Stuck in a Rut

Source:  https://hrcsuite.com/pioneers/ 

Alicea Lieberman, On Amir and Ziv Carmon have published an interesting new paper titled, "The entrenchment effect: Why people persist with less-preferred behaviors."   The scholars conducted a series of experiments to examine why people become stuck in "behavioral ruts."  We can all relate, of course. At times, we find ourselves continuing to engage in undesirable activities even though we could rather easily switch to a more enjoyable or beneficial course of action.   The scholars note that many explanations exist for this suboptimal behavior, including the sunk cost trap.  However, they explore another potential explanation for behavioral ruts.  They describe this causal mechanism as entrenchment, defined as "the increased accessibility of a task set which strengthens with repetition and continuity and makes constructing an alternative task set feel difficult, leading people to forgo opportunities to make beneficial changes."  

In their first set of experiments, the scholars show that people can get stuck in behavioral ruts rather easily.  Then, they demonstrate that the more we have engaged in a suboptimal activity, the harder it can be to envision an alternative course of action.   In their language, the alternative becomes less accessible to individuals.   Therefore, people tend not to switch to a more desirable activity.   This entrenchment occurs even when switching is actually not difficult at all, and the other course of action is clearly more desirable.  

However, the scholars find that the continuous repetition of a mundane task leads to more entrenchment than when individuals have the opportunity to intermittently perform other task.  The interruption of the less desirable activity reduces entrenchment and enhances the likelihood of switching to a preferred course of action moving forward.  

The authors argue that the research has important implications for how we structure work for our employees.  Sometimes, requiring employees to take a break, or adding some variety to their work flow, will increase the likelihood that they will seek out and adopt better ways of working rather than staying entrenched in a less productive course of action.  Breaking up the mundane has some really important benefits, as it could stimulate the search for, and adoption of, more efficient ways of working.