Being good all the time can be hard work and sometimes you feel it is hardly worth the effort but if you could wish away a few of your bad habits – how different would your work life be? We all have colleagues with annoying traits and if you don’t then you may well be the one with all the bad habits! Here I have listed a fun way to identify and manage them:

1. Identify – find out what your habits are and which are less than attractive, ask your colleagues to write down 3 of your habits which they find aggravating, fold them up and place them into a bowl. Once you have them all (now this is important) do not take them to heart as you are actively looking to remedy the habits, by being proactive you are taking the right steps to a happier work environment. Now compare all the results and pick the 3 most popular to work on. To make this an inclusive and more fun exercise – why not ask everyone to do the same.
2. Penalty – having identified your 3 bad habits you then need to set a penalty for each time you do one of them. A “swear box” for want of a better phrase, can be used. Set a fixed penalty cost for each habit.
3. Replace – it is a common theory that to lose a bad habit, you should look to replace it with a good habit. Find something else you can do which is positive and helps to fill the void.
4. Reward – at the end of a set period of time, say a month or two – take the penalty cash and go buy cakes for everyone. If it is a large office with everyone involved and a fair few colleagues are being fined regularly then the collection may be worthy of buying lunch in or a drinks kitty in the pub one evening.

Often we are unaware of our habits or unaware that they annoy others so it is important to highlight them and address them – this type of activity can be a real team building exercise and if facilitated professionally can really help build a much happier work environment for all.