Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard is the latest reading material for the Xenium Book Club. We were pleasantly surprised to find this book had examples for not only working within an organization, but also our personal lives as well.
Within pages, the authors—and brothers—Chip and Dan Health explain the notion of the Elephant and the Rider, both of which play a key role in the studies they highlight throughout the 258-page book. The concept derives from The Happiness Hypothesis, where University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains that our emotional side is the Elephant and our rational side is its Rider. The challenge being that the Elephant is so large that it over-matches the Rider every time there is a disagreement about which direction to go, even when the Rider is great at planning and setting the course. Real world examples of the Elephant taking precedence over the Rider that are given in the book is oversleeping, overeating and refusing to speak up at a meeting for being scared. From a rational point of view we know that we should get up at a decent time, eat moderately and speak up when we have something to say, however, our emotional side tells us otherwise in the moment. This book provides in depth examples of how to get the Rider and Elephant to work together to ensure these types of habits and behaviors do not happen.
According to the authors, the Elephant has the energy and emotion needed to get things done but is prone to an appetite for quick-fixes and is not likely to keep course for long-term changes without the help of the Rider. Conversely, the Rider thinks long-term and is great at planning but lacks the confidence to act upon the chosen course. The challenge of the relationship between the Elephant and the Rider is when they do not cooperate harmoniously; because ultimately, the Rider is no match for the Elephant.
Throughout the entire book, Chip and Dan Heath provide abundant examples, mostly from studies and experiments, that drive home the point that the Rider and Elephant must work together in order to create real change within. The book is divided into three sections—Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant and Shape the Path. Each section is sub-divided with case studies that support the chapters related to shaping the mindset and behaviors of the Rider or the Elephant, and sometimes both. The studies are very specific in nature, as they are real examples; however, at times, it’s challenging as a reader to relate to the examples chosen by the authors. Since we, at Xenium, are a group of professionals in an office environment, we appreciated the business examples in the book to support the ideas, such as the “Blackberry Addiction” case study on page 240. The book would have been a little more fulfilling for us if the studies were more applicable to us.
Switch is a good book, but one that probably could have easily made the point in under 150 pages. At times, the reading is somewhat dry, but is thankfully organized in a way that is easy to start and stop and digest the ideas in each section. The thesis of this book is completely intuitive in that we now know that the emotional and rational side must work together; otherwise, the emotional side of us can easily veer us off course.
Xenium Book Club Review: 6.5/10
Book Review – Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard
