Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.(Book review): An article from: Utah Business

Binding: Digital
Format: HTML
Label: Utah Business Publishers LLC
Languages:EnglishPublished
Manufacturer: Utah Business Publishers LLC
Number Of Pages: 2
Publication Date: September 01, 2010
Publisher: Utah Business Publishers LLC
Release Date: November 10, 2010
Studio: Utah Business Publishers LLC

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
This digital document is an article from Utah Business, published by Utah Business Publishers LLC on September 1, 2010. The length of the article is 357 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.(Book review)
Author: Chris Thomas
Publication:Utah Business (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2010
Publisher: Utah Business Publishers LLC
Volume: 24 Issue: 9 Page: 15(1)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning

Amazon.com Review:
Chip Heath and Dan Heath on Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard




"Change is hard." "People hate change." Those were two of the most common quotes we heard when we began to study change.



But it occurred to us that if people hate change, they have a funny way of showing it. Every iPhone sold serves as counter-evidence. So does every text message sent, every corporate merger finalized, every aluminum can recycled. And we haven’t even mentioned the biggest changes: Getting married. Having kids. (If people hate change, then having a kid is an awfully dumb decision.)



It puzzled us--why do some huge changes, like marriage, come joyously, while some trivial changes, like submitting an expense report on time, meet fierce resistance?



We found the answer in the research of some brilliant psychologists who’d discovered that people have two separate “systems” in their brains—a rational system and an emotional system. The rational system is a thoughtful, logical planner. The emotional system is, well, emotional—and impulsive and instinctual.



When these two systems are in alignment, change can come quickly and easily (as when a dreamy-eyed couple gets married). When they’re not, change can be grueling (as anyone who has struggled with a diet can attest).



In those situations where change is hard, is it possible to align the two systems? Is it possible to overcome our internal "schizophrenia" about change? We believe it is.



In our research, we studied people trying to make difficult changes: People fighting to lose weight and keep it off. Managers trying to overhaul an entrenched bureaucracy. Activists combatting seemingly intractable problems such as child malnutrition. They succeeded--and, to our surprise, we found striking similarities in the strategies they used. They seemed to share a similar game plan. We wanted, in Switch, to make that game plan available to everyone, in hopes that we could show people how to make the hard changes in life a little bit easier. --Chip and Dan Heath



(Photo © Amy Surdacki)

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