Have you ever been faced with a challenging and recurring problem? You know you need to “think outside the box” in order to solve it but the breakthrough just doesn’t seem to want to come. Our brains are pattern-making machines. They consume roughly 20% of our body's resting energy. To manage that, it constantly looks for shortcuts. Every time you solve a problem in a particular way, it files that approach away as a pattern. The more often you use one approach, the stronger the pattern, so when a similar situation arises, your brain reaches for that pattern automatically We do it in volunteer management all the time.
Better Impact have released an article on how to break this cycle.
