Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

by Chip Heath

And that’s the first surprise about change: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.

For anything to change, someone has to start acting differently.

Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that’s the second surprise about change: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.

If you want people to change, you must provide crystal-clear direction.

“Knowledge does not change behavior,” he said. “We have all encountered crazy shrinks and obese doctors and divorced marriage counselors.”

understanding a problem doesn’t necessarily solve it—that knowing is not enough.

Ambiguity is the enemy. Any successful change requires a translation of ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors.

When you want someone to behave in a new way, explain the “new way” clearly. Don’t assume the new moves are obvious.

What is essential, though, is to marry your long-term goal with short-term critical moves.

When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle is going to look different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.

the core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people, and behavior change happens in highly successful situations mostly by speaking to people’s feelings.

the sequence of change is not ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE, but rather SEE-FEEL-CHANGE.

Trying to fight inertia and indifference with analytical arguments is like tossing a fire extinguisher to someone who’s drowning. The solution doesn’t match the problem.

We will struggle, we will fail, we will be knocked down—but throughout, we’ll get better, and we’ll succeed in the end.

Pain now for a payoff later.

Our brains and our abilities are like muscles. They can be strengthened with practice. We’re not born skateboarders or scientists or nurses; we must learn how to skateboard, do science, or care for sick people. And our inspiration to change ourselves comes from our desire to live up to those identities.

A good change leader never thinks, “Why are these people acting so badly? They must be bad people.” A change leader thinks, “How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people?”

long journey starts with a single step, but a single step doesn’t guarantee the long journey.

Big changes can start with very small steps. Small changes tend to snowball.