Switch

How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

By: Dan Heath, Chip Heath

Narrated by: Charles Kahlenberg

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?

The primary obstacle is a conflict that's built into our brains, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimed best seller Made to Stick.

Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems - the rational mind and the emotional mind - that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort - but if it is overcome, change can come quickly.

In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people - employees and managers, parents and nurses - have united both minds and, as a result, achieved dramatic results:

• The lowly medical interns who managed to defeat an entrenched, decades-old medical practice that was endangering patients
• The home-organizing guru who developed a simple technique for overcoming the dread of housekeeping
• The manager who transformed a lackadaisical customer-support team into service zealots by removing a standard tool of customer service

In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change

Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline.

©2010 Chip Heath (P)2010 Random House

Great information on how to gain control of change

Any additional comments?

This book is filled with good example of what we can each do to take control of the changes we need to make. Well worth the read and something that should probably be read several times.

Solid Book, Solid Concept, Right in Front of You

You already know everything in this book if you've ever led a change in work or your personal life. But you don't know that you know it, and that's a problem.

This book will give you clear structure and insights on how to lead a change and how to target the key stakeholders (and the components of their character--their emotions and their practical side) to make the change permanent and successful. My coach recommended this book to me and I have since recommended it to many others.

Awesome

Must-read for people who want to make a change. Love the examples! Truly inspiring.

Great Book!

Great resource for personal, professional or social change. Great resources and techniques for success in this ever changing world.

Well Constructed, Thought Provoking and Practical

What did you love best about Switch?

Switch contains a comprehensive approach to dealing with culture change and/or behavior change that seems applicable to just about any situation...large or small. The real life examples and research make the observations and techniques meaningful.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Switch?

One memorable moment would hard to define in this book. The childhood nutrition problems encountered and solved in Vietnam where probably one of the daunting and fulfilling from my perspective.

What does the narrator bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I'm an auditory learner, so I get a lot from most audio books. In this case, the narrator's voice had good inflection and a good rhythm, even at 1.25x normal playback speed.

What did you learn from Switch that you would use in your daily life?

The most practical idea for my situation was "find the bright spot"...a concept about showing how an existing desirable behavior turned out well; the antithesis of this is nagging about how good a theoretical behavior change is the right thing to do (without any evidence of the outcome except an emotional appeal).

A Must Read

A must read for business and personal use. Great insight into human behavior. Practical tools to facilitate change.

One of the best books you'll read this year

Would you listen to Switch again? Why?

This is an excellent book on how to get yourself, others or an organization to make desirable changes in behavior. The authors' analogy of an elephant rider is helpful in both understanding and remembering how to apply the techniques they discuss, and the numerous examples of these techniques in action are both brilliant and inspiring.

What did you learn from Switch that you would use in your daily life?

The concept of the elephant rider helps to analyze the problems of instigating change and making it stick.

Great book!

I will have to reread this a few times to continue to integrate these concepts into my personal life, but this book is incredibly powerful and easy to read. The authors use real world examples to apply the concepts they illustrate in the book. Great read!

Directing change

Most books tell us how to respond to change. This book tells the reader how to create change by introducing a straightforward framework for creating change.

Better than made to stick

I really enjoyed made to stick by Dan and Chip and would say that I enjoyed this book even more. It was an even balance of useful information and narrative story telling dialog