Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking at making changes in their lives, whether professional or personal. Switch (by same authors as Made to Stick) provides great tips and solutions presented at a user level and with a great framework. The authors first lay out the three big things: the Rider, the Elephant and the Path and describe what each of these are and provides examples so the reader can get it on his level and not some abstract thoughts. After the big introduction the authors broke the book up into parts concerning each one. The first then is about directing the Rider, the more of our conscious, self will side. To do this one should find the 'bright spots' by seeing how some things succeeded instead of what failed. Next one should script the critical moves by breaking stuff down to specific goals. Finally it's to point to the destination by giving Riders a clear view of where they're going. The second is about motivating the Elephant, more our unconscious and representative of all the inertia we have when wanting to change. Elephants are the more emotional and less logical side so the first step is finding the feeling (think those ASPCA commercials). Next one should shrink the change by making it more manageable (more on this later) and increasing the sense of accomplishment. Finally, it's about growing your people... Change will be easier if you expand the abilities and spirits of your people. The third is about shaping the Path. Within this it's about tweaking the environment (smokers know this about all the cues there are about smoking). Next it is building habits which are behaviors on autopilot and how to encourage habits. Finally one should rally the herd. Overall the book is very well written. The authors write in a very friendly style without being too personal... The couple times they do break from the books narrative to tell jokes, they work and actually made me laugh out loud. Their writing style helps the reader understand and so does the formatting, and maybe more so. While overall the book is 3 parts, there are chapters within those parts and then smaller bite sized sections. While also good for reading bit at time I have to imagine they used their own advice with it because it makes one feel more accomplished and thus wanting to read more. All their points are backed up with studies and not just opinions. Also for good measure they have independent 'Clinics' where they present a scenario and ask readers to work it out first. Therefore, overall this is a great book that I learned a lot from and have already started using both personally and in my job.

This book was the logical next step for me after reading Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts and Thinking, Fast and Slow . Those both spoke about cognitive dissonance and cognitive illusion, and this one was about what to do about it. This is how the book breaks down: INTRODUCTION. Here, Chip and Dan introduce their concept of the rider and the elephant. The rider is our rational side, and the elephant is our emotional side. (You can also think of them as the ego and the id or the planner and the doer.) The rider steers the elephant, but if there's a conflict between the rider and the elephant, the elephant's going to win every time. They make it clear, however, that the elephant isn't necessarily the bad guy. The elephant gets us to try new things ("Hey, wouldn't it be cool to...") and helps to calibrate our moral compass ("That's wrong!"). DIRECT THE RIDER. The rider can get overwhelmed with too many choices or a lack of clarity. Chip and Dan lay out, very clearly, the steps you need to take to keep everyone's rational sides engaged in change. You need to focus on what's going well and replicate that and also define the goal clearly. MOTIVATE THE ELEPHANT. You can't just rely on rationality when trying to push for change. People might agree with you that you have the best course of action, but that's not going to motivate them to act. Chip and Dan talk about why it's important to make people feel the need for change and how to go about doing it. SHAPE THE PATH. Once you provide clear direction and motivate, you can also make the change easier. Eliminate all roadblocks to a specific behavior (or as many as possible), and the rider and elephant will find it much easier to do it. Chip and Dan use the Amazon one-click button as an example. All in all, this book was well-researched, invaluable to anyone who needs to lead a change, and witty. I laughed out loud multiple times. As soon as I finished, I adjusted my communication plan for a change I'm proposing at my company. The lessons learned here are immediately applicable. My only criticism (and it's a small one) is around the placebo effect. There's a very small section discussing a study about the placebo effect in which Chip and Dan state that the placebo effect only impacts how someone feels. This is categorically untrue. Placebo effects have also shown to impact ulcers, swelling, and even coughs. ----- Side note: I also had the pleasure of seeing Chip present this book, and I even got him to sign my copy (by running up to him like a crazy person as soon as he left the stage). His presentation was highly enjoyable--Chis has a dry wit that appealed tremendously to the crowd. If you get the opportunity to see him speak, I highly recommend that you take it. I rated the book beforehand, so I promise that my review and rating were not colored by the killer presentation.

Indispensabile per Leaders e attori del cambiamento in genere. Tantissimi casi pratici da cui apprendere

Llegó en tiempo y forma

A must read for everyone

Excellent read. It’s been on my list of must reads for a while. I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to reading it. This is a book that reiterate the fact that change is hard but there are some predictable patterns that can help effect positive change. Yes ideas are not new however the Heath brothers bring together lots of difficult concepts to presents a powerful and easy to understand framework for effecting positive change. They provide us with some great case studies and stories that brings the framework to life. I loved the book and was surprised how quickly I was able to use the concepts in my own professional life. Highly recommend it

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.