Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

by Chip Heath

Lots of things are out of our control. But the goal is to be wise about the things that are under our control. And one thing we can control is how we define the ultimate victory and the small victories that lead up to it.

when people make choices, they tend to rely on one of two basic models of decision making: the consequences model or the identity model.

In the identity model of decision making, we essentially ask ourselves three questions when we have a decision to make: Who am I? What kind of situation is this? What would someone like me do in this situation?

Because identities are central to the way people make decisions, any change effort that violates someone’s identity is likely doomed to failure.

Identity is going to play a role in nearly every change situation.

When you think about the people whose behavior needs to change, ask yourself whether they would agree with this statement: “I aspire to be the kind of person who would make this change.” If their answer is yes, that’s an enormous factor in your favor. If their answer is no, then you’ll have to work hard to show them that they should aspire to a different self-image.

If you want to reach your full potential, you need a growth mindset.

to create and sustain change, you’ve got to act more like a coach and less like a scorekeeper. You’ve got to embrace a growth mindset and instill it in your team.

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

people will persevere only if they perceive falling down as learning rather than as failing.

successful teams focused on learning.

In the 1960s, an executive at IBM made a decision that ended up losing the company $10 million (about $70 million in 2009 dollars). The CEO of IBM, Tom Watson, summoned the offending executive to his office at corporate headquarters. The journalist Paul B. Carroll described what happened next: As the executive cowered, Watson asked, “Do you know why I’ve asked you here?” The man replied, “I assume I’m here so you can fire me.” Watson looked surprised. “Fire you?” he asked. “Of course not. I just spent $10 million educating you.”

What looks like a person problem is often a situation problem.

people have a systematic tendency to ignore the situational forces that shape other people’s behavior.

If you want people to change, you can provide clear direction (Rider) or boost their motivation and determination (Elephant). Alternatively, you can simply make the journey easier. Create a steep downhill slope and give them a push. Remove some friction from the trail. Scatter around lots of signs to tell them they’re getting close. In short, you can shape the Path.

Tweaking the environment is about making the right behaviors a little bit easier and the wrong behaviors a little bit harder.

Habits are behavioral autopilot, and that’s exactly what action triggers are setting up.

Leaders who can instill habits that reinforce their teams’ goals are essentially making progress for free.

The hard question for a leader is not how to form habits but which habits to encourage.

How can you create a habit that supports the change you’re trying to make? There are only two things to think about: (1) The habit needs to advance the mission, as did Pagonis’s stand-up meetings. (2) The habit needs to be relatively easy to embrace. If it’s too hard, then it creates its own independent change problem.

A change leader thinks, “How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people?”

If you want to change the culture of your organization, you’ve got to get the reformers together.

Change isn’t an event; it’s a process.