Vital behaviors are high-leverage actions that lead to desired results if done repeatedly. To identify these behaviors it is important to find strategies to search for them. There are four main search strategies used to identify vital behaviors. These are; notice the obvious, look for crucial moments, learn from positive deviants and spot culture busters.
When noticing the obvious, it is important for one to identify obvious actions that can be used to achieve desired results. For instance, COVID-19 has managed to distress most of the world. According to Hall (2020), instead of people spreading fear inducing scenarios people must talk more about strategies that limit the infection from spreading. The familiar and more obvious measures are; wash your hands frequently and well, cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing, wear a mask and avoid close contact with infected people. If people focus more on strengthening herd immunity through behavior it will help a lot with prevent the spread of COVID-19. Better ways of implementing those precautionary measures consistently must be implemented.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Crucial moments are moments when a situation appears be going in a bad direction, moments of failure. Finding this moment is pivotal when looking for behaviors to change. This moment can have a huge impact on your results. For example, dealing with children can be difficult and it is important to pick up on crucial moments to avoid certain outcomes. According to Childmind (2020), there are some tips that parents can use to avoid bad behavior in children. It is important for parents to see what has happened in the past to trigger that behavior. This can help the parents better know how to avert these situations from occurring and instead use positive triggers to bring about a more desirable result. My personal experience is when I was trying to set a routine of waking up at 4 in the morning, no matter what I did, I kept failing to get up. This for me was the crucial moment of failure. I instead tried to understand why it was difficult to wake up, I realized that because of sleeping late, waking up early was hard. With that I made it a point to sleep earlier and get enough sleep and waking up got a lot easier.
Positive deviants are people that face the same challenges as others but for some reason they find a way to succeed. The question becomes, what are they doing that the others are not. According to Bhattacharya, et al. (2019), a malaria consortium came together to discuss positive deviance in Cambodia. They discussed the concept and how it works. As they were doing this they discovered that one woman had been visiting a malaria prone area for years and yet had never had malaria. She became their positive deviance model. They found out that some of her routine practices were very useful in malaria prevention. These practices could then be shared and implemented. It was also recommended that the positive deviance approach be used in other areas. Personally, I had found myself in a lot of debt at some point. I talked to an uncle of mine who had been in a much worse situation but is doing a lot better now. He helped me see where I had been going wrong and assisted me with ways on how to get out of debt. Jesus Christ is the perfect example of a positive deviant, so many bible teachings can be applied to help. For instance at work, if I come across customers who are angry for various reasons. I should show and practice love, the bible says love is kind. Instead of treating the customers badly, I will instead look in the life of Christ and see how best he would handle this situation and apply it.
It is important to spot certain behaviors that stop people from addressing issues. A lot of unhealthy behaviors continue in organizations because people are too afraid to speak up. According to Best Christian workplaces institute (2020), without a plan or the courage to take a stand this behavior tends to continue. Leaders must admit that the organization needs to improve and that the standards must be upheld. Also, it should be made clear that these new rules will apply to everyone and there are no exceptions, even the leaders should be aware. Finally it is important to have systems that help with improving the organizations culture.
References
Best Christian workplaces institute. (2020, February 06). Toxic Workplaces: 3 Things Leaders Often Miss . https://www.bcwinstitute.org/blog/toxic-workplaces-leaders-miss/.
Bhattacharya, S., & Singh, A. (2019). Using the concepts of positive deviance, diffusion of innovation and normal curve for planning family and community level health interventions. Journal of family medicine and primary care , 8(2), 336–341. https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_392_18.
Child mind. (2020, February 18). Parents Guide to Problem Behavior. https://childmind.org/guide/parents-guide-to-problem-behavior/.
Hall, P. (2020, March 5). 5 behavioral changes that can limit the spread of COVID-19 . https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-behaviour-covid-19-wuhan-virus-disease-precautions/.
