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Reset: How to Change What's Not Working
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Made to Stick, Switch, and The Power of Moments comes a revolutionary guide to fixing what’s not working—in systems and processes, organizations and companies, and even in our daily lives—by identifying leverage points and concentrating resources to achieve our goals.
Changing how we work can feel overwhelming. Like trying to budge an enormous boulder. We’re stifled by the gravity of the way we’ve always done things. And we spend so much time fighting fires—and fighting colleagues—that we lack the energy to shift direction.
But with the right strategy, we can move the boulder. In Reset, Heath explores a framework for getting unstuck and making the changes that matter. The secret is to find “leverage points”: places where a little bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Then, we can thoughtfully rearrange our resources to push on those points.
Heath weaves together fascinating examples, ranging from a freakishly effective fast-food drive-thru to a simple trick from couples therapy to an inspirational campaign that saved a million cats.
In Reset, you’ll
-Why the feeling of progress can be your secret weapon in accelerating change
-How leaders can uncover and stop wasteful activities
-Why your team’s motivation is often squandered—and how to avoid that mistake
-How you can jumpstart your change efforts by beginning with a “burst”
The book investigates Why the middle is the roughest part of a change effort. Why inefficiency can sometimes accelerate progress. Why getting “buy-in” is the wrong way to think about change.
What if we could unlock forward movement—achieving progress on what matters most—without the need for more resources? The same people, the same assets…but dramatically better results. Yesterday, we were stuck. Today, we reset.
Changing how we work can feel overwhelming. Like trying to budge an enormous boulder. We’re stifled by the gravity of the way we’ve always done things. And we spend so much time fighting fires—and fighting colleagues—that we lack the energy to shift direction.
But with the right strategy, we can move the boulder. In Reset, Heath explores a framework for getting unstuck and making the changes that matter. The secret is to find “leverage points”: places where a little bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Then, we can thoughtfully rearrange our resources to push on those points.
Heath weaves together fascinating examples, ranging from a freakishly effective fast-food drive-thru to a simple trick from couples therapy to an inspirational campaign that saved a million cats.
In Reset, you’ll
-Why the feeling of progress can be your secret weapon in accelerating change
-How leaders can uncover and stop wasteful activities
-Why your team’s motivation is often squandered—and how to avoid that mistake
-How you can jumpstart your change efforts by beginning with a “burst”
The book investigates Why the middle is the roughest part of a change effort. Why inefficiency can sometimes accelerate progress. Why getting “buy-in” is the wrong way to think about change.
What if we could unlock forward movement—achieving progress on what matters most—without the need for more resources? The same people, the same assets…but dramatically better results. Yesterday, we were stuck. Today, we reset.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published January 21, 2025
822 people are currently reading
7829 people want to read
About the author
Dan Heath
44 books498 followersDan Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University's CASE center.
Dan has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a B.A. from the Plan II Honors Program from the University of Texas at Austin.
He co-wrote a book titled Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard with his brother Chip Heath.
Dan has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a B.A. from the Plan II Honors Program from the University of Texas at Austin.
He co-wrote a book titled Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard with his brother Chip Heath.
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March 24, 2025Mostly about business/organisations. As ever with this type of book, you hope to get one or two good takeaways, in this case the important of focusing on goals' goals (ie thinking not just about what you're trying to achieve, but what achieving it is supposed to achieve).
September 11, 2024
I am honored to have been given the opportunity to read the advance reader's edition of Dan's new book.
I am a Change Management/Continuous Improvement professional, so I understand all of the Lean Six Sigma concepts, but Dan has done a phenomenal job of taking many of those same concepts and packaging/presenting them in ways that are much easier to understand.
While there seems to be very little new material being presented, there are certainly new, albeit not always better, ways of presenting the material, and Dan has hit the nail on the head.
Many of the examples presented in this book are relatable, which is ideal for helping readers from all walks of like understand the concepts...and to get them to actually reset and change what's not working.
I won't turn this into a book report and regurgitate the material here...it is for you to read and enjoy yourselves. I want to say, mostly, that it is well worth the time to read, and I am thankful for the opportunity to read, understand, and apply these concepts in my personal and professional life sooner rather than later.
Gratefully,
Dr. Mark E. Wood
I am a Change Management/Continuous Improvement professional, so I understand all of the Lean Six Sigma concepts, but Dan has done a phenomenal job of taking many of those same concepts and packaging/presenting them in ways that are much easier to understand.
While there seems to be very little new material being presented, there are certainly new, albeit not always better, ways of presenting the material, and Dan has hit the nail on the head.
Many of the examples presented in this book are relatable, which is ideal for helping readers from all walks of like understand the concepts...and to get them to actually reset and change what's not working.
I won't turn this into a book report and regurgitate the material here...it is for you to read and enjoy yourselves. I want to say, mostly, that it is well worth the time to read, and I am thankful for the opportunity to read, understand, and apply these concepts in my personal and professional life sooner rather than later.
Gratefully,
Dr. Mark E. Wood
August 27, 2024
** I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher, because I am a librarian and librarians are awesome **
Readable and with readily apparent applications (and cute illustrations to boot!) I want the entire management team at my library to read this.
Readable and with readily apparent applications (and cute illustrations to boot!) I want the entire management team at my library to read this.
April 22, 2025
This book focuses mostly on business and areas where there chaos exists. I liked the way the author broke down the way to look and find what's not working. And then how to go about making change.
The author was extremely personable. I will have to look into his other writings. So 4 stars
The author was extremely personable. I will have to look into his other writings. So 4 stars
January 24, 2025
Dan Heath is an American author and Harvard MBA currently serving as a fellow at Duke University; he's probably best known for the well-known series of pop psychology and pop sociology books (like Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, and Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work) he's co-written with his older brother, PhD psychologist and Stanford professor Chip Heath. Reset marks Dan Heath's second solo book venture, after 2020's Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, and features the same engaging, casual writing style that characterizes all the Heath brothers' books, Malcolm Gladwell's books, and many similar books that likely copy from them.
I enjoyed Reset. It's a quick read/listen (288 page book/6 hour audiobook), with the audiobook doing a much better than average job of describing figures in the enhancement PDF for listeners who aren't referring to it while listening. The case examples Heath uses are fresh (at least to me, a frequent reader of this genre) and interesting. That being said, the topic overall -- how to change when change is hard -- is a very oversaturated one in pop psychology, including in other books by the Heath brothers. Still, I think this is a worthwhile read for fans of prior Heath brothers books and this genre in general.
My statistics:
Book 27 for 2025
Book 1953 cumulatively
I enjoyed Reset. It's a quick read/listen (288 page book/6 hour audiobook), with the audiobook doing a much better than average job of describing figures in the enhancement PDF for listeners who aren't referring to it while listening. The case examples Heath uses are fresh (at least to me, a frequent reader of this genre) and interesting. That being said, the topic overall -- how to change when change is hard -- is a very oversaturated one in pop psychology, including in other books by the Heath brothers. Still, I think this is a worthwhile read for fans of prior Heath brothers books and this genre in general.
My statistics:
Book 27 for 2025
Book 1953 cumulatively
November 7, 2024
I was awarded an advance copy of this book, which I am forever grateful for. I love the Heath brother books, they are always easy and inspiring to read. They take research and real life examples, so it’s easy to apply what you learn. This book was no different.
I didn’t give it 5 stars because usually I am able to tie all the concepts in the book together and find opportunites to immediately apply lessons into my daily work. This book had some, but there were parts that didn’t come together for me. I missed the “ah-Ha” I normally get. That could have been a me thing too.
Regardless, this book was very much worth a read and it will be one I continue to go back to.
I didn’t give it 5 stars because usually I am able to tie all the concepts in the book together and find opportunites to immediately apply lessons into my daily work. This book had some, but there were parts that didn’t come together for me. I missed the “ah-Ha” I normally get. That could have been a me thing too.
Regardless, this book was very much worth a read and it will be one I continue to go back to.
April 17, 2025
Really, really good. I liked it a tad better then “switch,” which Heath wrote with his brother. This felt more concise and actionable, and the “find the leverage point and restack resources on it” model is deceptively simple. Love it.
Grad school is making me addicted to these books. Might even get into Patrick Lencioni *shivers*
Grad school is making me addicted to these books. Might even get into Patrick Lencioni *shivers*
August 16, 2025
While it has a business focus, there is so much to glean on a personal level as well as professional. There are so many real world examples of the principles brought forth in this book that makes it easy to understand and apply.
February 23, 2025
I read this for a work bookclub. I liked the examples, they each illustrated his points well. Being so short and having a few cartoons and bullet points, this was a very quick read as well.
February 1, 2025
This book wasn’t terrible, but it was pretty mid. Dan Heath and his brother write a ton of books marketed toward business folks, and they probably get paid boat loads of cash for their talks. They’re also mentors to Jonah Berger, who does the same thing. The issue is that 90% of their books are just filled with anecdotal evidence. While this book had me excited at first because Heath pointed to some research, that didn’t really extend passed the first few chapters.
This book is about problem-solving when you’re “stuck”. It’s primarily for solving problems within businesses, but some of the advice is practical for everyday life. As mentioned, I don’t think the book was terrible, but it just annoys me that he could easily reference some research to make his arguments stronger. However, he doesn’t really have to because people will buy up his books anyway.
This book is about problem-solving when you’re “stuck”. It’s primarily for solving problems within businesses, but some of the advice is practical for everyday life. As mentioned, I don’t think the book was terrible, but it just annoys me that he could easily reference some research to make his arguments stronger. However, he doesn’t really have to because people will buy up his books anyway.
June 22, 2025
I found Reset both timely and thought-provoking, especially in the way it reframes how we approach change in our lives and systems. Heath explores the concept of resets – those rare moments when systems are disrupted and we’re offered a chance to rethink and rebuild better. Whether it’s in workplaces, institutions, or personal habits, he argues that we shouldn’t just return to the status quo after upheaval, but use these moments as opportunities to design something stronger.
What stood out to me was how grounded the book felt. Heath draws from real-world examples – from post-crisis policy changes to innovative social programmes – to show how resets can be intentional rather than accidental. He also offers tools for recognising these moments and acting on them with purpose.
Some of the stories were more impactful than others, and there were parts where I wished for a bit more depth, but overall it was a worthwhile, energising read. It gave me language and clarity around the idea that not every disruption has to be a setback – it can be the beginning of something much better.
What stood out to me was how grounded the book felt. Heath draws from real-world examples – from post-crisis policy changes to innovative social programmes – to show how resets can be intentional rather than accidental. He also offers tools for recognising these moments and acting on them with purpose.
Some of the stories were more impactful than others, and there were parts where I wished for a bit more depth, but overall it was a worthwhile, energising read. It gave me language and clarity around the idea that not every disruption has to be a setback – it can be the beginning of something much better.
October 6, 2024
I ALWAYS enjoy Heath brother books, and although this one was missing Chip, it was still just as practical, down-to-earth, and accessible as the others. I loved all the case studies and examples of how to really think about how to solve problems that will give you the biggest bang for your buck. While the majority of the case examples are business-related in nature, I like to think about how to apply these principles to everyday life, and there were several of those examples throughout the book as well. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!
February 2, 2025
I have selected this as Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 2/2, as it stands heads above other recently published books on this topic.
March 19, 2025
72%
This book actually does a really good job of looking at the inefficiencies in life. One of the biggest things that I like to recognize is there's only so much time for most people's lives. When you choose one to do one thing, you're saying no to doing something else. And it's important to find the bottlenecks in your systems. It's like the Toyota method. Just ask why five times. One thing I really like to do personally is, when I'm ironing out inefficiencies, is if you're going to do something and figure out if there's something wrong, you batch up your tasks and group them together. For example, if I'm working on construction projects, I'm doing all construction projects that day. And I do them in order. I'm going to be in this area, then I'm going to be in this area, then I'm going to be in this area. That's a great time management skill. Another thing is, if you're going in one direction and you have a package to carry, for instance, and it's out of the way, but you have to go partway the same path, I like to leave that package in that area and then come back to it. It's the same thing with many other things. You can group them all together. And when you're actually going in the direction where those other things go, take care of them along the way. It's much more efficient. We like efficiency standards, we like batching, and we like staying on the same task. Because if we get off task, who knows what's going to happenWhat it's really shined through was making me think about my own business, Pi, and saying, hey, here's where we can make some improvements. Made me ask some questions. Made me find some regulations that needed to be taken care of, and I said, okay, great. Communication and asking questions. Those are some of the best tools you can have. Simplest things..
This book actually does a really good job of looking at the inefficiencies in life. One of the biggest things that I like to recognize is there's only so much time for most people's lives. When you choose one to do one thing, you're saying no to doing something else. And it's important to find the bottlenecks in your systems. It's like the Toyota method. Just ask why five times. One thing I really like to do personally is, when I'm ironing out inefficiencies, is if you're going to do something and figure out if there's something wrong, you batch up your tasks and group them together. For example, if I'm working on construction projects, I'm doing all construction projects that day. And I do them in order. I'm going to be in this area, then I'm going to be in this area, then I'm going to be in this area. That's a great time management skill. Another thing is, if you're going in one direction and you have a package to carry, for instance, and it's out of the way, but you have to go partway the same path, I like to leave that package in that area and then come back to it. It's the same thing with many other things. You can group them all together. And when you're actually going in the direction where those other things go, take care of them along the way. It's much more efficient. We like efficiency standards, we like batching, and we like staying on the same task. Because if we get off task, who knows what's going to happenWhat it's really shined through was making me think about my own business, Pi, and saying, hey, here's where we can make some improvements. Made me ask some questions. Made me find some regulations that needed to be taken care of, and I said, okay, great. Communication and asking questions. Those are some of the best tools you can have. Simplest things..
August 22, 2025
Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working
Dan Heath
“Yesterday, we were stuck. Today, we reset.”
ทุกวันนี้เราใช้พลังงานส่วนใหญ่ของเราไปกับเรื่องของคนอื่น ไปสู้กับเรื่องไรสาระ จนทำให้เวลาเราอยากจะเปลี่ยนอะไรบางอย่างที่โดยปกติแล้วเรามักจะทำอยู่ใน comfort zone ของเรา มันเลยเป็นเรื่องยาก
หนังสือเล่มนี้ได้นำเสนอแนวคิดเพื่อที่จะได้ออกจากจุดที่เราติดกับดักอยู่ getting unstuck and making the changes that matter โดยได้นำเสนอแนวคิดที่น่าสนใจที่ว่า
- หา leverage points ซึ่งจะเป็นจุดสำคัญที่เพียงเปลี่ยนเล็กน้อย ก็เกิดผลลพธ์ที่ดีอันยิ่งใหญ่ได้
- restack resources จัดของใหม่อย่างฉลาด ไม่ต้องวิ่งไล่ตามอะไร แค่เอาของที่มีอยู่มาใช้ให้มีประสิทธิภาพกว่าเดิม
ซึ่งโดยรวมแล้วเป็นหนังสือเล่มหนึ่งที่ค่อนข้างอ่านง่าย เข้าใจไม่ยาก เหมาะกับคนที่รู้สึกตันและติดอยู่กับบางสิ่งรวมถึงกรอบความคิดอะไรบางอย่าง และเราคิดว่าแนวคิดที่ถูกนำเสนอในหนังสือเล่มค่อนข้างดีเลยทีเดียว มีการยกตัวอย่างที่จับต้องได้ด้วย แบบว่า เรื่องนีเมันสามารถเกิดขึ้นจริงได้นะ
แต่… ตอนอ่านก็มีอีกจุดที่แอบคิดคือ เรื่องบางเรื่อง แม้จะทำตามที่นักเขียนบอก มันไม่ได้ง่ายอย่างนั้นเสมอไป แล้วเนื้อหาส่วนใหญ่มีความเกี่ยวข้องกับภาคธุรกิจเยอะ เราเลยคิดว่าหนังสือเล่มนี้มีความเหมาะกับภาคธุรกิจมากกว่ารายบุคคล แต่ยังไงก็คิดว่าบางส่วนก็ยังเอามา adapt ได้อยู่
Dan Heath
“Yesterday, we were stuck. Today, we reset.”
ทุกวันนี้เราใช้พลังงานส่วนใหญ่ของเราไปกับเรื่องของคนอื่น ไปสู้กับเรื่องไรสาระ จนทำให้เวลาเราอยากจะเปลี่ยนอะไรบางอย่างที่โดยปกติแล้วเรามักจะทำอยู่ใน comfort zone ของเรา มันเลยเป็นเรื่องยาก
หนังสือเล่มนี้ได้นำเสนอแนวคิดเพื่อที่จะได้ออกจากจุดที่เราติดกับดักอยู่ getting unstuck and making the changes that matter โดยได้นำเสนอแนวคิดที่น่าสนใจที่ว่า
- หา leverage points ซึ่งจะเป็นจุดสำคัญที่เพียงเปลี่ยนเล็กน้อย ก็เกิดผลลพธ์ที่ดีอันยิ่งใหญ่ได้
- restack resources จัดของใหม่อย่างฉลาด ไม่ต้องวิ่งไล่ตามอะไร แค่เอาของที่มีอยู่มาใช้ให้มีประสิทธิภาพกว่าเดิม
ซึ่งโดยรวมแล้วเป็นหนังสือเล่มหนึ่งที่ค่อนข้างอ่านง่าย เข้าใจไม่ยาก เหมาะกับคนที่รู้สึกตันและติดอยู่กับบางสิ่งรวมถึงกรอบความคิดอะไรบางอย่าง และเราคิดว่าแนวคิดที่ถูกนำเสนอในหนังสือเล่มค่อนข้างดีเลยทีเดียว มีการยกตัวอย่างที่จับต้องได้ด้วย แบบว่า เรื่องนีเมันสามารถเกิดขึ้นจริงได้นะ
แต่… ตอนอ่านก็มีอีกจุดที่แอบคิดคือ เรื่องบางเรื่อง แม้จะทำตามที่นักเขียนบอก มันไม่ได้ง่ายอย่างนั้นเสมอไป แล้วเนื้อหาส่วนใหญ่มีความเกี่ยวข้องกับภาคธุรกิจเยอะ เราเลยคิดว่าหนังสือเล่มนี้มีความเหมาะกับภาคธุรกิจมากกว่ารายบุคคล แต่ยังไงก็คิดว่าบางส่วนก็ยังเอามา adapt ได้อยู่
February 18, 2025
“Reset” is a compelling read that seamlessly ties engaging stories to its core teachings, making it not only quick but also enjoyable. The book's practical lessons are deeply rooted in Six Sigma methodologies, providing readers with concrete tools and frameworks for identifying and seizing improvement opportunities.
As a leader, you'll find this book particularly valuable. It guides you through the process of prioritizing initiatives and diving into them headfirst with confidence. The practical advice and real-world examples make complex concepts easy to grasp and implement.
Even if you have previous experience leading change, “Reset” offers fresh insights and innovative strategies that will enhance your leadership arsenal. I’m willing to bet you'll pick up a trick or two that you hadn’t encountered before.
I highly recommend “Reset” to any leader who is serious about driving continuous improvement and fostering a culture of excellence.
As a leader, you'll find this book particularly valuable. It guides you through the process of prioritizing initiatives and diving into them headfirst with confidence. The practical advice and real-world examples make complex concepts easy to grasp and implement.
Even if you have previous experience leading change, “Reset” offers fresh insights and innovative strategies that will enhance your leadership arsenal. I’m willing to bet you'll pick up a trick or two that you hadn’t encountered before.
I highly recommend “Reset” to any leader who is serious about driving continuous improvement and fostering a culture of excellence.
August 27, 2025
I like Heath’s work…
This book felt kinda of forced, like a collection of things we’ve heard and are likely trying or already doing, masquerading as fresh knowledge. I know that’s harsh, but it’s mostly a collection of well known business management axioms (ie the Pareto principle) sprinkled with psychology (Amabile’s work on motivation—of which I am a big fan of btw).
Anyways, all great tips in this book, just repackaged tips. I still would recommend reading it.
This book felt kinda of forced, like a collection of things we’ve heard and are likely trying or already doing, masquerading as fresh knowledge. I know that’s harsh, but it’s mostly a collection of well known business management axioms (ie the Pareto principle) sprinkled with psychology (Amabile’s work on motivation—of which I am a big fan of btw).
Anyways, all great tips in this book, just repackaged tips. I still would recommend reading it.
May 21, 2025
I absolutely loved Reset by Dan Heath!
Heath explores how every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. His central thesis of Reset is that if you’re stuck, identify leverage points, and restack resources towards those steps that will have the biggest impact.
What I liked the least about the book is that most of it was targeted towards business and leaders of teams, so there weren’t many actionable steps that I can apply to my personal life within the next day.
What I liked most about the book is that it clearly identifies key ideas and illustrates them with vivid examples of how
- a Texas library went from irrelevant to a central hub of the community (think miniature ponies at the library and cocktails & coloring nights for adults)
- Sweetgreen went from wasting time and resources mixing salads in stainless steel reusable bowls to designing a hexagonal to-go bowl that is big enough for mixing
- a radiology clinic’s receptionists gave out oral contrast to improve patient flow
- an archery coach followed a new coaching technique
- Chic-fil-a pursued bottlenecks to speed up the drive-through
- a hospital receiving area started delivering packages in a day
- the technical data center team at Exonn Mobil triumphed over its mountain of files
- executives at Gartner improved client retention numbers
- 49ers games got better
- church services got shorter
- millions of cats were saved
- a final father and son game of ping pong was played
Each chapter also has a quick review, and the end of the book even includes a one-page summary of the book
I would recommend this book to anyone. It’s a quick, easy, and entertaining read that I will remember for years to come!
Heath explores how every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. His central thesis of Reset is that if you’re stuck, identify leverage points, and restack resources towards those steps that will have the biggest impact.
What I liked the least about the book is that most of it was targeted towards business and leaders of teams, so there weren’t many actionable steps that I can apply to my personal life within the next day.
What I liked most about the book is that it clearly identifies key ideas and illustrates them with vivid examples of how
- a Texas library went from irrelevant to a central hub of the community (think miniature ponies at the library and cocktails & coloring nights for adults)
- Sweetgreen went from wasting time and resources mixing salads in stainless steel reusable bowls to designing a hexagonal to-go bowl that is big enough for mixing
- a radiology clinic’s receptionists gave out oral contrast to improve patient flow
- an archery coach followed a new coaching technique
- Chic-fil-a pursued bottlenecks to speed up the drive-through
- a hospital receiving area started delivering packages in a day
- the technical data center team at Exonn Mobil triumphed over its mountain of files
- executives at Gartner improved client retention numbers
- 49ers games got better
- church services got shorter
- millions of cats were saved
- a final father and son game of ping pong was played
Each chapter also has a quick review, and the end of the book even includes a one-page summary of the book
I would recommend this book to anyone. It’s a quick, easy, and entertaining read that I will remember for years to come!
October 5, 2025
The main theme of this book is about problem solving at work, mostly about identifying what problems to solve and getting the right resources. It’s part change management and part creative problem solving but overall a good read with interesting examples and clear methods you can apply to any industry.
February 5, 2025
If you're a business or team leader, hopefully there's nothing new for you here. Organisations face roadblocks all the time, and this book presents an applicable framework to tackle just that.
Nonetheless, I always enjoy Dan Heath's writing style and learned from the stories shared in the book.
Nonetheless, I always enjoy Dan Heath's writing style and learned from the stories shared in the book.
May 19, 2025
Really enjoyed Reset by Dan Heath. It’s packed with practical, actionable advice you can actually use. About half the ideas I’d heard before, but it was good to revisit them. Super helpful and definitely worth the read!
October 2, 2025
Littered with consultant speak. Like what is a “leverage point”? Come on.
Some good nuggets: make sure you understand the problem on the ground. Efficiency isn’t always the answer. People are motivated by feelings of progress.
Some good nuggets: make sure you understand the problem on the ground. Efficiency isn’t always the answer. People are motivated by feelings of progress.
January 28, 2025
Dan is a great author. I preordered this one so I could go to a webinar he hosted and I recommend listening to him speak if you get the chance.
January 29, 2025
First of all, I love that the audio book has an exhaustive pdf attached with all the visual and the summary of each chapter, way easier to remember the important parts.
Dan Heath give us numerous tools to bring change when we are not in an emergency situation. What's interesting is that it does not require to use (mostly new technologies) to nudge people to change, but to identify the leverage points (not so simple) and stack different resources to make change happen.
I am looking forward to testing some of those tools, and see what happens then.
Dan Heath give us numerous tools to bring change when we are not in an emergency situation. What's interesting is that it does not require to use (mostly new technologies) to nudge people to change, but to identify the leverage points (not so simple) and stack different resources to make change happen.
I am looking forward to testing some of those tools, and see what happens then.
February 23, 2025
Good, practical advice for moving through a variety of problems to help inspire you to seeing other avenues. It was interesting end to end.
April 15, 2025
Great business and life book to read and have on your shelf. Authentic analysis and studies, but down to earth dialogue. I recommend all this author’s books, I have never been disappointed.
April 27, 2025
Similar to his other books. Compelling stories, simplified action items, self-deprecating humor.
Good stuff.
Good stuff.
May 10, 2025
It's perfectly fine for this sort of business self-help book. I think the overall framework makes a lot of sense even though I am shocked most isn't intuitive.
April 17, 2025
Six stars. Excellent collection of relevant business process improvement approaches with applicable examples. I don't think I have ever ready a book with a higher example to commentary ratio.
July 2, 2025
This is an interesting topic, but a little bit disappointing book. I’ve read other books by Chip and Dan Heath, and one book by Dan Heath alone, and this is one of the less useful ones. It’s similar to Dan Heath’s book Upstream in that it’s very light on content and conclusions and very heavy on restating things 3 different ways and then telling a story. It’s more of a collection of stories than many insights. Like many of my book summaries/highpoints, it’s heavy on quotations as well. The overall topic of the book is to reset things that aren’t working by finding leverage points and then restacking resources to take advantage of your findings. “Without a leverage point, you’ll never transform how you work. In the picture above, the leverage point is the fulcrum that supports the lever. But it’s not sufficient to move the boulder…To actually move it, you need to apply some resources to the other end of that lever. Where do you get those resources? Well, right now, you and your team have a wealth of resources – time, money, enthusiasm, processes, etc. – that are being used in various ways. The trick is to align all of those assets so that they push in the same direction. You need to restack resources on the leverage point. And that’s the core framework we’ll unpack in this book: to make things happen, you should Find Leverage Points and Restack Resources to push on those points. We’ll spend the first section of the book on the essential detective work of Finding Leverage Points, covering five methods for locating them: 1) Go and see the work: Observe up close the reality of your work 2) Consider the goal of the goal: Identify alternate pathways to your ultimate destination 3) Study the bright spots: Analyze and replicate your own best work 4) Target the constraint: Assess the #1 force that is holding you back 5) Map the system: Rise above the silos to spot promising targets for action…You have what you have. Ant that means if you want to press harder on a Leverage Point, then you’ll need to draw resources from something else you’re doing…Here’s how you can Restack Resources: 1) Start with a burst: Begin with an intense and focused period of work 2) Recycle waste: Discontinue efforts that don’t serve the mission 3) Do less and more: Shift resources from lower-value work to higher-value 4) Tap motivation: Prioritize the work that’s required and desired 5) Let people drive: Give your team the autonomy to lead the change efforts 6) Accelerate learning: Get better, faster feedback to guide your work.” (xx) One part of the book that I liked the most was the discussion of the value of progress. “What emerged from these diaries was a crystal-clear finding that the researchers called the progress principle: ‘Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work…’ Progress energized people and made them happy. Setbacks did the opposite. No other work dynamics had as dramatic an effect on employees’ inner life… ‘When we surveyed managers around the world and asked them to rank employee motivators in terms of importance, only 5% chose progress as #1…Progress came in dead last…’ The biggest motivator of employees is nowhere on the radar of the average boss.” (xxi) This is something I hadn’t read about that much, so was interesting to see examples of. I did like that he gave a lot of citations of other places to read up on the topic, and this might be one I read about a bit more.
The first set of chapters focuses on finding leverage points. One of my favorite of these was the first section: Go and see the work. “The first method for finding Leverage Points is the one used by Ritter, an approach that Nelson Repening calls ‘Go and see the work…’ Meaning: if you’re a school principal, shadow a student for the day. If you’re a factory manager, follow the production from start to finish. If you’re a consultant, map out the flow of activities on a single client engagement.” (8) When thinking of things in life and work where something needs to be improved, the best action that could be taken is for someone to set aside the time to sit with someone and understand the details of what is going on, what the pain points are, why mistakes/errors happen, and what parts take a lot of time. I thought it made sense that turnaround consultants would start here when beginning to formulate a solution for a struggling firm. “Turnaround consultants go and see the work. They walk the halls, they observe the production lines. But because they aren’t experts in the particular business they’re not running, the observation is not enough. They need guidance. So in trying to understand the reality of a business, turnaround artists go straight to the front lines…As a methodology, this could not be simpler: To find out what’s going on in your organization, talk to the people who make it run. Here’s what customers really think of us. Here’s why our plant is so messed up. Here’s why the software updates are always late.” (17) Some of the following chapters on Consider the Goal of the Goal, Study the Bright Spots, and Target the Constraint were fine, but kind of obvious from the chapter titles. One part in the last of those chapters I liked was about relationships more than business processes. “Heck frequently recommends to her clients an activity called ‘sticky note appreciations.’ Here’s how it works: You keep a sticky note pad and a pen right by the toothbrush holder in the bathroom. Then, while you brush your teeth, you’re thinking about something positive you noticed about your partner. Something you appreciated. You write it on a sticky note and leave it on the mirror for them to find…People love finding those notes of appreciation twice a day. Except that Heck said that those little bursts of joy are not really the point. ‘It might feel really good to receive a sticky note from your partner, but that’s not actually the purpose of this…The purpose is to create a habit of mind where you’re scanning for the positives. And it gets easier with time. So the more you start to tune into What do I appreciate? What do I admire? What do I respect? The easier it becomes.’” (72) This seems like a useful exercise for relationships, slightly different than the focus on the insights in the rest of the book. I liked the section on Map the System as well. It was similar to Go and See the Work, but was more about figuring out how everything related to each other, and to see the relationships between groups rather than just what’s going on within them. “With high-dosage career counseling, Brackin and Goldstein had found a viable Leverage Point…Before their efforts, it wasn’t obvious to anyone that such a service could exist or that it could work. It was outside the scope of high schools. It was foreign to career centers. It was upstream of employers. To find the Leverage Point, someone had to zoom out and map the system. The key to mapping the system is to ascend above the silos: the individual units or departments within a larger organization…Silos are the inevitable but regrettable consequence of a mission that’s too big to conquer holistically. You can’t run modern-day Microsoft out of a garage, informally, over pizza and beer. You must break it into 10,000 pieces, carved up by function and product and geography…That’s why mapping the system works best when it spans silos, because no one is paying attention to the whole.” (85)
The second section focused on restacking resources. I thought this was a helpful way to conceptualize the response once you identify the problems and solutions. For the most part, you can’t just expand the amount of total resources you have, but there is a focus on reallocating. I wish there were more ideas shared rather than so many stories, but it had some strengths. “Because it’s not enough to Find a Leverage Point. Having found it, you have to push. Where does the energy to push come from? It must come from within the set of resources you have at your disposal: money, labor hours, physical assets, data, and so on. But those resources, deployed exactly as they are today, are not yielding the results you want. That’s why we have to restack them.” (103) I’m not sure if you have to Start With a Burst, but I guess it could help kick things off and get them going. One strategy that is often helpful is to start a long process by looking back at your progress, and then when you get close to the middle, shift your focus to the finish line, and focus on how close you are getting to completion. “The ultimate effect of this ‘look backward, then look forward’ strategy is to minimize the middle. Because in change efforts, the middle is the biggest trouble spot. In the beginning, there’s an initial burst of energy: hope, novelty, adventure…Then, later, you get a second burst as the finish line approaches: pride, satisfaction, relief.” (112) The middle is neither form of excitement, so we want to minimize it so we keep up engagement and momentum. I liked some of the Recycle Waste chapter, especially the discussion of DOWNTIME. “Waste is a word with a lot of associations: Garbage. Landfills. ‘A waste of time.’ But in this book, I want to use a version of the term prevalent in the world of lean thinking, which says: Waste is anything that doesn’t add value to your work in the customer’s eyes…Many organizations use the acronym DOWNTIME to capture eight possible categories of waste: Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Nonutilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Excess processing.” (121) It went into what some of these are with more detail, but I think it’s kind of obvious. I think having a structure to think about it, with a bunch of possibilities like this is helpful to frame the problem, though. I liked the framing of Type 1 and Type 2 decisions as well. “So how can we learn to distinguish ‘wise oversight’ from ‘wasteful oversight?’ A useful clarification comes from Jeff Bezos…Type 1 decisions, in his terminology, ‘are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible – one way doors – and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before.’ Type 2 decisions, though, are reversible…If you make a decision and you don’t like the results, you just undo it. ‘Type 2 decisions can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups”…Bezos warned that in many organization, the two types of decisions get confused or conflated. ‘As organizations get larger, there seems to be tendency to use the heavy-weight Type 1 decision-making process on most decisions, including many Type 2 decisions…The end result of this is slowness, unthoughtful risk aversion, failure to experiment sufficiently, and consequently diminished invention.” (131) It’s not revolutionary, but some of the framework for thinking about tradeoffs in the Do Less and More chapter were kind of helpful. “Here’s a simple tool for separating areas that ‘need more’ from areas that ‘need less’…Basically you draw quadrants on a whiteboard with the following labels: STOP, START, MORE, LESS. My friend said the hardest quadrants to address were LESS and especially, STOP…Usually, when we think about making changes, we’re thinking about adding something. New ideas, new initiatives, new investments. But we’ve got to remember the mantra: Change is not AND, it’s INSTEAD OF. Less of this, more of that.” (146) He also highlighted that we often don’t want to only do less or only do more, but adjust many components. “What strategy best equipped the companies to thrive after a recession? The worst strategy was a ‘cut only’ approach. In these companies, ‘pessimism permeates the organization…Centralization, strict controls, and the constant threat of more cuts build a feeling of disempowerment. The focus becomes survival – both personal and organizational.’ Almost as bad was a blithe ‘ignore the bad news and keep investing’ strategy…The best strategy? Blending cuts and investments. LESS and MORE.” (151) The chapter on Tap Motivation had some good parts, especially clarifying how to drive engagement. “Many leaders treat ‘change initiatives’ as something to be hatched in private and then foisted on employees. When they resist, the leaders act surprised and ask, ‘How do I get people to buy in?’ ‘Buy in’ is code for: how do I get people to want what I want, rather than what they want? But that’s backward. If you want to get out of a rut and leap forward, go where the energy is. Tap motivation.” (160) The chapter on Let People Drive was fine, but kind of obvious from the title of the chapter. This chapter had some things in common with the one abut motivation as well. “In situations where we want to see quick improvement, we often have the instinct to take more control. We grab the wheel ourselves…But that’s exactly the wrong approach, because we need people’s investment and their energy…And this is the second part of the justification for letting people drive – it boosts motivation and reduces waste…Autonomy helps people operate at the top of their range. When you’re in charge of something, you act with more conscientiousness – and tap more of your skills – than if you’re a cog in the machine.” (186) I thought the Accelerate Learning chapter had some useful ideas about getting feedback faster – do you want to know that problems happened or do you want to fix them before the football game is over? Sometimes you have to create a methodology or product to give you the information you need, but you need to get the tools to give you the information you need to address the problem in a reasonable time frame, not after the opportunity to do something has already passed. “To accelerate learning is to address two fundamental questions. The first is: how quickly can you identify failure?...That’s no accident. There’s an organic link between the these threads of ‘faster learning’ and ‘reduced waste.’ They tend to twine together. Because learning involves recalibration: Do more of this, do less of that. That recalibration – learning to shift your efforts toward more valuable pursuits – is the same thing as reducing waste.” (207)
Overall, this was a rather disappointing book. It seems like it could have been edited to be about half the length. I wish it has more options for approaches, and did a deeper dive into those rather than having verbose anecdotes. The topic is good, and I learned some things, and there were some interesting frameworks presented, but it was not dense enough for my tastes. That being said, this is a VERY quick read. I suggest this book to someone who wants a very quick read on how to handle change, but would recommend Switch or other books by Chip and Dan Heath more than this one.
The first set of chapters focuses on finding leverage points. One of my favorite of these was the first section: Go and see the work. “The first method for finding Leverage Points is the one used by Ritter, an approach that Nelson Repening calls ‘Go and see the work…’ Meaning: if you’re a school principal, shadow a student for the day. If you’re a factory manager, follow the production from start to finish. If you’re a consultant, map out the flow of activities on a single client engagement.” (8) When thinking of things in life and work where something needs to be improved, the best action that could be taken is for someone to set aside the time to sit with someone and understand the details of what is going on, what the pain points are, why mistakes/errors happen, and what parts take a lot of time. I thought it made sense that turnaround consultants would start here when beginning to formulate a solution for a struggling firm. “Turnaround consultants go and see the work. They walk the halls, they observe the production lines. But because they aren’t experts in the particular business they’re not running, the observation is not enough. They need guidance. So in trying to understand the reality of a business, turnaround artists go straight to the front lines…As a methodology, this could not be simpler: To find out what’s going on in your organization, talk to the people who make it run. Here’s what customers really think of us. Here’s why our plant is so messed up. Here’s why the software updates are always late.” (17) Some of the following chapters on Consider the Goal of the Goal, Study the Bright Spots, and Target the Constraint were fine, but kind of obvious from the chapter titles. One part in the last of those chapters I liked was about relationships more than business processes. “Heck frequently recommends to her clients an activity called ‘sticky note appreciations.’ Here’s how it works: You keep a sticky note pad and a pen right by the toothbrush holder in the bathroom. Then, while you brush your teeth, you’re thinking about something positive you noticed about your partner. Something you appreciated. You write it on a sticky note and leave it on the mirror for them to find…People love finding those notes of appreciation twice a day. Except that Heck said that those little bursts of joy are not really the point. ‘It might feel really good to receive a sticky note from your partner, but that’s not actually the purpose of this…The purpose is to create a habit of mind where you’re scanning for the positives. And it gets easier with time. So the more you start to tune into What do I appreciate? What do I admire? What do I respect? The easier it becomes.’” (72) This seems like a useful exercise for relationships, slightly different than the focus on the insights in the rest of the book. I liked the section on Map the System as well. It was similar to Go and See the Work, but was more about figuring out how everything related to each other, and to see the relationships between groups rather than just what’s going on within them. “With high-dosage career counseling, Brackin and Goldstein had found a viable Leverage Point…Before their efforts, it wasn’t obvious to anyone that such a service could exist or that it could work. It was outside the scope of high schools. It was foreign to career centers. It was upstream of employers. To find the Leverage Point, someone had to zoom out and map the system. The key to mapping the system is to ascend above the silos: the individual units or departments within a larger organization…Silos are the inevitable but regrettable consequence of a mission that’s too big to conquer holistically. You can’t run modern-day Microsoft out of a garage, informally, over pizza and beer. You must break it into 10,000 pieces, carved up by function and product and geography…That’s why mapping the system works best when it spans silos, because no one is paying attention to the whole.” (85)
The second section focused on restacking resources. I thought this was a helpful way to conceptualize the response once you identify the problems and solutions. For the most part, you can’t just expand the amount of total resources you have, but there is a focus on reallocating. I wish there were more ideas shared rather than so many stories, but it had some strengths. “Because it’s not enough to Find a Leverage Point. Having found it, you have to push. Where does the energy to push come from? It must come from within the set of resources you have at your disposal: money, labor hours, physical assets, data, and so on. But those resources, deployed exactly as they are today, are not yielding the results you want. That’s why we have to restack them.” (103) I’m not sure if you have to Start With a Burst, but I guess it could help kick things off and get them going. One strategy that is often helpful is to start a long process by looking back at your progress, and then when you get close to the middle, shift your focus to the finish line, and focus on how close you are getting to completion. “The ultimate effect of this ‘look backward, then look forward’ strategy is to minimize the middle. Because in change efforts, the middle is the biggest trouble spot. In the beginning, there’s an initial burst of energy: hope, novelty, adventure…Then, later, you get a second burst as the finish line approaches: pride, satisfaction, relief.” (112) The middle is neither form of excitement, so we want to minimize it so we keep up engagement and momentum. I liked some of the Recycle Waste chapter, especially the discussion of DOWNTIME. “Waste is a word with a lot of associations: Garbage. Landfills. ‘A waste of time.’ But in this book, I want to use a version of the term prevalent in the world of lean thinking, which says: Waste is anything that doesn’t add value to your work in the customer’s eyes…Many organizations use the acronym DOWNTIME to capture eight possible categories of waste: Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Nonutilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Excess processing.” (121) It went into what some of these are with more detail, but I think it’s kind of obvious. I think having a structure to think about it, with a bunch of possibilities like this is helpful to frame the problem, though. I liked the framing of Type 1 and Type 2 decisions as well. “So how can we learn to distinguish ‘wise oversight’ from ‘wasteful oversight?’ A useful clarification comes from Jeff Bezos…Type 1 decisions, in his terminology, ‘are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible – one way doors – and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before.’ Type 2 decisions, though, are reversible…If you make a decision and you don’t like the results, you just undo it. ‘Type 2 decisions can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups”…Bezos warned that in many organization, the two types of decisions get confused or conflated. ‘As organizations get larger, there seems to be tendency to use the heavy-weight Type 1 decision-making process on most decisions, including many Type 2 decisions…The end result of this is slowness, unthoughtful risk aversion, failure to experiment sufficiently, and consequently diminished invention.” (131) It’s not revolutionary, but some of the framework for thinking about tradeoffs in the Do Less and More chapter were kind of helpful. “Here’s a simple tool for separating areas that ‘need more’ from areas that ‘need less’…Basically you draw quadrants on a whiteboard with the following labels: STOP, START, MORE, LESS. My friend said the hardest quadrants to address were LESS and especially, STOP…Usually, when we think about making changes, we’re thinking about adding something. New ideas, new initiatives, new investments. But we’ve got to remember the mantra: Change is not AND, it’s INSTEAD OF. Less of this, more of that.” (146) He also highlighted that we often don’t want to only do less or only do more, but adjust many components. “What strategy best equipped the companies to thrive after a recession? The worst strategy was a ‘cut only’ approach. In these companies, ‘pessimism permeates the organization…Centralization, strict controls, and the constant threat of more cuts build a feeling of disempowerment. The focus becomes survival – both personal and organizational.’ Almost as bad was a blithe ‘ignore the bad news and keep investing’ strategy…The best strategy? Blending cuts and investments. LESS and MORE.” (151) The chapter on Tap Motivation had some good parts, especially clarifying how to drive engagement. “Many leaders treat ‘change initiatives’ as something to be hatched in private and then foisted on employees. When they resist, the leaders act surprised and ask, ‘How do I get people to buy in?’ ‘Buy in’ is code for: how do I get people to want what I want, rather than what they want? But that’s backward. If you want to get out of a rut and leap forward, go where the energy is. Tap motivation.” (160) The chapter on Let People Drive was fine, but kind of obvious from the title of the chapter. This chapter had some things in common with the one abut motivation as well. “In situations where we want to see quick improvement, we often have the instinct to take more control. We grab the wheel ourselves…But that’s exactly the wrong approach, because we need people’s investment and their energy…And this is the second part of the justification for letting people drive – it boosts motivation and reduces waste…Autonomy helps people operate at the top of their range. When you’re in charge of something, you act with more conscientiousness – and tap more of your skills – than if you’re a cog in the machine.” (186) I thought the Accelerate Learning chapter had some useful ideas about getting feedback faster – do you want to know that problems happened or do you want to fix them before the football game is over? Sometimes you have to create a methodology or product to give you the information you need, but you need to get the tools to give you the information you need to address the problem in a reasonable time frame, not after the opportunity to do something has already passed. “To accelerate learning is to address two fundamental questions. The first is: how quickly can you identify failure?...That’s no accident. There’s an organic link between the these threads of ‘faster learning’ and ‘reduced waste.’ They tend to twine together. Because learning involves recalibration: Do more of this, do less of that. That recalibration – learning to shift your efforts toward more valuable pursuits – is the same thing as reducing waste.” (207)
Overall, this was a rather disappointing book. It seems like it could have been edited to be about half the length. I wish it has more options for approaches, and did a deeper dive into those rather than having verbose anecdotes. The topic is good, and I learned some things, and there were some interesting frameworks presented, but it was not dense enough for my tastes. That being said, this is a VERY quick read. I suggest this book to someone who wants a very quick read on how to handle change, but would recommend Switch or other books by Chip and Dan Heath more than this one.
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