Switch Quotes

“Checklists provide insurance against overconfidence.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Rather than focusing solely on what’s new and different about the change to come, make an effort to remind people what’s already been conquered.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“So if you reach the Riders of your team but not the Elephants, team members will have understanding without motivation. If you reach their Elephants but not their Riders, they’ll have passion without direction. In”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Clarity dissolves resistance.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“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

“Don’t obsess about the failures. Instead, investigate and clone the successes.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Ambiguity is exhausting to the Rider, because the Rider is tugging on the reins of the Elephant, trying to direct the Elephant down a new path. But when the road is uncertain, the Elephant will insist on taking the default path, the most familiar path, just as the doctors did. Why? Because uncertainty makes the Elephant anxious. (Think of how, in an unfamiliar place, you gravitate toward a familiar face.) And that’s why decision paralysis can be deadly for change—because the most familiar path is always the status quo.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Most of the big problems we encounter in organizations or society are ambiguous and evolving. They don’t look like burning-platform situations, where we need people to buckle down and execute a hard but well-understood game plan. To solve bigger, more ambiguous problems, we need to encourage open minds, creativity, and hope.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“To change behavior, you’ve got to direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and shape the Path. If”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Big changes can start with very small steps. Small changes tend to snowball. But this is not the same as saying that change is easy.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“motivation comes from feeling—knowledge isn’t enough to motivate change. But motivation also comes from confidence. The Elephant has to believe that it’s capable of conquering the change. And there are two routes to building people’s confidence so that they feel “big” relative to their challenge. You can shrink the change or grow your people (or, preferably, both).”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“What looks like a person problem is often a situation problem.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Habits are behavioral autopilot, and that’s why they’re such a critical tool for leaders. Leaders who can instill habits that reinforce their teams’ goals are essentially making progress for free. They’ve changed behavior in a way that doesn’t draw down the Rider’s reserves of self-control.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“In the identity model3 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?”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Knowledge does not change behavior,” he said. “We have all encountered crazy shrinks and obese doctors and divorced marriage counselors.” He knew that telling the mothers about nutrition wouldn’t change their behavior. They’d have to practice it.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Big-picture, hands-off leadership isn’t likely to work in a change situation, because the hardest part of change—the paralyzing part—is precisely in the details.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“What’s working and how can we do more of it?” That’s the bright-spot philosophy in a single question.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Solutions-focused therapists learn to focus their patients on the first hints of the miracle—“What’s the first small sign you’d see that would make you think the problem was gone”—because they want to avoid answers that are overly grand and unattainable:”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

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

“The four rules were clear: (1) Unblock revenue. (2) Minimize up-front cash. (3) Faster is better than best. (4) Use what you’ve got. These rules, taken together, ensured that cash wouldn’t be consumed unless it was being used as bait for more cash. Spend a little, make a little more.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“if people are facing a daunting task, and their instinct is to avoid it, you’ve got to break down the task. Shrink the change. Make the change small enough that they can’t help but score a victory.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“This hypothetical comes from author Marcus Buckingham, who says that nearly all parents will tend to fixate on the F. It’s easy to empathize with them: Something seems broken—we should fix it. Let’s get her a tutor. Or maybe she should be punished—she’s grounded until that grade recovers. It is the rare parent who would say, instead, “Honey, you made an ‘A’ in this one class. You must really have a strength in this subject. How can we build on that?” (Buckingham has a fine series of books on making the most of your strengths rather than obsessing about your weaknesses.)”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“The old pattern is powerful, so make sure to script the critical moves, because ambiguity is the enemy.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting
differently. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s your team.
Picture that person (or people). Each has an emotional Elephant side and a rational Rider side.
You’ve got to reach both. And you’ve also got to clear the way
for them to succeed. In short, you must do three things: → DIRECT the Rider FOLLOW THE BRIGHT SPOTS. Investigate what’s working and clone it. [Jerry Sternin in Vietnam, solutions-focused therapy] SCRIPT THE CRITICAL MOVES. Don’t think big picture, think in terms of specific behaviors. [1% milk, four rules at the Brazilian railroad] POINT TO THE DESTINATION. Change is easier when you know where you’re going and why it’s worth it. [“You’ll be third graders soon,” “No dry holes” at BP] → MOTIVATE the Elephant FIND THE FEELING. Knowing something isn’t enough to cause change. Make people feel something. [Piling gloves on the table, the chemotherapy video game, Robyn Waters’s demos at Target] SHRINK THE CHANGE. Break down the change until it no longer spooks the Elephant. [The 5-Minute Room Rescue, procurement reform] GROW YOUR PEOPLE. Cultivate a sense of identity and instill the growth mindset. [Brasilata’s “inventors,” junior-high math kids’ turnaround] → SHAPE the Path TWEAK THE ENVIRONMENT. When the situation changes, the behavior changes. So change the situation. [Throwing out the phone system at Rackspace, 1-Click ordering, simplifying the online time sheet] BUILD HABITS. When behavior is habitual, it’s “free”—it doesn’t tax the Rider. Look for ways to encourage habits. [Setting “action triggers,” eating two bowls of soup while dieting, using checklists] RALLY THE HERD.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Checklists educate people about what’s best, showing them the ironclad right way to do something.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Many people have discovered that, when it comes to changing their own behavior, environmental tweaks beat self-control every time.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“The growth mindset, then, is a buffer against defeatism. It reframes failure as a natural part of the change process. And that’s critical, because people will persevere only if they perceive falling down as learning rather than as failing.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Everything can look like a failure in the middle.” A similar sentiment is expressed by marriage therapist Michele Weiner-Davis, who says that “real change, the kind that sticks, is often three steps forward and two steps back.” If failure is a necessary part of change, then the way people understand failure is critical.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard