Identity-based habit change AND the 'root problem' problem

Change who you are to change what you do and getting to the root problem

Part I: Change who you are to change what you do

There’s a fundamental problem with how we approach habit-building. This is the biggest reason for our failure to meaningfully change. The problem is this: 𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞. 

Changing who we are may sound dramatic but is in fact not. Here’s why. 

Our earliest identities are the product of our childhood experiences. We do well on Sports Day, we see ourselves as a runner. Our composition is read out in class, we think we can write. Once initially formed, we reinforce these beliefs with repeated actions: run more, write more. Before we know it, we have a sticky habit.

As adults, 𝐰𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥. We first set goals. We break them down into daily process habits. We chip away at the goals. That works fine for a while and then we run out of willpower. Soon, the urge to regress is irresistible and there’s nothing left within to fight it with. 

The trick is to not fight. How can we win without fighting? Replace goal with identity.

Instead of trying to quit smoking, call yourself a non-smoker. Instead of trying to run long-distance, call yourself a marathoner. Instead of trying to land yourself a first job in product management, call yourself a product manager. 

Don’t be coy. 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞.

Because once you call yourself X, your internal question becomes ‘What would 𝘟 do?’ Instead of ‘What should 𝘐 do?’

➡ Your identity decides your priorities (🏃‍♀️ is important to a runner)
➡ Your priorities decide your habits (I’ll run 5 miles a day)
➡ Your habits reinforce your identity (I’m running regularly, just like a runner would!)

This is a powerful internal flywheel.

Don’t start with goals like adults do. Start with identity like children do. 

Part II: The ‘root problem’ problem

If you have a habit of jumping at a problem the moment it is presented to you, if you take pride in being action-oriented, you may want to read on. 

Here’s a scene from your day: Someone (boss, colleague, spouse) approaches you with a problem. You hear it, accept it, and get into solution mode. You come up with something the same hour or later, depending on the complexity of the problem. Only a few months down the line the problem recurs, bigger and badder. Your fix was a bandaid on a gaping wound. Someone from outside takes one look and makes a creative suggestion that puts things right for good, and you wonder why you didn’t think of that. You get my drift.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐞. 𝐒𝐨, 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦, 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞. 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭. 

How do you get to the root problem?

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 1: 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞. 

Decision Question: Which content marketer should I hire?
Assumption: 𝘈 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭-𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦

What management discipline should I specialize in?
𝘈𝘯 𝘔𝘉𝘈 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭𝘴

Where should we buy a house?
𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴.

Teasing out unstated assumptions removes constraints from your thinking. Next, test each assumption by posing it as a question.  

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 2: 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐰𝐡𝐨, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 WHY 𝐚𝐧𝐝 HOW

Which content marketer should I hire? > How to best acquire customers?

What management discipline should I specialize in? > Why do I need an MBA?

Where should we buy a house? > How can we live comfortably within our means?

Arriving at the root problem means you have identified the point of maximum leverage–that thing that’ll bring you the most benefits for the longest time. So when considering a problem statement, ask yourself: Is this my root problem?

Part III: Two stages of problem-solving

How we define a problem dictates the solutions we see. 

We don’t build cars that are sent to the museum after a trip, but we have always built rockets for single use. 

We don’t call cars fully reusable but we are calling a new generation of rockets that, as they acquire capabilities to outlast a single trip to space.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞. 

When we defined the problem as sending a human to the moon, we ended up doing just that. When we think beyond flags and footprints to living in space, we start thinking reusable rockets, huge payloads, multiple-trip mileage, et cetera.

𝐒𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬?

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 1: 𝐑𝐞𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝.
This is a crucial first step before you can get your team to re-articulate the root problem.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 2: 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.
This allows you to widen the frame and explore alternatives. Without this decoupling, the team is likely to get caught up in signaling how smart they are by jumping to problem-solving. 

It is possible that after Step 2 you may decide that the cost of solving the root problem is too high and make a trade-off to solve a more urgent piece of the problem. But the process will leave you aware of the opportunity cost of your decision.

𝐓𝐢𝐩 1: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦? 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐦 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐤. Otherwise, you’ll get as many versions of the problem as the number of business functions you ask. 

𝐓𝐢𝐩 2: 𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. We are all rewarded for solving whatever problem we’re presented with. Why not have similar benefits for taking any problem thrown at us and checking if that’s the right problem to solve?

The speed with which you respond to a problem matters only if you’re aiming right. It is good practice to question the defaults you are operating under. For that, don’t let anyone define a problem for you.