Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard - A short review

I should start out by saying that before beginning this VISTA assignment I hadn’t really heard of the concept of “change management” and assumed that it was just another buzzword to help people build fancier resumes. Like many of us, I can think of several situations where instead of real change happening, a new product or idea is rolled out, a training takes place, new accounts are created, new procedures are developed and in around three months everyone is back to using the old software, procedure, account, etc. It doesn’t take too many turns through this cycle, to make change seem like a highly unlikely phenomena.

But, caveats aside, I found this book surprisingly readable and full of good ideas on how to create sustainable change at both a personal and organizational level. Structured around the idea that change requires connecting with people’s rational side, emotions, and their surrounding environment, the Heath brothers coined the terms "direct the rider," "motivate the elephant," and "shape the path" to capture this idea. The best part of this book for me was that the Heath brothers make their case for their ideas not through lectures, but by giving compelling examples about interesting or unexpected ways that people (ranging from ordinary Joes and Janes to upper management CEOs and governmental officials) have helped move organizations and societies through seemingly impossible changes.

One of my favorite examples fell under the advice of “tweak the environment." Just as traffic lights control our driving, complex grocery store lay-outs increase the likelihood that we won’t buy just that needed gallon of milk, and the smooth and even path attracts the most walkers; the environment plays a crucial role in our patterns of behavior. In this example the employees at a management consulting firm were resisting filling out the new online time sheets. As the billing process lagged, it was easy for the executives to grow frustrated at the stubborn behavior being exhibited by the consultants and begin to ratchet up pressure on the employees to switch to the new program.

However, a consultant, called in to help manage the issue, persuaded the executives that perhaps there was something other than stubbornness at play. After observing one of the employees attempt to fill out the online time sheet, the consultant noticed the strong negative reaction the employees had to the “wizard” which popped up when they attempted to fill out the document. Designed to help aid the process, the wizard was actually annoying the employees to the point that they reverted back to the “easier” paper time sheets as a way to avoid dealing with it. In other words, the problem wasn’t actually stubborn employees, but an unexpected roadblock that made staying with the old paper time sheets an easier experience than switching over to the online time sheets.

In the world of technology it can be easy to assume that it is people’s stubbornness or, even worse, lack of intelligence that causes them to resist the newest time-saving software or computer upgrade. But this can be a grave mistake and cause us to miss the environmental factors that might be at play in regards to a particular issue.

In my work during this coming year, I'm sure that finding ways to help nonprofits pursue sustainable change will be just as important as finding the perfect technology for them to use. So if you are looking for a book to help inspire you to change your life, your boss, your employees, your community or maybe even the world, I would recommend giving Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath a shot.