What makes things stick?
Do you have a passion project of your own?
Something you could dive into for hours with no reason other than pure curiosity?
For me, besides my obsession with the science of human behavior - what makes us tick, reach mastery, and unlock potential - I could happily disappear into food science.
How foods work in the body. The origin of chocolate. The history of inventions like bread and cheese. If I had a backup career, it would be as a food scientist designing human-health-amplifying foods. In my world, every food would be a superfood.
What’s your rabbit hole?
Curiosity is strange that way for me. It doesn’t need a reason. Sometimes it becomes a profession, sometimes a lifelong hobby, sometimes just something quirky to talk about at dinner parties.
But for the rest of the stuff:
Everything else in life - what we try to learn, change, or achieve - does need a reason. A bigger WHY.
I came up with this thought:
“Knowledge without engagement won’t stick.
Engagement without system won’t last.” ~ Yours truly
In a recent Hidden Brain episode, Shankar Vedantam spoke with neuroscientist, psychologist, educator and now author Mary Helen Immordino-Yang about why education so often fails. The reason? We put facts first and the WHY last.
That’s the exact opposite of how our brains actually learn.
And I’d argue the same thing happens in workplaces every day. Leaders push training, new processes, new behaviors - and then wonder why nothing sticks.
Short answer?
Because nobody cares!
They say in leadership communication, people don’t care about what you say, until they feel you care.
It seems like, caring, the state of being absorbed, alert, eager to learn explore and engage is the #1 step in the process in learning and without learning, without awareness, there’s no change in behavior and no results.
With my coaching clients who “lack willpower” to follow through on health habits, I don’t start with rules or checklists. I start with what they care about.
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Sleeping well → means energy to play with their kids, doing well at work, getting a promotion sooner.
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Eating well → means staying and looking sharp, getting respect and social status upgrade.
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Moving well → means independence in old age, adventures with friends, and being able to support your loved ones instead being the one needing support.
Behavior doesn’t stick until people see the connection between what they need to do and what they deeply care about.
It’s the same in leadership. In education. In culture change.
If knowledge comes without why, it slides off.
If behavior comes without care, it never roots.
In education knowledge won’t stick without the reason why, how can I apply this? Why should I care? How is it relevant to my life?
Any behavior, anything YOU want to do, or you want to make others do, it won’t start sticking until you see, and help people see - what’s in it for me (I-motivation), and what’s the bigger picture (why it matters, we-motivation).
If you’re struggling to change, or struggling to engage your team, your family, your students, have you made the connection clear?
What’s the reason that matters so deeply, to you or to them, that it makes the effort worthwhile?
