Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Summary
The Heath brothers build a framework for change from Jonathan Haidt's image of a rider on an elephant, in which the rider represents deliberate rational thought and the elephant represents emotion and habit, and the path represents the surrounding environment. Their argument is that failed change efforts usually address only one of the three.
Directing the rider means providing clarity, because what looks like resistance is frequently lack of direction. Their techniques include finding the bright spots, meaning identifying where the desired behaviour already occurs and replicating it rather than analysing the problem; scripting the critical moves, meaning giving specific behavioural instructions rather than general goals; and pointing to the destination. Motivating the elephant means addressing emotion, because knowing something is not sufficient to change behaviour. Their techniques include finding the feeling, shrinking the change so it appears achievable, and growing your people by building an identity consistent with the new behaviour.
Shaping the path means changing the environment, because what looks like a people problem is frequently a situation problem. Their techniques include tweaking the environment, building habits through action triggers and checklists, and rallying the herd through visible social proof. The cases include the Vietnamese child nutrition programme by Jerry Sternin, the Brazilian railway turnaround, and public health interventions.
The research is synthesised rather than original, and several cited studies have replicated poorly, particularly around ego depletion which underpins their treatment of self-control. The bright spots technique and the argument to look for situation problems before people problems are the two most usable elements.
Key takeaways 8
- Change requires addressing rational direction, emotional motivation and the surrounding environment, and efforts that address only one of the three fail.
- What looks like resistance is frequently a lack of clarity about what specifically to do.
- Finding where the desired behaviour already occurs and replicating it works better than analysing why the problem exists.
- Specific behavioural instructions produce change where general goals do not, because ambiguity exhausts the deliberate mind.
- Knowing something is insufficient to change behaviour, which is why analysis and evidence alone do not produce action.
- Shrinking a change until it appears achievable overcomes the resistance produced by the size of the objective.
- What looks like a people problem is frequently a situation problem, so the environment should be examined before the individuals.
- Making the desired behaviour visible to others recruits social proof, which does more than persuasion aimed at individuals.
Who should read it
Operators leading change programmes who want a diagnostic for which of the three components their effort is missing.
Who recommended it 4 · 2 direct
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