From a parallel perspective, micro-coaching must be complemented by macro-coaching. The small things must be introduced within a broader coaching strategy that both the coach and client can accept and clearly articulate. The Interludes of safety and insight must be interspersed with general sessions concerning the overall purpose of the coaching engagement and a review of progress to date of the coaching work being done. Given this setting of micro-coaching in a more general macro context, I offer eight micro-coaching tactics (actually a cluster of tactics). They can be effectively engaged during a coaching interlude that is saturated with safety and inundated with insight-filled images and actions. I begin with something called “habit stacking.”
Changing One’s Behavior: Habit Stacking
S. J. Scott (2023) has helped to introduce a process called “habit stacking” that could be of value for those wishing to introduce micro-coaching. While you should read his essay or buy his book, the steps he has identified are readily replicated by a skillful coach. Essentially, habit stacking is a process of stacking a new routine on top of an existing habit. If we meditate every day, then perhaps we can add drinking those two glasses of water or doing the 5 minutes of walking on the treadmill. If we are now engaged in the regular routine of calling our son at college each day, then perhaps we can add to that a brief call with our aging mother. It is all about stacking one habit we would like to engage on top of an existing habit that we always remember to do.
Scott added some useful advice on top of this simple micro-strategy of habit stacking.
Step 1: Start with a Five-Minute Block
The simplest way to stick with a new habit is to make it “stupidly simple” to complete. Scott offers an example: If you want to write every day, then you create a goal of writing just one paragraph per day. Sure, you can do more than that, but as long as you’ve written this paragraph, then you can consider this a complete task for the day.” As someone who is a very active writer, I often think of writing as a muscle. It must be “exercised” each day, or it atrophies. When I have not been writing for several weeks, I find it hard to start up again. This is no doubt the case with many other habits: we have to frequently engage these habits or they become difficult to perform.
Scott’s process of “habit stacking” is, in essence, a clustering (stacking) of micro-behaviors that are self-rewarding. We find the right time and right place to do the small “right thing.” This is often a time and place when we can actually perform or even combine several positive habits. For me, this is often my work with a thoughtful and caring physical therapist, who gently encourages me not only to engage in some brief micro-exercises, but also engage in some postural moves that help to reduce or remove muscular tension and even headaches.
Scott offers the following summary of what he is proposing: “The core idea is to set a simple goal that overcomes inertia. Then usually, once you get started, you’ll do more of the task than you originally planned. . . The most important factor is consistency. That’s why you should start with five minutes, picking one or two habits, and then add more as this routine becomes an automatic action.”
Step 2: Focus on Small Wins
For Scott, the emphasis is always placed on “small” and incremental. The big task is to be avoided. For me, the challenge of doing 30 minutes of exercise each day leaves me doing no exercise. The full meal of nutritious, tasteless food leads me to kick back in revolt by eating nothing but high-fat, tasty meals. We might provide a label for this reactivity and resistance. It is “psychological retribution. ”We find that the “threat” of heavy exercise or tasteless meals is itself a negative force in our life that must be balanced by something pleasant. While we should be rewarding ourselves with a small dish of ice cream after eating our broccoli and kale, we are instead rewarding ourselves with ice cream just because we were “forced” to think about eating broccoli and kale.
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