Just finished reading this book:
My verdict: It is excellent and well worth a read. I plan to put the information inside to the test in both my personal life and my classroom.
One point in particular that caught my eye and made me think:
Author BJ Fogg, a behavior researcher at Stanford University, says people "change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad".
As the saying goes, this is BIG if true.
For the parent, the teacher, the boss, and the self, Fogg is not just saying that the carrot is more effective than the stick.
We often DO use the stick - "feeling bad" - on our kids, our students, our co-workers, or our selves. We, and all the world, often rely on inflicting guilt and shame, both to stop bad behavior or to encourage good behavior.
Time and again, it doesn't work as well as we hope.
Maybe it's time to focus on the "feeling good" over the "feeling bad". But in Fogg's thinking, the "feeling good" is not about a carrot in the traditional sense, not a reward for doing the right thing: a lollipop for finishing the homework, a bonus for meeting a deadline, or a new outfit for sticking to the diet.
Those things can be motivating certainly. But Fogg seems to have in mind a more basic "feeling good" - the internal feeling of success. Feeling good about one's self.
This sounds right to me. And it seems like the kind of idea that has much bigger ramifications than are obvious on first look.
No comments:
Post a Comment