Crisp Coaching & Consultancy Ltd, Radnor House, 46 Radnor Road, Horfield, Bristol BS7 8QY Tel: 0844 567 6801 Company Registration Number 05379946
Tip 29 - Success in behavioural change
Many approaches to behaviour change assume that, once someone has identified the changes they need to make, they should be able to make and maintain the changes. If they don't, this is taken to demonstrate a lack of will-power or motivation.
In their book Changing for Good, Prochasks et al show that successful behaviour change is much more complex, with taking action being just the most visible of a number of stages, each of which is necessary to the process of successful behaviour change. They identify the following stages:
1. Precontemplation: "There is no problem, and therefore no need to change"
2. Contemplation: "There is a problem - I'll deal with it one day"
3. Preparation: "There is a problem - and I'm going to deal with it soon - and I've even started to make small changes"
4. Action: "I am changing my behaviour, and managing the associated thoughts and feelings"
5. Maintenance: "I am consolidating the new behaviours, and guarding against relapses"
6. Termination: "My old way of behaving no longer holds any attraction for me"
and the following major processes:
1. Consciousness-raising: increasing awareness and insight about yourself and the problem, and about the self-defeating defences that get in your way
2. Social liberation: providing social support for change (eg values statements, competency frame-works, cultural norms)
3. Emotional arousal: evoking positive feelings about the change you are contemplating
4. Self re-evaluation: taking stock of your current situation and recognising that the change you are contemplating would substantially improve your life
5. Commitment: choosing to act, and to believe in your ability to change
6. Countering: finding and practising the new behaviours that will replace the problem behaviours
7. Environment control: avoiding situations that evoke the problem behaviours and choosing those that encourage the new behaviours
8. Rewards: rewarding yourself, or being rewarded by others, for changing
9. Helping relationships: enlisting the help of others.
Click here to arrange an introductory session to find out more.
The diagram shows the stages of change at which the change processes are most useful.
This model has many interesting implications, including: the expectations for change can be more explicitly managed by taking this model into account; the stages before action can be given explicit attention to enable generation of more desirable changes; and will-power and motivation can be augmented by other supporting activities to embed the change.
A coach can assist with all these processes and help you assess where you are in the change process. This will lead to a greater understanding of the timescale of a coaching relationship. There is a commonly held expectation that six or eight two hour sessions should be enough for most coaching needs and this will often be true when someone is already at the preparation or action stage. Coaching during the pre-contemplation or contemplation stages can be highly effective because,even though no visible behavioural change is evident, many of the internal shifts necessary for action will occur.
