Switch Quotes

“In this chapter, we’ve seen that what looks like a “character problem” is often correctible when you change the environment. The”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“The error lies in our inclination to attribute people’s behavior to the way they are rather than to the situation they are in.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“That’s the paradox of the growth mindset. Although it seems to draw attention to failure, and in fact encourages us to seek out failure, it is unflaggingly optimistic. We will struggle, we will fail, we will be knocked down—but throughout, we’ll get better, and we’ll succeed in the end.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“You need to create the expectation of failure—not the failure of the mission itself, but failure en route. This”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“when people make choices, they tend to rely on one of two basic models of decision making: the consequences model or the identity model. The”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“He inspired them to feel more determined, more ready, more motivated. And when you build people up in this way, they develop the strength to act.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“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

“When you’ve celebrated moving from 1 to 2, and then from 2 to 3, you gain confidence that you can make the next advance.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“These therapists know that the miracle can seem distant to their patients and that they need to keep their patients motivated and hopeful en route to the destination. To do so, they’ve devised a way of quantifying progress toward the miracle. They create a miracle scale9 ranging from 0 to 10, where 10 is the miracle. In”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Once people are on the path and making progress, it’s important to make their advances visible. With”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“When you engineer early successes, what you’re really doing is engineering hope. Hope is precious to a change effort. It’s Elephant fuel.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Rescue—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. Once”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“To get the Elephant off its duff, you need to reassure it that the task won’t be so bad.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Kotter and Cohen observed that, in almost all successful change efforts, the sequence of change is not ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE, but rather SEE-FEEL-CHANGE. You”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“In most change situations, the parameters aren’t well understood, and the future is fuzzy. Because of the uncertainty that change brings, the Elephant is reluctant to move, and analytical arguments will not overcome that reluctance. (If”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“The more instinctive a behavior becomes, the less self-control from the Rider it requires, and thus the more sustainable it becomes.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“If you are leading a change effort, you need to remove the ambiguity from your vision of change. Granted,”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“You can’t script every move—that would be like trying to foresee the seventeenth move in a chess game. It’s the critical moves that count. Recall”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“That’s why scripting is important—you’ve got to think about the specific behavior that you’d want to see in a tough moment, whether the tough moment takes place in a Brazilian railroad system or late at night in your own snack-loaded pantry.”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions. Instead, they are most often solved by a sequence of small solutions, sometimes over weeks, sometimes over decades. And”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“The Rider loves to contemplate and analyze, and, making matters worse, his analysis is almost always directed at problems rather than at bright spots. (You”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“To make progress toward a goal, whether it’s noble or crass, requires the energy and drive of the Elephant. And”
― Chip Heath, Switch

“created this framework to be useful for people who don’t have scads of authority or resources. Some people can get their way by fiat. CEOs, for instance, can”
― Chip Heath, Switch

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

“The last defense of the charlatan is always that something is ‘strategic.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“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

“When you engineer early successes, what you’re really doing is engineering hope. Hope is precious to a change effort.”
― 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. Behavior is contagious. Help it spread. [“Fataki” in Tanzania, “free spaces” in hospitals, seeding the tip jar] ————— OVERCOMING OBSTACLES ————— Here we list twelve common problems that people encounter as they fight for change, along with some advice about overcoming them. (Note”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Self-control is an exhaustible resource”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“the more successful change transformations were more likely to set behavioral goals: 89 percent of the top third versus only 33 percent of the bottom third. For instance, a behavioral goal might be that project teams would meet once a week”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard