Switch It On – You Know You Can Do It

We know what you’re thinking – people resist change.(…) In our lives, we embrace lots of big changes.

    This book is about change,or I should say: how to make change, how to start it, when to start.
    I have been thinking how hard is to change something. Just think about habits – wow! that’s a challenge, right? Tho authors are trying to explain that people are able to make changes and sometimes we are making those changes willingly. It depends on the type of change.

(…) there are hard changes and easy changes. What distinguishes one from the other? In this book, we argue that successful changes share a common pattern.

    I was surprised when I read that there are 3 components of “making a change”:
    Elephant vs. Rider + the right Path
  • the Elephant -> emotional side
  • the Rider -> rational side
  • the Path -> environment, direction
    Is it the constant battle between emotions and rational thinking? Not necessary, it’s more about finding the balance between those two. “The Rider provides the planning and direction, and the Elephant provides the energy.“. ok ok… so we need to take care of emotions and rational thinking but what is important 3rd part of that process is the right path -> environment so it will help people/team members to make that change.

    To change someone’s behavior, you’ve got to change the person’s situation.

    To make the change, according to Heath brothers, there has to be someone who will make that first step. That person needs to start doing something different and keep the balance between emotional side (Elephant) and rational thinking (Rider).

We all know how hard is to change our habits, whether those are “at home” habits or “at the office” habits. Heath brothers created “how to make a switch” guide:

switch_book_chart_page 259

    I encourage you to read that book – it’s full of case studies, examples and its a great guidebook which can help you to make change things when change is hard!

    Don’t give up: make the change

klaudia

social media helper for Older Adults and Non-Techies | blogger at groovypinkblog.com | guest speaker | coach | helping Baby Boomers and Older Adults to understand social media, stay safe online and discover iPhone/iPad world

6 Comments:

  1. Keri Jaehnig (@connectyou)
    09/13/2011 at 12:44 pm

    Klaudia,

    I appreciate your sharing a page from the book…Literally! 🙂

    So…time to rally the herd, eh?

    ~Keri

    • klaudia
      09/13/2011 at 2:27 pm

      Hi Keri,

      lol yes I thought ohh it’s a great content by Chip and Dan Heath – why not to spread the word about that … so now you have page on my page 😉

      it’s time to look around and think what we can change.

  2. Dave Gallant (@DaveRGallant)
    09/14/2011 at 6:39 am

    Change has always been a difficult task for us. I do struggle at times with the rational side and the emotional side, because bother are almost complete opposites. I think the direction is what brings it all together.

    I enjoyed this post Klaudia 🙂

    • klaudia
      09/14/2011 at 11:26 am

      Big thank you Dave for your comment,

      I agree that it’s a difficult process and (unfortunately) it takes time and emotions vs. rational thinking battle is not helping. But knowing about which direction you should go and where you want to get – helps.
      K.

  3. laurindashaver
    09/14/2011 at 7:56 pm

    God I loved that book. As someone who has had her whole world (pretty much) changed in the last 3 years… learning how to deal with change is paramount!

    I also loved “Who moved my cheese?”. Also a wonderful metaphor for change.

    • klaudia
      09/14/2011 at 7:58 pm

      Hi Laurinda,
      I know, right 🙂 The best part of that book is (well the whole book but…) that there is a system we can use to get prepared to make the change and then go through that process.

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