Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
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Brought to you by Penguin.
Change is hard. It doesn’t have to be.
We all know that change is hard. It’s unsettling, it’s time-consuming, and all too often we give up at the first sign of a setback.
But why do we insist on seeing the obstacles rather than the goal? This is the question that bestselling authors Chip and Dan Heath tackle in their compelling and insightful book. They argue that we need only understand how our minds function in order to unlock shortcuts to switches in behaviour.
Illustrating their ideas with scientific studies and remarkable real-life turnarounds – from the secrets of successful marriage counselling to the pile of gloves that transformed one company’s finances – the brothers Heath prove that deceptively simple methods can yield truly extraordinary results.
Customers say
Customers find this book to be a brilliant and quick read that provides a usable framework for achieving change. The book is packed with useful case studies and real-life examples, making it thought-provoking and fun to read. Customers appreciate the writing style, with one noting it’s written from a practical viewpoint, and another highlighting how it relates to personal and professional life.
md3347 –
Change, rethought.
Switch is a brilliant book for anyone interested in a non-academic approach to change / change management. Set around three core areas – Direct the Rider (the rational mind), motivate the elephant (the heart/motivation) and shape the path (as it sounds!) the Heath’s use real world examples and put it across in a way that is meaningful to anyone trying to approach change.The goal setting discussed (such as black and white goals that focuses the group on the task at hand) and following the brightspots, looking at what works and how it can be cloned rather than focusing relentlessly on what is ‘wrong’ are tools I have adapted into my own working life. I also loved other areas such as really demonstrating the issue (they give an example where an organization had many suppliers of rubber gloves and instead of doing a presentation to the board someone got a pair of gloves to represent every supplier and dumped the lot on the boardroom table. It just echos: this must changeThere are frequent check points for you to try apply the logic to an example as well as a summary section at the back (although it makes no sense if you haven’t read the book, so don’t think you can just skip to it!). This is a good book and regardless of your background or interest in change you will finish with a great set of approaches that everyone can understand without the all the usual acronyms and certifications that usually surround the topic.
N Mehta –
Excellent book – Strongly recommend
I strongly recommend reading this book.This is a master copy regarding how to drive the change the organisation level or at a personal level.There are great examples regarding change and how it changed the situation and achieved the greater outcomes.I really enjoyed reading this book, and one can learn many things from the book.It’s a must-read book.
Simon J. –
interesting
well laid out, good anecdotes, enough science to be credible and worth a read
Stephen Green –
Switched on
This is a clever, inspirational book which works on a number of levels. It is an easy and accessible book which demonstrates success in a wide variety of spheres, often achieved with scant resources, which offers a methodology that can be repeated by ordinary people as well as leaders. It is not particularly or exclusively a business book. It is for anybody who sees a situation and contemplates how it can be changed, even down to the behaviour moderation of one individual, or even the person that looks at you through the mirror each day. Teachers, nurses, community leaders or concerned citizens could all relate to the content and imagine new possibilities.On the level of entertainment the book is similar to Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance. The book has amusing quips and turns of phrase that lightens the subject matter from that of a text book. Yet the book is fully referenced with study, research and quotation information, should the reader wish to get into more depth. I know that some people who read these reviews have already read the book and are curious about what other people think. Therefore I will list some of my personal highlights of the book. I hope for those considering the book it will also ignite curiosity. I liked exhaustible self control, 424 gloves, 1% milk. Bright spots. A husband forgets his wife’s birthday. Miner county. No dry holes. Where did you find six dumb people? Attila the accountant. Rock bottom. The burning platform. Loyalty cards. 5 minute room rescue. Money makeover. A miracle scale. Brasilata. Safe driving. Fundamental Attribution Error. Saints and jerks. Sterile cockpit. Mike Romano. The humble checklist. Designated driver. Fataki the sugar-daddy. The skateboarding monkey. I hope this gives you an idea of the way that an amusing anecdote becomes a powerful and memorable learning.The variety of these techniques is best appreciated at the end of the book. There is a summary of change-making examples at the end of the book changing the book into a manual for change rather than just a passive read. The authors summarize all the techniques you could deploy, if you haven’t just skipped to the end. It is a great reminder that this is not just a collection of stories or examples but part of a collection of strategies that are repeatable in your own context. This book contains a perfect recipe for turning what is and what could be from fantasy to reality.
Karla Zรยกrate –
Llegรยณ en tiempo y forma
Ahmed Walid –
A must read for everyone
Effie –
Excellent read. Itรขยยs been on my list of must reads for a while. I donรขยยt know why it took me so long to get around to reading it. This is a book that reiterate the fact that change is hard but there are some predictable patterns that can help effect positive change. Yes ideas are not new however the Heath brothers bring together lots of difficult concepts to presents a powerful and easy to understand framework for effecting positive change. They provide us with some great case studies and stories that brings the framework to life. I loved the book and was surprised how quickly I was able to use the concepts in my own professional life. Highly recommend it
Natalia –
Great book to learn more about change management; for everyone: team members, leaders, CEOs…
Paulo Seixas Avino –
Hello, I still not finished reading this book, but I already can recommend that worth read. Have a good reading