I was reading some research by Charles Duhigg that looked at what happened when Starbucks tried to implement a health plan. Despite employees being given access to gym memberships and diet workshops, they couldn’t get any traction. The trouble it seems was that whenever someone would run up against a test of their willpower, they would fail to stick with their new healthy intentions. What Starbucks noticed is that problems occurred at the inflection point; the point where employees faced with unexpected stresses or uncertainty would snap and those their self control. They realised what employs really needed was a routine to follow at these inflection points, when willpower muscle dries up. So the company instead developed a training course that gave employees routines to follow for when they had a tough patch. These were very specific instructions and to-dos for specific events and emotional states such that, in the instant when will power normally would fail, their response was automatic. This is how employees learn to make willpower easy… well easier. And then this could be applied to any other habit they wanted to change like getting back to the gym or implementing new diet. I like it!