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Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by [Chip Heath, Dan Heath]

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Chip Heath

Dan Heath

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard Kindle Edition

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Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?

The primary obstacle is a conflict that's built into our brains, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimed bestseller Made to Stick. Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems - the rational mind and the emotional mind—that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort - but if it is overcome, change can come quickly.

In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people - employees and managers, parents and nurses - have united both minds and, as a result, achieved dramatic results:

• The lowly medical interns who managed to defeat an entrenched, decades-old medical practice that was endangering patients
• The home-organizing guru who developed a simple technique for overcoming the dread of housekeeping
• The manager who transformed a lackadaisical customer-support team into service zealots by removing a standard tool of customer service

In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change. Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline.

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Popular Highlights in this book

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If you want people to change, you must provide crystal-clear direction.
Highlighted by 14,318 Kindle readers
To change someone’s behavior, you’ve got to change that person’s situation.
Highlighted by 12,479 Kindle readers
And that’s the first surprise about change: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.
Highlighted by 10,187 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

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“Witty and instructive . . . The Heath brothers think that the sciences of human behavior can provide us with tools for making changes in our lives—tools that are more effective than ‘willpower,’ ‘leadership’ and other easier-said-than-done solutions. . . . For any effort at change to succeed, the Heaths argue, you have to ‘shape the path.’ With Switch they have shaped a path that leads in a most promising direction.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Using the terminology of University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the Heaths designate the emotional side of the mind as the Elephant and the rational side as the Rider. . . . Switch is crammed with stories . . . covering a number of fields to drive home the importance of using the strengths of both the Rider and the Elephant to make change happen. This could be a valuable read for the would-be change-makers of the Obama administration.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Whether you're a manager, a parent or a civic leader, getting people to change can be tricky business. In Switch, brothers Chip and Dan Heath—authors of the bestselling Made to Stick—survey efforts to shape human behavior in search of what works. . . . Even when change isn't easy, it's often worth making.”—Time

“Dan and Chip Heath have done it again. . . . Any leader looking to create change in his organization need not look beyond this little book. It is packed with examples and hands-on tools that will get you moving right away. And it is really a fun read.”—Business Week

“Switch is a fantastic book. . . . Rather than just describing a problem or exposing why we make mistakes, the Heath brothers discuss why change is so hard, and then give a short list of concrete steps to follow. . . . It’s an inspiring book, to be sure, all the more so because it's not just about changes that others have accomplished, but about how you can start some change yourself.”—Wired

“[Through] lively examples, the Heaths speak energetically and encouragingly on how to modify our behaviors and businesses. This clever discussion is an entertaining and educational must-read for executives and for ordinary citizens looking to get out of a rut.”—Publishers Weekly

Amazon.com Review

Chip Heath and Dan Heath on Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

"Change is hard." "People hate change." Those were two of the most common quotes we heard when we began to study change.

But it occurred to us that if people hate change, they have a funny way of showing it. Every iPhone sold serves as counter-evidence. So does every text message sent, every corporate merger finalized, every aluminum can recycled. And we haven’t even mentioned the biggest changes: Getting married. Having kids. (If people hate change, then having a kid is an awfully dumb decision.)

It puzzled us--why do some huge changes, like marriage, come joyously, while some trivial changes, like submitting an expense report on time, meet fierce resistance?

We found the answer in the research of some brilliant psychologists who’d discovered that people have two separate “systems” in their brains—a rational system and an emotional system. The rational system is a thoughtful, logical planner. The emotional system is, well, emotional—and impulsive and instinctual.

When these two systems are in alignment, change can come quickly and easily (as when a dreamy-eyed couple gets married). When they’re not, change can be grueling (as anyone who has struggled with a diet can attest).

In those situations where change is hard, is it possible to align the two systems? Is it possible to overcome our internal "schizophrenia" about change? We believe it is.

In our research, we studied people trying to make difficult changes: People fighting to lose weight and keep it off. Managers trying to overhaul an entrenched bureaucracy. Activists combatting seemingly intractable problems such as child malnutrition. They succeeded--and, to our surprise, we found striking similarities in the strategies they used. They seemed to share a similar game plan. We wanted, in Switch, to make that game plan available to everyone, in hopes that we could show people how to make the hard changes in life a little bit easier. --Chip and Dan Heath

(Photo © Amy Surdacki)

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Publishers Weekly

The Heath brothers (coauthors of Made to Stick) address motivating employees, family members, and ourselves in their analysis of why we too often fear change. Change is not inherently frightening, but our ability to alter our habits can be complicated by the disjunction between our rational and irrational minds: the self that wants to be swimsuit-season ready and the self that acquiesces to another slice of cake anyway. The trick is to find the balance between our powerful drives and our reason. The authors' lessons are backed up by anecdotes that deal with such things as new methods used to reform abusive parents, the revitalization of a dying South Dakota town, and the rebranding of megastore Target. Through these lively examples, the Heaths speak energetically and encouragingly on how to modify our behaviors and businesses. This clever discussion is an entertaining and educational must-read for executives and for ordinary citizens looking to get out of a rut. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

CHIP HEATH is a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He lives in Los Gatos, California. DAN HEATH is a senior fellow at Duke University's Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE). Previously, he was a researcher and case writer at Harvard Business School, as well as the cofounder of a college textbook publishing firm called Thinkwell. Dan lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Heath brothers write a monthly column for Fast Company magazine. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From AudioFile

The Heaths offer cutting-edge insights about making difficult changes. Instead of blaming resistance to change on lack of character, the authors say change requires three distinct approaches: We must communicate direction and objectives to our rational brain; we need powerful motivational input to engage our emotional brain; and we need to shape a practical path for change that is clear, has minimal obstacles, and is full of incentives. Charles Kahlenberg is the perfect interpreter for this empowering discussion--he's serious and intentional but adds enough warmth and optimism to make the message upbeat and accessible. With colorful metaphors and snippets of research, this is practical advice on how to stop blaming ourselves for change failures and start making the changes we really want. T.W. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

The Three Surprises About Change

1.
One Saturday in 2000, some unsuspecting moviegoers showed up at a suburban theater in Chicago to catch a 1:05 p.m. matinee of Mel Gibson's action flick Payback. They were handed a soft drink and a free bucket of popcorn and were asked to stick around after the movie to answer a few questions about the concession stand. These movie fans were unwitting participants in a study of irrational eating behavior.

There was something unusual about the popcorn they received. It was wretched. In fact, it had been carefully engineered to be wretched. It had been popped five days earlier and was so stale that it squeaked when you ate it. One moviegoer later compared it to Styrofoam packing peanuts, and two others, forgetting that they'd received the popcorn for free, demanded their money back.

Some of them got their free popcorn in a medium-size bucket,and others got a large bucket - the sort of huge tub that looks like it might once have been an above-ground swimming pool. Every person got a bucket so there’d be no need to share. The researchers responsible for the study were interested in a simple question: Would the people with bigger buckets eat more?

Both buckets were so big that none of the moviegoers could finish their individual portions. So the actual research question was a bit more specific: Would somebody with a larger inexhaustible supply of popcorn eat more than someone with a smaller inexhaustible supply?

The sneaky researchers weighed the buckets before and after the movie, so they were able to measure precisely how much popcorn each person ate. The results were stunning: People with the large buckets ate 53 percent more popcorn than people with the medium size. That's the equivalent of 173 more calories and approximately 21 extra hand-dips into the bucket.

Brian Wansink, the author of the study, runs the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, and he described the results in his book Mindless Eating: "We've run other popcorn studies, and the results were always the same, however we tweaked the details. It didn't matter if our moviegoers were in Pennsylvania, Illinois, or Iowa, and it didn't matter what kind of movie was showing; all of our popcorn studies led to the same conclusion. People eat more when you give them a bigger container. Period."

No other theory explains the behavior. These people weren't eating for pleasure. (The popcorn was so stale it squeaked!) They weren't driven by a desire to finish their portion. (Both buckets were too big to finish.) It didn't matter whether they were hungry or full. The equation is unyielding: Bigger container = more eating.

Best of all, people refused to believe the results. After the movie, the researchers told the moviegoers about the two bucket sizes and the findings of their past research. The researchers asked, Do you think you ate more because of the larger size? The majority scoffed at the idea, saying, "Things like that don't trick me," or, "I'm pretty good at knowing when I'm full."

Whoops.

2.
Imagine that someone showed you the data from the popcorn-eating study but didn't mention the bucket sizes. On your data summary, you could quickly scan the results and see how much popcorn different people ate—some people ate a little, some ate a lot, and some seemed to be testing the physical limits of the human stomach. Armed with a data set like that, you would find it easy to jump to conclusions. Some people are Reasonable Snackers, and others are Big Gluttons.

A public-health expert, studying that data alongside you, would likely get very worried about the Gluttons. We need to motivate these people to adopt healthier snacking behaviors! Let's find ways to show them the health hazards of eating so much!

But wait a second. If you want people to eat less popcorn, the solution is pretty simple: Give them smaller buckets. You don’t have to worry about their knowledge or their attitudes.

You can see how easy it would be to turn an easy change problem (shrinking people's buckets) into a hard change problem (convincing people to think differently). And that's the first surprise about change: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.

3.
This is a book to help you change things. We consider change at every level - individual, organizational, and societal. Maybe you want to help your brother beat his gambling addiction. Maybe you need your team at work to act more frugally because of market conditions. Maybe you wish more of your neighbors would bike to work.

Usually these topics are treated separately - there is "change management" advice for executives and "self-help" advice for individuals and "change the world" advice for activists. That's a shame, because all change efforts have something in common: For anything to change, someone has to start acting differently. Your brother has got to stay out of the casino; your employees have got to start booking coach fares. Ultimately, all change efforts boil down to the same mission: Can you get people to start behaving in a new way?

We know what you're thinking - people resist change. But it's not quite that easy. Babies are born every day to parents who, inexplicably, welcome the change. Think about the sheer magnitude of that change! Would anyone agree to work for a boss who'd wake you up twice a night, screaming, for trivial administrative duties? (And what if, every time you wore a new piece of clothing, the boss spit up on it?) Yet people don't resist this massive change - they volunteer for it.

In our lives, we embrace lots of big changes - not only babies, but marriages and new homes and new technologies and new job duties. Meanwhile, other behaviors are maddeningly intractable. Smokers keep smoking and kids grow fatter and your husband can't ever seem to get his dirty shirts into a hamper.

So there are hard changes and easy changes. What distinguishes one from the other? In this book, we argue that successful changes share a common pattern. They require the leader of the change to do three things at once. We've already mentioned one of those three things: To change someone's behavior, you've got to change that person's situation.

The situation isn't the whole game, of course. You can send an alcoholic to rehab, where the new environment will help him go dry. But what happens when he leaves and loses that influence? You might see a boost in productivity from your sales reps when the sales manager shadows them, but what happens afterward when the situation returns to normal? For individuals’ behavior to change, you've got to influence not only their environment but their hearts and minds.

The problem is this: Often the heart and mind disagree. Fervently.

4.
Consider the Clocky, an alarm clock invented by an MIT student, Gauri Nanda. It's no ordinary alarm clock - it has wheels. You set it at night, and in the morning when the alarm goes off, it rolls off your nightstand and scurries around the room, forcing you to chase it down. Picture the scene: You're crawling around the bedroom in your underwear, stalking and cursing a runaway clock.

Clocky ensures that you won't snooze-button your way to disaster. And apparently that's a common fear, since about 35,000 units were purchased, at $50 each, in Clocky's first two years on the market (despite minimal marketing).

The success of this invention reveals a lot about human psychology. What it shows, fundamentally, is that we are schizophrenic. Part of us - our rational side - wants to get up at 5:45 a.m., allowing ourselves plenty of time for a quick jog before we leave for the office. The other part of us - the emotional side - wakes up in the darkness of the early morning, snoozing inside a warm cocoon of sheets and blankets, and wants nothing in the world so much as a few more minutes of sleep. If, like us, your emotional side tends to win these internal debates, then you might be a potential Clocky customer. The beauty of the device is that it allows your rational side to outsmart your emotional side. It's simply impossible to stay cuddled up under the covers when a rogue alarm clock is rolling around your room.

Let's be blunt here: Clocky is not a product for a sane species. If Spock wants to get up at 5:45 a.m., he'll just get up. No drama required.

Our built-in schizophrenia is a deeply weird thing, but we don't think much about it because we're so used to it. When we kick off a new diet, we toss the Cheetos and Oreos out of the pantry, because our rational side knows that when our emotional side gets a craving, there's no hope of self-control. The only option is to remove the temptation altogether. (For the record, some MIT student will make a fortune designing Cheetos that scurry away from people when they're on a diet.)

The unavoidable conclusion is this: Your brain isn't of one mind.

The conventional wisdom in psychology, in fact, is that the brain has two independent systems at work at all times. First, there's what we called the emotional side. It's the part of you that is instinctive, that feels pain and pleasure. Second, there's the rational side, also known as the reflective or conscious system. It's the part of you that deliberates and analyzes and looks into the future.

In the past few decades, psychologists have learned a lot about these two systems, but of course mankind has always been aware of the tension. Plato said that in our heads we have a rational charioteer who has to rein in an unruly horse that "barely yields to horsewhip and goad combined." Freud wrote about the selfish id and the conscientious superego (and also about the ego, which mediates between them). More recently, behavioral economists dubbed the two systems the Planner and the Doer.

But, to us, the duo's tension is captured best by an analogy used by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his wonderful book The Happiness Hypothesis. Haidt says that our emotional side is an Elephant and our rational side is its Rider. Perched atop the Elephant, the Rider holds the reins and seems to be the leader. But the Rider's control is precarious because the Rider is so small relative to the Elephant. Anytime the six-ton Elephant and the Rider disagree about which direction to go, the Rider is going to lose. He's completely overmatched.

Most of us are all too familiar with situations in which our Elephant overpowers our Rider. You've experienced this if you've ever slept in, overeaten, dialed up your ex at midnight, procrastinated, tried to quit smoking and failed, skipped the gym, gotten angry and said something you regretted, abandoned your Spanish or piano lessons, refused to speak up in a meeting because you were scared, and so on. Good thing no one is keeping score.

The weakness of the Elephant, our emotional and instinctive side, is clear: It's lazy and skittish, often looking for the quick payoff (ice cream cone) over the long-term payoff (being thin). When change efforts fail, it’s usually the Elephant's fault, since the kinds of change we want typically involve short-term sacrifices for longterm payoffs. (We cut back on expenses today to yield a better balance sheet next year. We avoid ice cream today for a better body next year.) Changes often fail because the Rider simply can’t keep the Elephant on the road long enough to reach the destination.

The Elephant's hunger for instant gratification is the opposite of the Rider's strength, which is the ability to think long-term, to plan, to think beyond the moment (all those things that your pet can't do).

But what may surprise you is that the Elephant also has enormous strengths and that the Rider has crippling weaknesses. The Elephant isn't always the bad guy. Emotion is the Elephant's turf - love and compassion and sympathy and loyalty. That fierce instinct you have to protect your kids against harm - that's the Elephant. That spine-stiffening you feel when you need to stand up for yourself - that's the Elephant.

And even more important if you're contemplating a change, the Elephant is the one who gets things done. To make progress toward a goal, whether it's noble or crass, requires the energy and drive of the Elephant. And this strength is the mirror image of the Rider's great weakness: spinning his wheels. The Rider tends to overanalyze and overthink things. Chances are, you know people with Rider problems: your friend who can agonize for twenty minutes about what to eat for dinner; your colleague who can brainstorm about new ideas for hours but can't ever seem to make a decision.

If you want to change things, you've got to appeal to both. The Rider provides the planning and direction, and the Elephant provides the energy. So if you reach the Riders of your team but not the Elephants, team members will have understanding without motivation. If you reach their Elephants but not their Riders, they'll have passion without direction. In both cases, the flaws can be paralyzing. A reluctant Elephant and a wheel-spinning Rider can both ensure that nothing changes. But when Elephants and Riders move together, change can come easily. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0030DHPGQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Currency; 1st edition (February 10, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 10, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4761 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 322 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #48,118 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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- #77 in Business Leadership

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Chip Heath
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Chip Heath is a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, teaching courses on business strategy and organizations. He is the co-author (along with his brother, Dan) of three books. Their latest book, Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions in Life and Work was published in spring of 2013 and debuted at #1 on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and #2 on the New York Times. Their 2010 book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, hit #1 on both bestseller lists. Their first book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, spent two years on the Business Week bestseller list and was an Amazon Top 10 Business Book for both editors and readers. Their books have been translated into over 30 languages including Thai, Arabic, and Lithuanian. Chip has consulted with clients ranging from Google and Gap to The Nature Conservancy and the American Heart Association.
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Dan Heath
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Dan Heath is the co-author, along with his brother Chip, of four New York Times bestsellers: Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive, and The Power of Moments. The Heaths' books have sold over 3 million copies worldwide and been translated into 33 languages.
Heath's fifth book, Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, will be released on March 3, 2020. Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University's CASE center, which supports entrepreneurs who are fighting for social good. A graduate of the University of Texas and Harvard Business School, he lives now in Durham, NC.
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Switch Deficiencies and Recommendations

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2010

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Switch is a book Josef Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, would rate with five stars. Goebbels's Principles of Propaganda, just like the Switch change framework (Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant, and Shape the Path) excises Values and Goal Setting from Change. What remains is a set of tactics Switch identifies to realize change no matter what goals and values the leaders want to achieve and realize. Although the change framework in Switch potentially provides powerful tactics for change, Switch has some major and fatal deficiencies.

The framework with its tactics for change described in SWITCH - HOW TO CHANGE THINGS WHEN CHANGE IS HARD by Chip Heath and Dan Heath published by Broadway Books, New York 2010 has some major and fatal deficiencies. (I will use the term "change framework" as a convenient way to refer to the Switch framework and tactics for change described in this book.)

The change framework
* Is amoral and value neutral,
* Is dangerous and provides a potentially powerful means for propaganda,
* Discounts reason and is inconsistent with its formulation,
* Can be used to establish and sustain totalitarianism, potentially resulting in holocausts,
* Is missing the ethical compass, the Superego from Freud's standpoint, and
* Is inimical to democracy and potentially supportive of totalitarianism

It is recommended that the authors augment the book by providing a methodology for how members in a group can democratically formulate and support worthy goals to satisfy the critical and important needs of the group in a manner consistent with the group's prevailing pluralistic values.

The change framework is amoral and value neutral. There is no discussion in Switch about what makes a goal desirable (e.g., using methods of Immanuel Kant, utilitarianism, or Sir William Walter Ross) and worthy of attainment in the context of the ethical values. There is no discussion on how to identify goals that are worthy of attainment in the context of these ethical values and real needs. In the wrong hands, it could be used as an effective recipe for despotism. The goals are critically important.

The change framework is dangerous and provides a potentially powerful means for propaganda. The framework may be extremely dangerous if effective. It is like giving a loaded gun with instructions on how to effectively use it without providing the user advice on the ethical use of the gun, e.g., under what (very restricted) conditions (e.g., target practice and self-defense), it is ethically permissible to use it.

Without the moral compass, Switch provides a simple framework for propaganda, which consists of tactics aimed at influencing or manipulating attitudes and behaviors of an individual or a community to help realize one or more goals. Many of the tactics identified in Switch are similar to those proposed by Goebbels and other advocates of propaganda. See [...]The change framework discounts reason and is inconsistent with its formulation. The framework explicitly discounts reason. The framework explicitly discounts reason by asserting that the Rider will think in "True But Useless" (TBU) circles if not given direction. It claims that the Rider will not be able to set the direction if the Elephant opposes the rider`s direction. But isn't the change framework itself a rational mechanism that the Rider can use to nudge or coax the Elephant to move in the direction that Rider chooses? Even though the framework explicitly discounts reason, it provides the Rider (the intellect) the means by which to influence the elephant. Therefore, the change framework enables the intellect and reason to greatly influence if not control the emotions of the Elephant.

If the intellect and reason are really as Switch portrays, how did the change framework become articulated, presented, and communicated? The Rider as described in the Switch could not have formulated the change framework. It would simply think in circles (TBU). In Switch, the Leader when equipped with the framework and tactics for change is the agent of change.

The framework and tactics for change must have been created by a series of clever Riders, don't you think? The Elephant didn't create the change framework. Overtime, the authors of propaganda and change literature, including the books referenced in "Recommendations for Additional Reading," accumulated knowledge that the Switch authors synthesized into this very powerful change framework. The Rider is not the weak analyzer Switch would have you believe. Riders created the change framework that enable the Rider some level of mastery over the Elephant. Reason created the change framework. Therefore, reason and the Rider are of paramount importance.

The change framework can used to establish and sustain totalitarianism, potentially resulting in holocausts. Switch pays little attention to the Leaders. But how does the Leader relate to the framework and the tactics for change? Who are the Leaders and what is their relationship to the Riders and Elephants? In the case of an individual, it is your reason equipped with the change framework. Generally, a Leader is a person (Rider/Elephant) who is expert in the change framework and who is in a leadership position of responsibility for a group of people or community to help the group or community satisfy some of its most important needs by applying the framework and tactics for change in a manner as consistent as possible with the prevailing and pluralistic ethical values of the members of the group or community. There should be much more discussion about Leaders and how they relate to the change framework. The last century should have taught us that unbridled reason (The Rider with propaganda) threatens to erupt in holocaust without an ethical compass.

The change framework is missing the ethical compass, the Superego from Freud's standpoint.
Freud (Beyond the Pleasure Principle 1920 and The Ego and the Id 1923) would have called the ethical compass, which is totally missing in the Switch, the Superego. He would have called the Elephant the Id and the Rider the Ego. The rational Ego attempts to resolve or at least mitigate the conflict between the Id (Elephant) and the Superego (the ethical compass). The change framework is a good means to help mitigate if not resolve this conflict.

Because there is no understanding of the connection between these tactics and worthy goals in the context of ethical values, Switch misses the opportunity to provide direction (to the Ego) on how identify the specific tactics for change that would be effective given the nature of the goals that ought be realized in the context of the ethical compass (Superego). The framework provides no methodology for the selection of specific tactics given worthy goals in the context of evolved ethical values.

The change framework is inimical to democracy and potentially supportive of totalitarianism. For a description of totalitarianism see [...]. How does the Switch framework with its leaders relate to a democratic society? The Switch encourages the Leaders to separate themselves from the other members of the group. The Leaders somehow determine the goals (the framework provides no guidance) and use the framework with its tactics for change to manipulate the other members of the group to realize the goals. There is no discussion of how the leaders formulate worthy goals that are consistent the leaders' group ethical values and genuine needs. This framework and its tactics for change can very easily be used to establish and sustain totalitarianism. The fatal flaw of the framework is the absence of an ethical component.

Some recommendations follow. The authors should augment the framework with an ethical compass. They should provide advice and methods to discover the prevailing and pluralistic values of the group. They should provide advice to the members of the group on how to democratically identify the critical and important needs of the group in the context of the group's prevailing pluralistic values. They should provide a methodology for how members in a group can democratically formulate worthy goals in the context of the group's prevailing pluralistic values to satisfy the critical and important needs of the group in a manner consistent with the group's prevailing pluralistic values.

With the satisfaction of these recommendations, Switch can be transformed from a potentially dangerous amoral change framework into an ethically directed and integrated framework for change that helps satisfy real needs using tactics for change that are consistent with the group's prevailing pluralistic values.

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O. Halabieh

Understanding The Fundamentals of Change!

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2013

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Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1) "What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem."

2) "Now you've had a glimpse of the basic three-part framework we will unpack in this book, one that can guide you in any situation where you need to change behavior: 1) Direct the Rider. What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity. So provide crystal-clear direction. 2) Motivate the Elephant. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. The Rider can't get his way by force for very long. So it's critical that you engage people's emotional side—get their Elephants on the path and cooperative. 3) Shape the Path. What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. We call the situation (including the surrounding environment) the "Path." When you shape the Path, you make change more likely, no matter what's happening with the Rider and Elephant."

3) "The Miracle Question doesn't ask you to describe the miracle itself; it asks you to identify the tangible signs that the miracle happened...Once they've helped patients identify specific and vivid signs of progress, they pivot to a second question, which is perhaps even more important. It's the Exception Question: "When was the last time you saw a little bit of the miracle, even just for a short time?""

4) "Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions. Instead, they are most often solved by a sequence of small solutions, sometimes over weeks, sometimes over decades. And this asymmetry is why the Rider's predilection for analysis can backfire so easily. When the Rider analyzes a problem, he seeks a solution that befits the scale of it. If the Rider spots a hole, he wants to fill it, and if he's got a round hole with a 24-inch diameter, he's gonna go looking for a 24-inch peg. But that mental model is wrong."

5) "Ambiguity is the enemy. Any successful change requires a translation of ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors. In short, to make a switch, you need to script the critical moves."

6) "In creating change, though, we we're interested in goals that are closer at hand—the kinds of things that can be tackled by parents or middle managers or social activists. We want a goal that can be tackled in months or years, not decades. We want what we might call a destination postcard—a vivid picture from the near-term future that shows what could be possible."

7) "The Rider's strengths are substantial, and his flaws can be mitigated. When you appeal to the Rider inside yourself or inside others you are trying to influence, your game plan should be simple...First, follow the bright spots...Next, give direction to the Rider."

8) "Kotter and Cohen observed that, in almost all successful change efforts, the sequence of change is not ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE, but rather SEE-FEEL-CHANGE. You're presented with evidence that makes you feel something. It might be a disturbing look at the problem, or a hopeful glimpse of the solution, or a sobering reflection of your current habits, but regardless, it's something that hits you at the emotional level. It's something that speaks to the Elephant."

9) " Most of the big problems we encounter in organizations or society are ambiguous and evolving. They don't look like burning platform situations, where we need people to buckle down and execute a hard but well-understood game plan. To solve bigger, more ambiguous problems, we need to encourage open minds, creativity, and hope."

10) " In the identity model of decision making, we essentially ask ourselves three questions when we have a decision to make: Who am I? What kind of situation is this? What would someone like me do in this situation? Notice what's missing: any calculation of costs and benefits. The identity model explains the way most people vote, which contradicts our notion of the "self-interested voter.""

11) "That's the paradox of the growth mindset. Although it seems to draw attention to failure, and in fact encourages us to seek out failure, it is unflaggingly optimistic. We will struggle, we will fail we will be knocked down—but throughout, well get better, and we'll succeed in the end."

12) "Change isn't an event; it's a process. There is no moment when a monkey learns to skateboard; there's a process. There is no moment when a. a child learns to walk; there's a process. And there won't be a moment when your community starts to invest more in its school system, or starts recycling more, or starts to beautify its public spaces; there will be a process. To lead a process requires persistence. A long journey requires lots of mango."

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Top reviews from other countries

ANON

WOW Really inspirational & has many implications on how to live your life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2013

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I was recommended this book and so glad I was. I can see how I can apply the philosophy in my personal and professional life. Indeed the books website helps you shift your focus to read with a personal point of view or work. However, I found so many aha moments that I had to scribble in a lot of margins and underscore many very true statements - I haven't read a book that dragged me in so much in a few months.
I understand much clearer why 'head office' had declared dramatic changes and nothings happened and how inspirational Area Managers say one sentence and its motivated the whole team. Now I can do the same for my own little posse and hope to gain their full backing for changes I want to make.
Personally, I feel there is a clearer path towards gaining a happy and more fulfilled life; how I can inspire a teenager to tidy their room or do the washing up, how I can achieve chores without it being a chore, or even how I can exercise more without the excuses - now that is worth the book price in its own right!
You shouldn't just read this book, you should digest and think and revisit. You should give yourself time to make notes, set a plan and try a new way of living/working.
The writing style is understandable, humorous and thought provoking.

18 people found this helpful

Leanne

Lots of examples but quite similar

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 11, 2021

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I bought this book as part of learning more about marketing but I found that it was essentially the same message throughout the book. I'll still be putting it into action where possible though.

It essentially talks about our emotional side (the elephant) along with our rational side (the rider) and includes lots of examples for both.

One person found this helpful

Stephen Green

Switched on

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2013

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This is a clever, inspirational book which works on a number of levels. It is an easy and accessible book which demonstrates success in a wide variety of spheres, often achieved with scant resources, which offers a methodology that can be repeated by ordinary people as well as leaders. It is not particularly or exclusively a business book. It is for anybody who sees a situation and contemplates how it can be changed, even down to the behaviour moderation of one individual, or even the person that looks at you through the mirror each day. Teachers, nurses, community leaders or concerned citizens could all relate to the content and imagine new possibilities.

On the level of entertainment the book is similar to Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance . The book has amusing quips and turns of phrase that lightens the subject matter from that of a text book. Yet the book is fully referenced with study, research and quotation information, should the reader wish to get into more depth. I know that some people who read these reviews have already read the book and are curious about what other people think. Therefore I will list some of my personal highlights of the book. I hope for those considering the book it will also ignite curiosity. I liked exhaustible self control, 424 gloves, 1% milk. Bright spots. A husband forgets his wife's birthday. Miner county. No dry holes. Where did you find six dumb people? Attila the accountant. Rock bottom. The burning platform. Loyalty cards. 5 minute room rescue. Money makeover. A miracle scale. Brasilata. Safe driving. Fundamental Attribution Error. Saints and jerks. Sterile cockpit. Mike Romano. The humble checklist. Designated driver. Fataki the sugar-daddy. The skateboarding monkey. I hope this gives you an idea of the way that an amusing anecdote becomes a powerful and memorable learning.

The variety of these techniques is best appreciated at the end of the book. There is a summary of change-making examples at the end of the book changing the book into a manual for change rather than just a passive read. The authors summarize all the techniques you could deploy, if you haven't just skipped to the end. It is a great reminder that this is not just a collection of stories or examples but part of a collection of strategies that are repeatable in your own context. This book contains a perfect recipe for turning what is and what could be from fantasy to reality.

5 people found this helpful

Pete

A good guide to change, especially for large organisations

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2011

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Switch is a book that contains a wealth of information, both in terms of leading research into exacting change and also practical tips on how to implement that research. It is filled with case studies and examples of success stories, and whatever your particular area of change is, you are bound to find one that is a close match. Most of the premise of the book centres around the notion of the elephant-and-rider metaphor, and how people often attribute failed change to the wrong causes. In this regard, the central message of the book is fairly short, however it is explored in great detail which helps avoid the facets being overlooked.

It is written in an easily accessible style, and strikes a good balance between the formal and informal approach. Personally, I felt it was possibly a little long, and it wasn't a book that 'grabbed' me as some others have. However, the information contained in its pages is worth the investment, and touches onto areas of social and behavioural psychology outside of its core remit of bringing about change. It is a highly practical book, clearly written for an audience who are movers and shakers themselves.

One thing to note is that the book takes the professional and ethical approach to manipulating others, so don't expect clever NLP routines to bamboozle your friends into doing what you want: this is a book about changing workplaces, businesses, groups and governments, and doing so for the long-term. It is not a book of quick-fixes by any means. But this is good, as it shows that the authors are treating their subject seriously, and regard change as something that needs buy-in from all involved, not be force-fed to a reluctant or unaware audience. Derren Brown this is not.

I would recommend this book to anyone who works in or with an establishment which seems reluctant to "understand" or "appreciate" why change is necessary. You will learn that usually it is not the people who are at fault, but the collective situation they find themselves in. Then the book will teach you how to address that.

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md3347

Change, rethought.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2013

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Switch is a brilliant book for anyone interested in a non-academic approach to change / change management. Set around three core areas - Direct the Rider (the rational mind), motivate the elephant (the heart/motivation) and shape the path (as it sounds!) the Heath's use real world examples and put it across in a way that is meaningful to anyone trying to approach change.

The goal setting discussed (such as black and white goals that focuses the group on the task at hand) and following the brightspots, looking at what works and how it can be cloned rather than focusing relentlessly on what is 'wrong' are tools I have adapted into my own working life. I also loved other areas such as really demonstrating the issue (they give an example where an organization had many suppliers of rubber gloves and instead of doing a presentation to the board someone got a pair of gloves to represent every supplier and dumped the lot on the boardroom table. It just echos: this must change

There are frequent check points for you to try apply the logic to an example as well as a summary section at the back (although it makes no sense if you haven't read the book, so don't think you can just skip to it!). This is a good book and regardless of your background or interest in change you will finish with a great set of approaches that everyone can understand without the all the usual acronyms and certifications that usually surround the topic.

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