What’s your “revealed preference”?
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From today’s Outside the Lines newsletter
Boston lessons
Last week I was in Boston, and as well as running a Coaching for Great Work program and eating what is absolutely the best pizza in the world , I also shared a coffee with an old friend of mine who I’d met when studying at Oxford. I hadn’t seen William for 15 years, but fell into one of those wonderful conversations that in a single bound reconnects you intellectually (he has a brain the size of a planet and I tried to keep up) and emotionally.
One of the phrases William threw into the conversation was “revealed preference”. I jumped on it, because it was new to me and sounded intriguing. It’s an economics term with all sorts of theoretical (and actually not so interesting) implications for understanding consumer behaviour.
But to me, the phrase reminded me off the story of an architect who designed a university campus. He put in buildings but no sidewalks. When asked why, he said he’d let the students make them – and after a year he returned and simply paved the paths they’d already trod.
What are your paths?
That’s all well and good for architects and for people trying to get in an efficient way from one building to another. But it doesn’t always serve us in our quest to do more Great Work.
Imagine the matrix of paths being formed on that mythical campus. That, in a smaller yet far more complex way, is exactly what’s happening in your brain. Our neural pathways are formed, strengthened, deepened and reinforced by a consistent way of thinking. The more we think one way, the more we think one way.
That is in fact totally necessary for us to be able to function. But it also explains the challenge to do more Great Work.
The comfortable rut
What is one person’s efficient pathway is another’s comfortable rut, and very quickly you can move through a cycle from “I’ve figured out what to do” to “I’m comfortable” to “I’m stuck in a groove”.
To do Great Work we need to step off those comfortable tracks and begin forging a new direction. That’s why Great Work is both exhilarating and exciting and unnerving and scary. It’s why you need courage [link to ebook] to start and to sustain the journey.
4 steps to find a new groove
Too often our ‘revealed preferences’ reveal a life that’s less than we imagine for ourselves. Follow this exercise and see if you can find a new groove.
1. Scan your life and pick a general area where you feel you’ve got into a comfortable rut. There’s plenty of places to look: your role at work; a regular commitment you have to perform; your relationship with your partner, your boss, your kids, your parents; your idea of fun; how you maintain your heath; how you eat; your physical environment. Yep, it’s the whole life, full enchalada scan.
2. Now that you’ve picked one of those areas, dig a little deeper into it. First step is to pick out what you really like, the things you don’t want to change. You might consider not changing: parts of your behaviour; the people involved; the location; the ‘things’ – whatever ’stuff’ is involved
3. Now you’re clear on what you want to keep the same, can you see one thing that you’d like to change? One person, one behaviour, one element of the mix that you’d like to be new?
4. Pick an action: get rid of it entirely; add something to it; remove something; rearrange it to a different position; do it in a different order; bring in something new; break the rules
I’m not really asking you to rearrange your entire world here. But perhaps it’s time to step out onto a new path.
Find Your Great Work
If you’re looking to step off the famliar path and out into the brave new world of Great Work, you’ll want to pick up a copy of my book *Find Your Great Work*. Not only does it come with 12 practical “maps” to help you find your way, but it also comes superloaded with a ton of free resources to help you maintain your journey.
Take a look at *Find Your Great Work* here: http://www.findyourgreatwork.com/about/
“Find Your Great Work is a unique book; brilliant in its simplicity, using just twelve key mapping tools, this book helps identify those underlying factors that unconsciously drive the choices and actions we take, and shift us onto a path to more creative, motivated, and inspired work. I found this book easy to read and use. The exercises are deceptively simple, and excellent examples accompany each. With relatively little effort, I achieved significant insights into my own great work. I recommend this book for anyone who feels they could be doing bigger things!”
Terri Zwierzynski, The Solo CEO
Turning the concept of ‘revealed preferences’ on your internal motivations seems like a relatively powerful idea. In addition to your four points I would also try to find those ‘decision points’ that may have determined the path of the comfortable rut you are on. At some point you’ve made a value decision to do something one way rather than another – if you comprehend why you started it may provide clues as to the easiest way to divert the path. (It also uncovers nudges you receive every day to stay on your current course.)
Oops, almost forgot. Boston Pizza best in the world? Sorry, you’re talking to a Chicago boy here. I’m skeptical.
Great article, Michael and I really like the exercise even if it’s a little scary…. I recently found the quote from Spanish poet Antonio Machado which roughly translates as ‘Life is a path that you beat as you walk it’, which resonates with your article.