---
product_id: 219966
title: "Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard"
price: "158 zł"
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region: Poland
---

# Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

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## Description

Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives? The primary obstacle is a conflict that’s built into our brains, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimed bestseller Made to Stick . Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems—the rational mind and the emotional mind—that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort—but if it is overcome, change can come quickly. In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people—employees and managers, parents and nurses—have united both minds and, as a result, achieved dramatic results: ● The lowly medical interns who managed to defeat an entrenched, decades-old medical practice that was endangering patients. ● The home-organizing guru who developed a simple technique for overcoming the dread of housekeeping. ● The manager who transformed a lackadaisical customer-support team into service zealots by removing a standard tool of customer service In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change. Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline.

Review: Great read, great evidence and made easy! - 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.
Review: Review by J. Colannino - Switch is a book about managing change by the Heath brothers (Chip and Dan). Chip is a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and Dan is a Senior Fellow at Duke University' Social Entrepreneurship center. The two have teamed up before -- in 2007 they released their critically acclaimed Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. This latest effort focuses less on the stickiness of the idea and more on the change process itself. What should a change agent do to implement lasting change in a hard-headed organization that desperately needs it? The book is organized into eleven chapters in three parts: Part 1, Direct the Rider; Part 2, Motivate the Elephant; and Part 3, Shape the Path. The titles come from a vivid metaphor by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt. In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Haidt likens a person to a rider on an elephant. The rider is the rational side of a person: the part that tells him to eat better, exercise more, and stop procrastinating, for example. The elephant is the emotional side that doesn't want to work to lose weight or exercise and would rather stay put; let's say willpower vs. won't-power; but why should that be? Whatever is autonomous and ingrained by habit belongs to the elephant. The rider is theoretically in control, but it is exhausting to continually tug on the reins and direct the stubborn elephant. Eventually the rider relents and the elephant goes back to doing what he's always done. Sound familiar? Before going much farther, you should know that two things separate Switch from so many other glib books about change: first, the book has a very solid psychological basis. Despite its accessible style, scores of major psychological findings and studies are reported and undergird the book's practical formulae for change. Second, Switch is not a self-help book. I have no doubt that the book could be used in this way, but it is really a book about how to change things. It is primarily directed toward organizational change, though its principles are much broader. And there are many surprises. The first big surprise occurs in the very first chapter. "We know what you're thinking -- people resist change. But it's not quite that easy. Babies are born every day to parents who, inexplicably, welcome that change. Yet people don't resist this massive change -- they volunteer for it. In our lives we embrace lots of big changes. So there are hard changes and there are easy changes. What distinguishes one from the other?" And the surprises keep coming. Like the two researchers who dramatically and permanently got folks to reduce their saturated fat intake. Or the doctor who saved over 100,000 lives and counting in American hospitals on schedule (18 months) by getting thousands of doctors and organizations to change their practices. Or the American who went to Vietnam and changed the face of malnutrition. Or the student who saved an endangered species in a Caribbean country that didn't give two hoots about it. What do all these stories have in common? For one, none of these change agents had the sufficient budget or authority to succeed; yet, they did. How? Every one of them gave clear rational direction to the rider by finding the bright spots, scripting the critical moves, and clearly pointing to the end goal. All of them motivated the elephant by emotionally connecting with it, and they shrunk the apparent change by carefully communicating progress. They refused to underestimate their people. Instead they provided them with a newfound identity that let them to grow into the challenge. But there was more. As the authors note, many times what looks like resistance is really confusion or even the result of misaligned incentives. That's why the path needs to be shaped by making manageable changes to the environment, building sound habits, rallying the herd, and reinforcing the new habit until it becomes a way of life. Well, maybe that sounds like a lot of work. I think it is. But speaking from firsthand experience, it will be a labor of love. And if your heart is not in the change and you do not think you can derive reward from the process, perhaps you are selling yourself short -- or, maybe you're the wrong person to lead the change and you should stop kidding yourself. And perhaps that is what I like most about this book. It does not promise a panacea. It tells it like it is without the jingoism that has become the substance of many change management essays. If you are leading organizational change, the book will provide a solid prescription for achieving lasting results because Switch uses real research, reports real experiences, and provides real guidance. Here, my recommendation is enthusiastic.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #11,744 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #18 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving #50 in Leadership & Motivation #75 in Personal Transformation Self-Help |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 5,998 Reviews |

## Images

![Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71T2zcs0Y+L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great read, great evidence and made easy!
*by S***. on February 14, 2014*

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.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by J. Colannino
*by J***O on December 3, 2012*

Switch is a book about managing change by the Heath brothers (Chip and Dan). Chip is a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and Dan is a Senior Fellow at Duke University' Social Entrepreneurship center. The two have teamed up before -- in 2007 they released their critically acclaimed Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. This latest effort focuses less on the stickiness of the idea and more on the change process itself. What should a change agent do to implement lasting change in a hard-headed organization that desperately needs it? The book is organized into eleven chapters in three parts: Part 1, Direct the Rider; Part 2, Motivate the Elephant; and Part 3, Shape the Path. The titles come from a vivid metaphor by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt. In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Haidt likens a person to a rider on an elephant. The rider is the rational side of a person: the part that tells him to eat better, exercise more, and stop procrastinating, for example. The elephant is the emotional side that doesn't want to work to lose weight or exercise and would rather stay put; let's say willpower vs. won't-power; but why should that be? Whatever is autonomous and ingrained by habit belongs to the elephant. The rider is theoretically in control, but it is exhausting to continually tug on the reins and direct the stubborn elephant. Eventually the rider relents and the elephant goes back to doing what he's always done. Sound familiar? Before going much farther, you should know that two things separate Switch from so many other glib books about change: first, the book has a very solid psychological basis. Despite its accessible style, scores of major psychological findings and studies are reported and undergird the book's practical formulae for change. Second, Switch is not a self-help book. I have no doubt that the book could be used in this way, but it is really a book about how to change things. It is primarily directed toward organizational change, though its principles are much broader. And there are many surprises. The first big surprise occurs in the very first chapter. "We know what you're thinking -- people resist change. But it's not quite that easy. Babies are born every day to parents who, inexplicably, welcome that change. Yet people don't resist this massive change -- they volunteer for it. In our lives we embrace lots of big changes. So there are hard changes and there are easy changes. What distinguishes one from the other?" And the surprises keep coming. Like the two researchers who dramatically and permanently got folks to reduce their saturated fat intake. Or the doctor who saved over 100,000 lives and counting in American hospitals on schedule (18 months) by getting thousands of doctors and organizations to change their practices. Or the American who went to Vietnam and changed the face of malnutrition. Or the student who saved an endangered species in a Caribbean country that didn't give two hoots about it. What do all these stories have in common? For one, none of these change agents had the sufficient budget or authority to succeed; yet, they did. How? Every one of them gave clear rational direction to the rider by finding the bright spots, scripting the critical moves, and clearly pointing to the end goal. All of them motivated the elephant by emotionally connecting with it, and they shrunk the apparent change by carefully communicating progress. They refused to underestimate their people. Instead they provided them with a newfound identity that let them to grow into the challenge. But there was more. As the authors note, many times what looks like resistance is really confusion or even the result of misaligned incentives. That's why the path needs to be shaped by making manageable changes to the environment, building sound habits, rallying the herd, and reinforcing the new habit until it becomes a way of life. Well, maybe that sounds like a lot of work. I think it is. But speaking from firsthand experience, it will be a labor of love. And if your heart is not in the change and you do not think you can derive reward from the process, perhaps you are selling yourself short -- or, maybe you're the wrong person to lead the change and you should stop kidding yourself. And perhaps that is what I like most about this book. It does not promise a panacea. It tells it like it is without the jingoism that has become the substance of many change management essays. If you are leading organizational change, the book will provide a solid prescription for achieving lasting results because Switch uses real research, reports real experiences, and provides real guidance. Here, my recommendation is enthusiastic.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Switch Deficiencies and Recommendations
*by A***R on December 22, 2010*

Switch is a book Josef Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, would rate with five stars. Goebbels's Principles of Propaganda, just like the Switch change framework (Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant, and Shape the Path) excises Values and Goal Setting from Change. What remains is a set of tactics Switch identifies to realize change no matter what goals and values the leaders want to achieve and realize. Although the change framework in Switch potentially provides powerful tactics for change, Switch has some major and fatal deficiencies. The framework with its tactics for change described in SWITCH - HOW TO CHANGE THINGS WHEN CHANGE IS HARD by Chip Heath and Dan Heath published by Broadway Books, New York 2010 has some major and fatal deficiencies. (I will use the term "change framework" as a convenient way to refer to the Switch framework and tactics for change described in this book.) The change framework * Is amoral and value neutral, * Is dangerous and provides a potentially powerful means for propaganda, * Discounts reason and is inconsistent with its formulation, * Can be used to establish and sustain totalitarianism, potentially resulting in holocausts, * Is missing the ethical compass, the Superego from Freud's standpoint, and * Is inimical to democracy and potentially supportive of totalitarianism It is recommended that the authors augment the book by providing a methodology for how members in a group can democratically formulate and support worthy goals to satisfy the critical and important needs of the group in a manner consistent with the group's prevailing pluralistic values. The change framework is amoral and value neutral. There is no discussion in Switch about what makes a goal desirable (e.g., using methods of Immanuel Kant, utilitarianism, or Sir William Walter Ross) and worthy of attainment in the context of the ethical values. There is no discussion on how to identify goals that are worthy of attainment in the context of these ethical values and real needs. In the wrong hands, it could be used as an effective recipe for despotism. The goals are critically important. The change framework is dangerous and provides a potentially powerful means for propaganda. The framework may be extremely dangerous if effective. It is like giving a loaded gun with instructions on how to effectively use it without providing the user advice on the ethical use of the gun, e.g., under what (very restricted) conditions (e.g., target practice and self-defense), it is ethically permissible to use it. Without the moral compass, Switch provides a simple framework for propaganda, which consists of tactics aimed at influencing or manipulating attitudes and behaviors of an individual or a community to help realize one or more goals. Many of the tactics identified in Switch are similar to those proposed by Goebbels and other advocates of propaganda. See [...]The change framework discounts reason and is inconsistent with its formulation. The framework explicitly discounts reason. The framework explicitly discounts reason by asserting that the Rider will think in "True But Useless" (TBU) circles if not given direction. It claims that the Rider will not be able to set the direction if the Elephant opposes the rider`s direction. But isn't the change framework itself a rational mechanism that the Rider can use to nudge or coax the Elephant to move in the direction that Rider chooses? Even though the framework explicitly discounts reason, it provides the Rider (the intellect) the means by which to influence the elephant. Therefore, the change framework enables the intellect and reason to greatly influence if not control the emotions of the Elephant. If the intellect and reason are really as Switch portrays, how did the change framework become articulated, presented, and communicated? The Rider as described in the Switch could not have formulated the change framework. It would simply think in circles (TBU). In Switch, the Leader when equipped with the framework and tactics for change is the agent of change. The framework and tactics for change must have been created by a series of clever Riders, don't you think? The Elephant didn't create the change framework. Overtime, the authors of propaganda and change literature, including the books referenced in "Recommendations for Additional Reading," accumulated knowledge that the Switch authors synthesized into this very powerful change framework. The Rider is not the weak analyzer Switch would have you believe. Riders created the change framework that enable the Rider some level of mastery over the Elephant. Reason created the change framework. Therefore, reason and the Rider are of paramount importance. The change framework can used to establish and sustain totalitarianism, potentially resulting in holocausts. Switch pays little attention to the Leaders. But how does the Leader relate to the framework and the tactics for change? Who are the Leaders and what is their relationship to the Riders and Elephants? In the case of an individual, it is your reason equipped with the change framework. Generally, a Leader is a person (Rider/Elephant) who is expert in the change framework and who is in a leadership position of responsibility for a group of people or community to help the group or community satisfy some of its most important needs by applying the framework and tactics for change in a manner as consistent as possible with the prevailing and pluralistic ethical values of the members of the group or community. There should be much more discussion about Leaders and how they relate to the change framework. The last century should have taught us that unbridled reason (The Rider with propaganda) threatens to erupt in holocaust without an ethical compass. The change framework is missing the ethical compass, the Superego from Freud's standpoint. Freud (Beyond the Pleasure Principle 1920 and The Ego and the Id 1923) would have called the ethical compass, which is totally missing in the Switch, the Superego. He would have called the Elephant the Id and the Rider the Ego. The rational Ego attempts to resolve or at least mitigate the conflict between the Id (Elephant) and the Superego (the ethical compass). The change framework is a good means to help mitigate if not resolve this conflict. Because there is no understanding of the connection between these tactics and worthy goals in the context of ethical values, Switch misses the opportunity to provide direction (to the Ego) on how identify the specific tactics for change that would be effective given the nature of the goals that ought be realized in the context of the ethical compass (Superego). The framework provides no methodology for the selection of specific tactics given worthy goals in the context of evolved ethical values. The change framework is inimical to democracy and potentially supportive of totalitarianism. For a description of totalitarianism see [...]. How does the Switch framework with its leaders relate to a democratic society? The Switch encourages the Leaders to separate themselves from the other members of the group. The Leaders somehow determine the goals (the framework provides no guidance) and use the framework with its tactics for change to manipulate the other members of the group to realize the goals. There is no discussion of how the leaders formulate worthy goals that are consistent the leaders' group ethical values and genuine needs. This framework and its tactics for change can very easily be used to establish and sustain totalitarianism. The fatal flaw of the framework is the absence of an ethical component. Some recommendations follow. The authors should augment the framework with an ethical compass. They should provide advice and methods to discover the prevailing and pluralistic values of the group. They should provide advice to the members of the group on how to democratically identify the critical and important needs of the group in the context of the group's prevailing pluralistic values. They should provide a methodology for how members in a group can democratically formulate worthy goals in the context of the group's prevailing pluralistic values to satisfy the critical and important needs of the group in a manner consistent with the group's prevailing pluralistic values. With the satisfaction of these recommendations, Switch can be transformed from a potentially dangerous amoral change framework into an ethically directed and integrated framework for change that helps satisfy real needs using tactics for change that are consistent with the group's prevailing pluralistic values.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
- The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact

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