Friday, July 18, 2014

Book Review: The Power of Habit

In a first for me in this blog; non-fiction!  I don't think I have reviewed a non-fiction book before here, even though I do read them.  Admittedly my reading habits tend to skew towards fiction, but not entirely.

I really enjoyed The Power of Habit.  I typically will admit to being a creature of habit, but wasn't aware of how much habit actually guides our decisions.  And how if the same behaviors are repeated enough they become almost automatic.

In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg writes about a number of case studies that show how positive habits can lead to change, including football coach Tony Dungee's transformation of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from perennial losers into Super Bowl Champions.  He also writes of CEO of Alcoa Paul O'Neill and how making safety the most important metric in his company caused accidents to fall and profits to soar.

There are also many different and interesting studies of how Target does marketing, how radio play choices can make an unfamiliar song into a hit, how Alcoholics Anonymous works to help people quit drinking, and how Pastor Rick Warren built one of the largest churches in the nation.  At the end of the book there is even an appendix that shows you how to change bad habits into good habits.

The Power of Habit, is a helpful book if you are in business, or if you just have some pesky habits that need to be modified.  It helps show us the good habits of successful enterprises and how to identify bad habits in ourselves and change them for the better.   A must read for people in business.

The Power of Habit is available on sale for $14 + tax.

What is one habit that you have that you would like to change?

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