Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Easy to remember descriptions and real-world application of identifying the Rider(logic), the Elephant(emotions), and the Path(environment)in any change situation. Suggests actions to get these three aspects working together so change can happen and endure. Applies to individuals, teams, couples, corporations, society.

Recommended read for personal & professional development.

Let me sum this book up: To change behavior, you must do three things. One, you must change the person's behavior. Two and three, you must change the person's hearts and minds.

The authors use the analogy of an Elephant and his Rider. The Rider is your logical brain. The Elephant is your heart. To get the elephant to move, you must engage both the Rider and the Elephant. So, to put it another way, to change behavior, you must Direct the Rider (provide clear direction), Motivate the Elephant (engage people's emotions), and Shape the Path (create the best environment).

Here are some more ideas from the book. Keep the Rider (one's mind) busy analyzing why things work well. Ask what small changes can be made to make things work better. The hardest part of change is in the details. What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity. Set what Built to Last authors call a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, a goal that hits you in the gut and motivates you, a destination postcard, pictures of a future that hard work can make possible. When it is time to change behavior, our first instinct is to teach them something. Instead, we need to appeal to the heart. If you need quick action, negative emotions might help, but most of the time, it's not a stone-in-the-shoe situation and we need to encourage play, open minds, creativity, and hope. Go ahead and give two stamps toward the goal on the Loyalty Card, what the authors call Shrink the Change, build by providing an early small win. Small targets lead to small victories. Grow your people. Lock your people into identifying with being a great person. Tweak the environment. Create specific action triggers. Build habits. Use the humble checklist.

This is an excellent book for anyone looking to shape some change into your organization or even your own life. A lot of people have difficulty with change and this book is an excellent resource for both learning about why we are resistant to change and how to make it easier and more successful.

Chip & Dan Heath look at the problem of “Change” and use an excellent analogy of an elephant and its rider to describe the emotional and logical components that fuel our actions and can effect direction change in our life. Sometimes change is hard because we can't see the logical benefit of the change. Often times, however, we are battling the emotional elephant that is resistant to change for deeper reasons that we may not even be aware. When you understand that analogy, you can start looking at problems and the need to change in another way and find solutions to tackling the problem that engage “the rider” or “the elephant” or, preferably, both to make the change happen and make it stick.

Throughout the book, the authors use colorful real-life stories to illustrate problems and how they have been overcome. They break down techniques directed at directing “the rider” and motivating “the elephant” in ways that I thought were thought-provoking, interesting, and very applicable to life and business. Change isn't just about getting other people to do what needs to be done, often it is about getting yourself to do it, too.

Finally, they talk about changing the environment to make the change either easier to happen, or more likely to stick. This is more broad-based thinking, but still is illustrative of how we often need to “look outside the box” at the problems behind the problem that keep our best efforts from succeeding.

I'm giving this book 4/5 stars because it's really a great read. The 5th star is taken simply because a lot of these ideas aren't new and if you've done a significant amount of reading in this genre, you've probably read much of this before. But, I give the authors full credit for putting those ideas together with a super-functional analogy that makes it memorable, and using modern references that most Americans will recognize and identify.

About the book: Switch examines why it is often difficult for people to switch their behavior, and how, by understanding the mind, it is possible to find shortcuts that make change easier. Through scientific studies and anecdotes, Switch provides simple yet effective tools for implementing changes.

About the author: Chip Heath is a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University, and his brother Dan Heath is a senior fellow at Duke University. They have co-authored two other bestsellers: Made to Stick and Decisive.

My highlights:
Implementing change is like riding an elephant: choose a direction, give your elephant some peanuts and stick to an easy path.
An excellent analogy for examining behavioral change is that of an elephant and its rider trying to follow a certain path. The elephant, being a powerful, stubborn creature, represents the emotional side of people, looking for a quick payoff rather than long-term benefits. The rider in turn represents the rational side that knows what should be done, and can tug at the elephant's reins to exert some small degree of control over it. Finally, the path represents the situation in which the change is to take place.
Find the bright spots, learn from them and spread them around.
Find and focus on the so-called bright spots: specific situations or areas where change has already succeeded. Then figure out how change was achieved and leverage these lessons to make the change more widespread.
Find the bright spots, learn from them and spread them around.
Make the path look well-trodden: show people they are following the herd.
Humans are herd animals: in situations where we're not sure how to behave, we look to others for cues.
When trying to change people's behavior, you can take advantage of this tendency if you demonstrate that the majority of the herd is rallying around the change.
Find the minority who support your change and help them strengthen their case by giving them their own space within which to discuss the benefits of the change.
Eventually, there will be an inevitable conflict between the “conservatives” and the “reformers.” While this is not desirable, it is necessary.
Make the path look well-trodden: show people they are following the herd.

Final summary
The key message in this book is:When you want to change your behavior, three key components affect your chances of success: The rider represents your analytical side, and he needs a clear direction to move in. The elephant represents your emotional side, and it needs to be motivated to walk in the rider's chosen direction. Finally, the path represents situational factors that are in play, which is why you must shape it to make it easy to follow.