Research in Cross-Cultural Perspective,”
Research on Aging
27 (2005): 387–419. Many of those studies use the scale published in G. J. Conners et al., “Measure of Religious Background and Behavior for Use in Behavior Change Research,”
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
10, no. 2 (June 1996): 90–96.

3.33
Then they looked at the data
Sarah Zemore, “A Role for Spiritual Change in the Benefits of 12-Step Involvement,”
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
31 (2007): 76s–79s; Lee Ann Kaskutas et al., “The Role of Religion, Spirituality, and Alcoholics Anonymous in Sustained Sobriety,”
Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly
21 (2003): 1–16; Lee Ann Kaskutas et al., “Alcoholics Anonymous Careers: Patterns of AA Involvement Five Years After Treatment Entry,”
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
29, no. 11 (2005): 1983–1990; Lee Ann Kaskutas, “Alcoholics Anonymous Effectiveness: Faith Meets Science,”
Journal of Addictive Diseases
28, no. 2 (2009): 145–57; J. Scott Tonigan, W. R. Miller, and Carol Schermer, “Atheists, Agnostics, and Alcoholics Anonymous,”
Journal of Studies on Alcohol
63, no. 5 (2002): 534–54.

3.34
Paramedics had rushed him
Jarrett Bell, “Tragedy Forces Dungy ‘to Live in the Present,’ ”
USA Today,
September 1, 2006; Ohm Youngmisuk, “The Fight to Live On,” New York
Daily News,
September 10, 2006; Phil Richards, “Dungy: Son’s Death Was a ‘Test,’ ”
The Indianapolis Star,
January 25, 2007; David Goldberg, “Tragedy Lessened by Game,”
Tulsa World,
January 30, 2007; “Dungy Makes History After Rough Journey,”
Akron Beacon Journal,
February 5, 2007; “From Pain, a Revelation,”
The New York Times,
July 2007; “Son of Colts’ Coach Tony Dungy Apparently Committed Suicide,” Associated Press, December 22, 2005; Larry Stone, “Colts Take Field with Heavy Hearts,”
The Seattle
Times,
December 25, 2005; Clifton Brown, “Dungy’s Son Is Found Dead; Suicide Suspected,”
The New York Times,
December 23, 2005; Peter King, “A Father’s Wish,”
Sports Illustrated,
February 2007
.

3.35
In a 1994 Harvard study
Todd F. Heatherton and Patricia A. Nichols, “Personal Accounts of Successful Versus Failed Attempts at Life Change,”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
20, no. 6 (1994): 664–75.

3.36
Dungy’s team, once again, was
I am indebted to Michael Smith, “ ‘Simple’ Scheme Nets Big Gains for Trio of Defenses,”
ESPN.com
December 26, 2005.

3.37
It’s
our
time
Michael Silver, “This Time, It’s Manning’s Moment,”
Sports Illustrated,
February 2007.

4.1
They were there to meet
For details on O’Neill’s life and Alcoa, I am indebted to Paul O’Neill for his generous time, as well as numerous Alcoa executives. I also drew on Pamela Varley, “Vision and Strategy: Paul H. O’Neill at OMB and Alcoa,” Kennedy School of Government, 1992; Peter Zimmerman, “Vision and Strategy: Paul H. O’Neill at OMB and Alcoa Sequel,” Kennedy School of Government, 1994; Kim B. Clark and Joshua Margolis, “Workplace Safety at Alcoa (A),”
Harvard Business Review,
October 31, 1999; Steven J. Spear, “Workplace Safety at Alcoa (B),”
Harvard Business Review,
December 22, 1999; Steven Spear,
Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition and How Great Companies Can Catch Up and Win
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009); Peter Kolesar, “Vision, Values, and Milestones: Paul O’Neill Starts Total Quality at Alcoa,”
California Management Review
35, no. 3 (1993): 133–65; Ron Suskind,
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill
(New York: Simon and Schuster
,
2004); Michael Arndt, “How O’Neill Got Alcoa Shining,”
BusinessWeek,
February 2001; Glenn Kessler, “O’Neill Offers Cure for Workplace Injuries,”
The Washington Post,
March 31, 2001; “Pittsburgh Health Initiative May Serve as US Model,” Reuters, May 31; S. Smith, “America’s Safest Companies: Alcoa: Finding True North,”
Occupational Hazards
64, no. 10 (2002): 53; Thomas A. Stewart, “A New Way to Wake Up a Giant,”
Fortune,
October 1990; “O’Neill’s Tenure at Alcoa Mixed,” Associated Press, December 21, 2000; Leslie Wayne, “Designee Takes a Deft Touch and a Firm Will to Treasury,”
The New York Times,
January 16, 2001; Terence Roth, “Alcoa Had Loss of $14.7 Million in 4th Quarter,”
The Wall Street Journal,
January 21, 1985; Daniel F. Cuff, “Alcoa Hedges Its Bets, Slowly,”
The New York Times,
October 24, 1985; “Alcoa Is Stuck as Two Unions Reject Final Bid,”
The Wall Street Journal,
June 2, 1986; Mark Russell, “Alcoa Strike Ends as Two Unions Agree to Cuts in Benefits and to Wage Freezes,”
The Wall Street Journal,
July 7, 1986; Thomas F. O’Boyle
and Peter Pae, “The Long View: O’Neill Recasts Alcoa with His Eyes Fixed on the Decade Ahead,”
The Wall Street Journal,
April 9, 1990; Tracey E. Benson, “Paul O’Neill: True Innovation, True Values, True Leadership,”
Industry Week
242, no. 8 (1993): 24; Joseph Kahn, “Industrialist with a Twist,”
The New York Times,
December 21, 2000.

4.2
O’Neill was one
Michael Lewis, “O’Neill’s List,”
The New York Times,
January 123, 2002; Ron Suskind,
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill
(New York: Simon and Schuster
,
2004).

4.3
What mattered was erecting
In a fact-checking conversation, O’Neill made clear that the comparison between organizational routines and individual habits is one that he understands and agrees with, but did not explicitly occur to him at the time. “I can relate to that, but I don’t own that idea,” he told me. Then, as now, he recognizes routines such as the hospital-building program, which is known as the Hill-Burton Act, as an outgrowth of a pattern. “The reason they kept building was because the political instincts are still there that bringing money back home to the district is how people think they get reelected, no matter how much overcapacity we were creating,” he told me.

4.4
“Routines are the organizational analogue”
Geoffrey M. Hodgson, “The Nature and Replication of Routines,” unpublished manuscript, University of Hertfordshire, 2004,
http://www.gredeg.cnrs.fr/routines/workshop/papers/Hodgson.pdf
.

4.5
It became an organizational
In a fact-checking conversation, O’Neill wanted to stress that these examples of NASA and the EPA, though illustrative, do not draw on his insights or experiences. They are independently reported.

4.6
When lawyers asked for permission
Karl E. Weick, “Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems,”
American Psychologist
39 (1984): 40–49.

4.7
By 1975, the EPA was issuing
http://www.epa.gov
.

4.8
He instituted an automatic routine
In a fact-checking conversation, O’Neill stressed that he believes that promotions and bonuses should not be tied to worker safety, any more than they should be tied to honesty. Rather, safety is a value that every Alcoa worker should embrace, regardless of the rewards. “It’s like saying, ‘We’re going to pay people more if they don’t lie,’ which suggests that it’s okay to lie a little bit, because we’ll pay you a little bit less,” he told me. However, it is important to note that in interviews with other Alcoa executives from this period, they said it was widely known that promotions were available only to those employees who evidenced a commitment to safety, and that promise of promotion served as a reward, even if that was not O’Neill’s intention.

4.9
Any time someone was injured
In a fact-checking conversation, O’Neill made clear that, at the time, the concept of the “habit loop” was unknown to him. He didn’t necessarily think of these programs as fulfilling a criterion for habits, though in retrospect, he acknowledges how his efforts are aligned with more recent research indicating how organizational habits emerge.

4.10
Take, for instance, studies from
P. Callaghan, “Exercise: A Neglected Intervention in Mental Health Care?”
Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
11 (2004): 476–83; S. N. Blair, “Relationships Between Exercise or Physical Activity and Other Health Behaviors,”
Public Health Reports
100 (2009): 172–80; K. J. Van Rensburg, A. Taylor, and T. Hodgson, “The Effects of Acute Exercise on Attentional Bias Toward Smoking-Related Stimuli During Temporary Abstinence from Smoking,”
Addiction
104, no. 11 (2009): 1910–17; E. R. Ropelle et al., “IL-6 and IL-10 Anti-inflammatory Activity Links Exercise to Hypothalamic Insulin and Leptin Sensitivity Through IKKb and ER Stress Inhibition,”
PLoS Biology
8, no. 8 (2010); P. M. Dubbert, “Physical Activity and Exercise: Recent Advances and Current Challenges,”
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
70 (2002): 526–36; C. Quinn, “Training as Treatment,”
Nursing Standard
24 (2002): 18–19.

4.11
Studies have documented that families
S. K. Hamilton and J. H. Wilson, “Family Mealtimes: Worth the Effort?”
Infant, Child, and Adolescent Nutrition
1 (2009): 346–50; American Dietetic Association, “Eating Together as a Family Creates Better Eating Habits Later in Life,”
ScienceDaily.com
September 4, 2007, accessed April 1, 2011.

4.12
Making your bed every morning
Richard Layard,
Happiness: Lessons from a New Science
(New York: Penguin Press, 2005); Daniel Nettle,
Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); Marc Ian Barasch,
Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness
(Emmaus, Penn.: Rodale, 2005); Alfie Kohn,
Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
(New York: Atria Books, 2005); P. Alex Linley and Stephen Joseph, eds.,
Positive Psychology in Practice
(Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2004).

4.13
By 7
A.M
.,
I am indebted to the time and help of Bob Bowman in understanding Phelps’s training, as well as to Michael Phelps and Alan Abra-hamson,
No Limits: The Will to Succeed
(New York: Free Press, 2009); Michael Phelps and Brian Cazeneuve,
Beneath the Surface
(Champaign, Ill.: Sports Publishing LLC, 2008); Bob Schaller,
Michael Phelps: The Untold Story of a Champion
(New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008); Karen Crouse, “Avoiding the Deep End When It Comes to Jitters,”
The New York Times,
July 26, 2009; Mark Levine, “Out There,”
The New York Times,
August 3, 2008; Eric Adelson, “And After That, Mr. Phelps Will Leap a Tall Building in a Single Bound,”
ESPN.com
July 28, 2008; Sean Gregory, “Michael Phelps: A Real GOAT,”
Time,
August
13, 2008; Norman Frauenheim, “Phelps Takes 4th, 5th Gold Medals,”
The Arizona Republic,
August 12, 2008.

4.14
“Once a small win has been accomplished”
Karl E. Weick, “Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems,”
American Psychologist
39 (1984): 40–49.

4.15
Small wins fuel transformative changes
“Small Wins—The Steady Application of a Small Advantage,” Center for Applied Research, 1998, accessed June 24, 2011,
http://www.cfar.com/Documents/Smal_win.pdf
.

4.16
It seemed like the gay community’s
For more details on this incident, see Alix Spiegel’s wonderful “81 Words,” broadcast on
This American Life,
January 18, 2002,
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/
.