Dr. Jason Walker's new Forbes article, "New Year, Same You: Why Resolutions Don't Work And What Actually Does," cuts through the annual delusion with surgical precision. Nearly 80% of New Year's resolutions fail within a week. His diagnosis? We're asking people to override habit, identity, environment, and motivation all at once just because it's a new year.
Sound familiar? How many January initiatives have you launched with genuine enthusiasm, only to watch them fizzle by March? "This year we'll improve CSAT." "This quarter we're focusing on retention." “Starting next week, things are going to be different.”
Dr. Walker identifies five evidence-backed truths about change – and contact centers are uniquely positioned to implement the strategies he prescribes.
Dr. Walker cites Stanford's BJ Fogg: change sticks when tied to who you are, not what you want. But agents can't build professional identity in a vacuum. They need to see themselves clearly first. Performance visibility that shows "I am someone my customers and colleagues can count on" rather than vague aspirations about "being better" or “boosting my Quality score”. That foundation of self-awareness is where sustainable identity change begins.
The article warns that going from zero to sixty triggers "psychological death." Contact centers know this pain. Rolling out comprehensive new systems that overwhelm rather than empower. The alternative? Incremental, measurable behavioral changes. Real-time guidance on the next call. Focus on one metric this week. Coaching conversations that build capability gradually, not expectations that aren't clearly defined, logical, measurable, or practicable.
Your environment controls you more than willpower. For CX operations, this means you can't expect different behaviors in the same environment. Agents need to see different things, touch different tools, feel different feedback loops. When you redesign what employees encounter daily (dashboards that create transparency, workflows that digitize best practices, incentive & recognition systems that reinforce desired behaviors) you're making the right actions natural.
The article prescribes picking three goals and crushing them rather than ten. Contact centers often try to boil the ocean. New QA program, new engagement initiative, new reporting, new everything. Strategic implementation means identifying critical gaps, prioritizing ruthlessly, and building capability systematically.
The "Fresh Start Effect" fades because motivation isn't infrastructure. The calendar doesn't change you. What changes you is continuous feedback, ongoing support, and environmental cues that make new behaviors stick beyond the initial enthusiasm.
Dr. Walker's conclusion states ”Resolutions aren't a strategy, they're a fantasy." Real change requires building identity through small habits, redesigning environment, and focusing on sustainable transformation.
For contact centers, this is the blueprint for performance management that improves retention, customer experience, and operational efficiency. The difference between organizations that transform and those that make annual resolutions is simple: one has the systems to make evidence-based change principles operational.
Ready to move beyond resolutions and build real capability in 2026? TouchPoint One's Acuity platform provides the performance management infrastructure that turns Dr. Walker's evidence-backed principles into daily reality for your contact center teams.
Thanks to Dr. Walker for the inspiration and practical insights to start 2026 on solid ground. ✨
Let's talk about putting these ideas into practice today. Schedule a conversation with TouchPoint One.
