Book Review: Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard
Posted by Nancy Porte on Thu, Dec 01, 2011
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard
by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Broadway, 305 pages, $26
Reviewed by Nancy Porte, VP, Customer Experience
A company’s customer experience program can morph into a truly strategic business differentiator only by regularly collecting customer and employee feedback – and by turning that data into insight that the organization uses to transform itself. Process improvements can involve a single department or cut across the entire organization. But whether the change is small or large, increasing the chances of success takes careful planning. That theme is covered in detail by the Heath brothers in this, their second book (their first is called Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die).
From the perspective of this customer experience professional, Switch provided a strong basis for understanding why change is so hard for people and organizations – and afforded solid advice regarding how to make change easier for everyone involved.
Observing that change is often misinterpreted, the Heaths write, “What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.” They go on to say, “When change works, it tends to follow a pattern. The people who change have clear direction, ample motivation and a supportive environment.”
The constant battling between the two is best captured by an analogy often used by Jonathan Haidt, a University of Virginia psychologist, in his book The Happiness Hypothesis, and the Heath brothers bring this model to life. Haidt contends that, "our emotional side is the 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 compared to the Elephant."
Changes often fail because the Rider is not strong enough to keep the Elephant on the road long enough to reach its destination. The Elephant's hunger for comfortable routines conflicts with the Rider's knowledge of why a new routine should be adopted – in other words, the ability to think long-term. The Elephant is the one, however, who gets things done by providing the energy (the people). The Rider provides the planning and direction, but can be a wheel-spinning over-thinker (the change agent).
To get things done, the Heaths propose the following three-part framework that can serve as a guide in any situation where behavior needs to change:
- Direct the rider. Provide crystal clear direction. What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. Don't think big picture. Point to the destination and communicate why it is important. At the beginning stages, what looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.
- Motivate the elephant. Connect on an emotional level, to keep the Elephant moving forward. Find the feeling. Cultivate an identity. Members of the team can't independently think their way into a new behavior. Shrink the change, so you get a reluctant Elephant to start moving.
- Shape the path. If you want people to change, make the process easy and plot each step clearly. When you set small, visible goals – and people achieve them – they get it in their heads that they can succeed. Small successes lead to moving to the next step with more confidence.
This was one of the most enlightening business books I have read all year (and I consume a lot of them!). The Heath brothers take a complex topic and simplify it by creating a very readable book featuring a wide variety of applicable case studies. They examine change from all levels, including individual, organizational, and societal. I have already incorporated a number of the recommended techniques into our own process improvement projects – with amazingly positive results!