Like the Health and Wellness Industry, there are a lot of business management books available with their own version of the magic “ingredients” to improve the management of time, resources or people.
In an effort to avoid the stigma of your everyday management book, I wanted to discuss a recent book I read called Switch – How To Change Things When Change is Hard. It is a fairly quick and easy read (about 300 pages) with several practical points and experiences (from milk to airline pilots) that give real meaning to the concepts that are presented. For instance, Clocky the mobile alarm clock which scurries around the room making it all too impossible to just casually hit the snooze button.
Switch is about the ever-challenging world of change and addressing some of the core considerations in changing any environment – either personal or professional. Throughout the book authors Chip and Dan Heath make reference to two independent psychological systems within the brain:
- Emotional side - identified as the Elephant, which is “instinctive, that feels pain and pleasure.”
- Rational side – identified as the Rider and is “deliberate, analyzes, and looks into the future.”
Using these analogies, the book identified three key behaviors to be considered when managing change in process or behavior:
- “Direct the Rider – What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.”
- “Motivate the Elephant – What looks like laziness is often exhaustion because emotion-based behavior is often not sustainable.”
- “Shape the Path – What looks like a people problem is often a situation (including the surrounding environment) problem.”
We are in the process of implementing a new discovery review solution and, needless to say, we have had challenges in navigating through the “herd” of various stakeholders. Using some of the concepts from Switch, we have found value in providing clear and concise information throughout the project to set the proper expectations and demonstrate progress. Additionally, we have looked for opportunities to interact and connect with the users to increase their commitment to the solution and its overall success.