The Power of Habit

by Charles Duhigg
Random House, $28.00 
274 pages

The basal ganglia is a golf ball-sized lump of tissue in the brain, the importance of which was not well understood until the early 1990s. It was then that a team of scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology noticed that rats with impaired basal ganglia developed problems with tasks such as remembering how to open food containers.

By surgically implanting tiny sensors into the test animals' brains, the scientists were able to track the way the brain responded as rats hunted for chocolate in a labyrinth. There were no set patterns of behavior as the rats sniffed out the chocolate. To the casual observer, it appeared as if the animals were idly meandering about. The electronic sensors told a different story, however: the rodents' brains were working furiously as they navigated the maze.

Once they discovered the exact location of their sweet reward and made repeated excursions, the trip through the maze became familiar.

And the rats' brain activity went from racing into overdrive to automatic pilot. "The rats didn't need to scratch the walls or sniff the air anymore, and so the brain activity associated with scratching and smelling ceased," reports Charles Duhigg reports in The Power of Habit, a fascinating exploration at how the brains of humans and rodents alike operate, how we acquire and fasten on to powerful patterns of behavior and what we can do to make lasting changes in ourselves.

Citing the observation in 1892 by the social psychologist William James that our lives are but "a mass of habits," Duhigg--an award-winning investigative business reporter at The New York Times, who holds degrees from Yale and Harvard Business School declares, "Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they're not. They're habits. And though each habit means relatively little on its own, over time, the meals we order, what we say to our kids each night, whether we save or spend, how often we exercise and the way we organize our thoughts and work routines have enormous impacts on our health, productivity, financial security and happiness."

According to a Duke University study, he reports, 40 percent of the actions we perform every day are determined by our habits, not conscious choices.

At the same time, Duhigg treats us to a series of illuminating case studies showing how we can harness that power for good. Aluminum-maker Alcoa Inc., the U.S. Army, Alcoholics Anonymous and The Indianapolis Colts have all employed insights into how we humans form habits to, by turns, make workplaces safer, stanch violent street riots in Iraq, produce championship-caliber football teams and enable dipsomaniacs to sober up and reconstruct shattered lives.

"AA, in essence, is a giant machine for changing habit loops," Duhigg writes. "And though the habits associated with alcoholism are extreme, the lessons AA provides demonstrate how almost any habit--even the most obstinate--can be changed."

One of the book's chief findings is the existence of a "keystone habit," which abides in both individuals and organizations. By altering just one behavior it's possible for the results to cascade with life-altering, game-changing force.

At the individual level, there was the case of Lisa, whose life was impossibly chaotic. She was 60 pounds overweight, unemployed, broke and divorced when she made the decision to quit smoking. "Over the next six months, she would replace smoking with jogging and that, in turn, changed how she ate, worked, slept, saved money, scheduled her workdays and planned for the future. She would start running half-marathons, and then a (full) marathon, go back to school, buy a house and get engaged."

Breaking just that one negative activity resulted in profound, systemic change. At Alcoa, for example, an overhaul in the company's safety program by former CEO Paul O'Neill, over the objections of skeptical directors, managers and stockholders, led to dramatic improvements in not just the company's safety record but in employees' attitudes. Workers were empowered to shut down the assembly line.

Eventually, they began speaking up about ways to make product and processes work more smoothly, and morale and productivity rose and revenues and profits soared to record levels.

It is not hyperbole to say that The Power of Habit is one of those books, like Dale Carnegie's f low to Win Friends and Influence People that is destined to remain both popular and useful for years to come. People from every background--from business executives, educators, doctors, lawyers and generals to rank-and-file factory workers and mechanics, students, soldiers and the cop on the beat--will be looking to Duhigg for both inspiration and self-help advice long into the future.