Brothers Chip and Dan Heath wrote one of my favorite books of all time, Made to Stick, so when I saw their follow-up book, Switch, for a bargain price at Half Price Books, it was a no-brainer to pick it up. Their books are fun to read, well researched (those two attributes don’t often go together), and teach us how to do something hard in a way that, well, sticks.
Switch did not disappoint.
Change is hard and so we are naturally resistant to it, some of us more than others. The authors introduce a 3 part framework that helps explain why it’s hard to get people to change. They then use that framework to explain how to overcome the challenges and help people to change for the better. The three parts of their framework are the Elephant (our heart), the Rider (our head), and the Path (our environment).
The book is fun to read because it is full of encouraging stories that not only demonstrate the approaches being taught, but help us see that people like us really can lead change, even when it looks almost impossible. By the time you finish the book, you may realize that the authors have used their own framework to change many of us readers from those “skeptical that change initiatives work” to those “ready to lead the charge”.