Nudging innovation: resolutions & motivation

2 Questions:??

- Why do so many people make New Year’s resolutions and then only last through January with executing on those??

- Why is our motivation not unlimited??

I am so glad you asked!

People are creatures who follow ancestors. 4000 years ago in Babylon, the earliest recorded celebration honouring the coming of a new year was held. Calendars weren’t as they are today: the Babylonians kicked things off in late March during the first new moon after the Spring Equinox. The collective ceremonial events were known as the Akitu festival, where the Babylonians made promises in order to get on the right side of all of their gods. They felt this would help them start the new year off on the right foot.?

Resolutions continued on with the Romans. When the early Roman calendar no longer synced up with the sun, Julius Caesar made a change. He consulted the best astronomers and mathematicians of the time and introduced the Julian calendar. Caesar declared January 1 the first day of the year to honor the god of new beginnings, Janus. The Romans celebrated the New Year by offering sacrifices to Janus.??

To this day, the traditions of the ancient Babylonians and Romans continue on around the world. So much so that Google launched a Resolution Map in 2012 where people could add resolutions and see others adding theirs in real time. However, a study by Psychology Professor Richard Wiseman (what a great name!) at the University of Hertfordshire found that while over half of individuals surveyed who made New Year’s resolutions were confident of success, in reality only around 12% actually achieved their goal. Given such a relatively low level of success, how do we find the motivation to last past January to stick to those all-important goals??

First of all, we often set the resolutions / goals wrongly: e.g. they are too large, too limited, or too boring. Research has shown that we are more likely to succeed if we write 20 different goals across various spheres of our life than if we only have 1 important and big goal. Focus, apparently, does not work on growing motivation - the number of resolutions does. However, focus is important for the execution, so going through a formal exercise of writing those goals, making a high-level timeline plan, not too strict but also within certain guardrails, sharing those with others, asking for help. And of course, not forgetting the FUN component of it, it's important to be serious and all, but if we choose a boring and painful way to achieve something, we are more likely to fail. Let's consider creative ways of getting there.???

Prof. Wiseman also uncovered some interesting gender-related differences and corresponding tips for success. Men are some 22% more likely to achieve their goals if they set specific objectives and write them down. Women are 10% more likely to achieve their goals if they go public and share them with their family (work family counts too) and friends. #WhateverWorks.

How could you add innovative items to your resolutions in 2023? A few ideas to borrow:

• Proactively ask for feedback from your clients / stakeholders
• Exchange with professionals from other companies about the best ways to deliver on your objectives
• Meet new people from other teams and understand better what they do
• Automate a process (or a part of it) that I you are working on
• Learn how to run Design Thinking or other ideation workshops
• Organise a sharing session about your work to increase transparency between teams
• Properly understand and implement in your daily work Agile beliefs and principles
• Dedicate time to challenging your own work and develop better solutions
• Volunteer to contribute to an initiative outside of your direct responsibility - on a topic you are passionate about
• Spend time to define your career goals, discuss them with your mentor and manager, and translate into actions
• Leave a thank you note for your colleague
• Consider becoming more sustainable in the way you work
• What else...?

[Cubist Still Life 1974 - Roy Lichtenstein]