A Return to the Office Is a Great Chance to Make a Fresh Start
New habits must be nurtured, a Wharton professor says.
In her new book, How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Katy Milkman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, talks about strategies for overcoming obstacles. Here are edited excerpts from a conversation about how workers and bosses can adopt better habits as they return to the office.
How do we get a fresh start?
We tend to think of our lives in chapters, and we bookend those chapters with momentous events. It could be “the college years,” or “the consulting years,” or “my 20s,” or “the years dating Joe.” We are all about to exit, hopefully, “the pandemic year.” When we end one chapter and start another, we tend to be optimistic that we’ll be better. Whatever we failed at in the past—“that was the old me.”