As you know, my goal for this year is to read 18 books.
One of the books I finished recently is called “Switch – how to change things, when change is hard”, which is written by the brothers Chip and Dan Heath.
Chip Heath is a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, whereas Dan is a senior fellow at Duke’s University CASE center. Together they have co-authored 4 bestseller book, including this one.
In this book, the brothers Heath prove that simple methods can yield extraordinary results in times that require change, by sharing scientific studies and real-life turnarounds. They deconstruct a basic three-part framework to help you change behavior in any situation:
- Direct the Rider
- Motivate the Elephant
- Shape the Path
For successful and sustainable change, you need to address the hearts and minds of your audience and shape the environment
What did I appreciate most?
This book delivers an excellent framework to enable and accelerate change, where it is needed. By using the metaphors of an elephant (the emotional mind), the rider (the rational mind) and the path (the environment), a tangible framework originates. One that is helpful in any change situation.
Furthermore, it connects and illustrates real-life examples of companies and scientific research to provide an alternative perspective on change. Their position towards change is that we focus too much on the obstacles rather than the goal. I really appreciated the in-depth stories from BP, from Jerry Sternin (here) and the Fundamental Attribution Error.
One of the pivotal moments for me in this book was when they detailed the sequence of change. Rather than establishing change via ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE, the focus should be on SEE-FEEL-CHANGE. When connecting that to my own experience, I see that the successful change projects were the ones, where we focused on seeing and feeling change.
What is my tip?
This book provides an excellent framework for change. If there is one tip I had to give, then it would be the following:
I would have appreciated more pragmatic tools and techniques to execute. This would have increased the ability to directly apply the lessons learned from the book, and therewith accelerate the learning curve of the reader.
What is my takeaway from this book?
In short, this book is an excellent help to provide a different perspective on change. One that perceives change not as hard, yet as acceptable.
My biggest take-away of this book emerges when I combine it with another book that I read recently, called ‘Systemic Transition Management’ by Bianca van Leeuwen and Maaike Thiecke.
The latter book provides the desired pragmatic tools and techniques to ‘motivate the elephant’, by finding the feeling, shrinking the change and growing your people. It also zooms in on the interaction patterns between the different players in the environment, beyond yourself. This helps to ‘shape the path’.
Do you want to know more?
Since information is irrelevant without application, contact me to join my next full day interactive workshop with practical strategies and tools on ‘Leading Change’.
As you know, my goal for this year is to read 18 books.
One of the books I finished recently is called “Switch – how to change things, when change is hard”, which is written by the brothers Chip and Dan Heath.
Chip Heath is a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, whereas Dan is a senior fellow at Duke’s University CASE center. Together they have co-authored 4 bestseller book, including this one.
In this book, the brothers Heath prove that simple methods can yield extraordinary results in times that require change, by sharing scientific studies and real-life turnarounds. They deconstruct a basic three-part framework to help you change behavior in any situation:
- Direct the Rider
- Motivate the Elephant
- Shape the Path
For successful and sustainable change, you need to address the hearts and minds of your audience and shape the environment
What did I appreciate most?
This book delivers an excellent framework to enable and accelerate change, where it is needed. By using the metaphors of an elephant (the emotional mind), the rider (the rational mind) and the path (the environment), a tangible framework originates. One that is helpful in any change situation.
Furthermore, it connects and illustrates real-life examples of companies and scientific research to provide an alternative perspective on change. Their position towards change is that we focus too much on the obstacles rather than the goal. I really appreciated the in-depth stories from BP, from Jerry Sternin (here) and the Fundamental Attribution Error.
One of the pivotal moments for me in this book was when they detailed the sequence of change. Rather than establishing change via ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE, the focus should be on SEE-FEEL-CHANGE. When connecting that to my own experience, I see that the successful change projects were the ones, where we focused on seeing and feeling change.
What is my tip?
This book provides an excellent framework for change. If there is one tip I had to give, then it would be the following:
I would have appreciated more pragmatic tools and techniques to execute. This would have increased the ability to directly apply the lessons learned from the book, and therewith accelerate the learning curve of the reader.
What is my takeaway from this book?
In short, this book is an excellent help to provide a different perspective on change. One that perceives change not as hard, yet as acceptable.
My biggest take-away of this book emerges when I combine it with another book that I read recently, called ‘Systemic Transition Management’ by Bianca van Leeuwen and Maaike Thiecke.
The latter book provides the desired pragmatic tools and techniques to ‘motivate the elephant’, by finding the feeling, shrinking the change and growing your people. It also zooms in on the interaction patterns between the different players in the environment, beyond yourself. This helps to ‘shape the path’.
Do you want to know more?
Since information is irrelevant without application, contact me to join my next full day interactive workshop with practical strategies and tools on ‘Leading Change’.
