The Elephant, The Rider and the Path - A Tale of Behavior Change — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:12[Music]
3. 0:16Psychologists know that there are two
4. 0:18systems in our brains, the rational
5. 0:20system and the emotional system.
6. 0:23Jonathan Height, who's a psychologist at
7. 0:24NYU, came up with a great analogy for
8. 0:27these two systems. He said, "Think of
9. 0:29your brain as a human writer at top an
10. 0:32elephant." The writer represents the
11. 0:35rational system. That's the part of us
12. 0:37that plans and problem solves. The
13. 0:40writer might do some analyzing and
14. 0:42decide, "Hey, I want to go that way."
15. 0:44But it's the elephant representing the
16. 0:46emotional system that provides the power
17. 0:48for the journey. The rider can try to
18. 0:51lead the elephant or drag the elephant,
19. 0:54but if these two ever disagree, who
20. 0:57would you bet on? The elephant has a
21. 0:59six-tonon weight advantage. And it's
22. 1:02exactly that power imbalance that makes
23. 1:04adopting new behaviors very hard. If you
24. 1:08want this duo to head a new direction,
25. 1:10you also need to think about the path,
26. 1:13which represents the external
27. 1:14environment. This duo is more likely to
28. 1:17complete a journey if you can shorten
29. 1:19the distance and remove any obstacles in
30. 1:22their way. So bottom line, if you want
31. 1:24to lead change, you've got to do three
32. 1:27things. Give direction to the rider,
33. 1:30knowledge of how to get to the
34. 1:31destination.
35. 1:34You've got to motivate the elephant,
36. 1:36which means tapping into emotion.
37. 1:40And finally, you need to shape the path
38. 1:43to allow for easy progress.
39. 1:46That's how change happens.
40. 1:53[Music]