Switch Quotes

“psychologist analyzed 558 emotion words—every one that he could find in the English language—and found that 62 percent of them were negative versus 38 percent positive.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“What’s working, and how can we do more of it?”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Big problem, small solution.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Any successful change requires a translation of ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors. In short, to make a switch, you need to script the critical moves.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Our Rider has a problem focus when he needs a solution focus. If you are a manager, ask yourself: “What is the ratio of the time I spend solving problems to the time I spend scaling successes?”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Coaches are masters of shrinking the change. By pushing their teams to attain a sequence of “small, visible goals,” they build momentum. Psychologist Karl Weick, in a paper called “Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems,” said, “A small win reduces importance (‘this is no big deal’), reduces demands (‘that’s all that needs to be done’), and raises perceived skill levels (‘I can do at least that’).” All three of these factors will tend to make change easier and more self-sustaining.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“decision paralysis. More options, even good ones, can freeze us and make us retreat to the default plan,”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“the first surprise about change: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Why did they quit so easily? The answer may surprise you: They ran out of self-control.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Here’s why this matters for change: When people try to change things, they’re usually tinkering with behaviors that have become automatic, and changing those behaviors requires careful supervision by the Rider. The bigger the change you’re suggesting, the more it will sap people’s self-control. And when people exhaust their self-control, what they’re exhausting are the mental muscles needed to think creatively, to focus, to inhibit their impulses, and to persist in the face of frustration or failure. In other words, they’re exhausting precisely the mental muscles needed to make a big change. So when you hear people say that change is hard because people are lazy or resistant, that’s just flat wrong. In fact, the opposite is true: Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that’s the second surprise about change: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“So when you hear people say that change is hard because people are lazy or resistant, that’s just flat wrong. In fact, the opposite is true: Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that’s the second surprise about change: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“And when people exhaust their self-control, what they’re exhausting are the mental muscles needed to think creatively, to focus, to inhibit their impulses, and to persist in the face of frustration or failure. In other words, they’re exhausting precisely the mental muscles needed to make a big change.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard