Unlocking the secrets of human behavior, we delve into research-backed strategies for inspiring change. Discover the five key insights that can transform your approach to influencing others, fostering growth, and driving meaningful transformation.
Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change
Change happens when people talk themselves into change
- People are smarter and dumber than you think
- They know what they’re doing is bad, but they don’t know how to stop doing it
- The issue is motivation
- Once people get motivated, they often make the change themselves with little help
How to get people to change
Nobody likes to be told what to do
- Ask questions instead
- Support “change talk.” Ignore “sustain talk.” Use “OARS”
- Shift the Ratio Of Change Talk To Sustain Talk
- Develop Discrepancy
- Evoke Hope
- Planning
- Summarize
Nobody Likes To Be Told What To Do
We all want help but we want to retain our autonomy even more
- Just telling people what to do rarely works
- When we give people freedom and control, they relax
- The backbone of MI is questions, not statements
- People don’t need a “talking to” – they need a good “listening to”
- You’re not threatening their autonomy, you’re listening, and you’ve clarified their values
Evoke Hope
Ask them about previous challenges they successfully overcame
- This gets them envisioning success and feeling confident.
- At some point it’s very likely that they will ask you for answers, so respond with a question to make sure they’re still leading and you’re still guiding.
Use “OARS”
The four primary skills of Motivational Interviewing are: 1) asking open questions, 2) Affirming strengths, 3) Reflective listening, and 4) Summarizing
- Ask open questions that can’t be answered with a single word
- Use reflective listening
- Make a guess about what the person means, then reflect on what they just said
- Reflect is a strategic choice
- Affirming is to recognize and highlight the positive about the other person
- Build their confidence
- Finally, summarizing is to draw together what they’ve said and present it to them
Planning
Ask them what’s next
- Present potential problems so they can offer fixes
- When they come up with ideas, they’ve approved them
- Help them troubleshoot
- Strengthen the plan and get them thinking resourcefully so they feel ready when something goes wrong
Shift The Ratio Of Change Talk To Sustain Talk
You don’t want to deny “sustain talk”. You want to evoke and explore their “change talk”.
- Change talk takes the form of DARN: Desire, Ability, Reasons, Need
- Use DARN questions to evoke some DARN change talk so they’ll change their behavior
- When your efforts start showing some darn results, hit them with a summary that assembles their responses
Develop Discrepancy
One of the primary motivators for change is someone noticing the discrepancy between their goals and their behavior
- You usually don’t need to point out discrepancy
- They’ll usually do it themselves with enough discussion
- Ask them what they know about the subject at hand
- Tell them what you already know about alcohol
- No demonizing
