Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard

I tend to agree with the answer the Heath brothers give to the question in the title, although it is rather counterintuitive for the business world: deal with emotions foremost. They are the ones that convincingly used “the elephant and the rider” metaphor that Jonathan Haidt made later famous in his “Happiness Hypothesis” masterpiece. The suggestion is not to deal only with emotions, but the business world has a regrettable tendency to ignore them all together and, ultimately, emotions are the ones that get things done.

There is change we welcome and change we despise. And change we are not sure about. The book is a comprehensive roadmap to generate the intended change, proposing quite actionable and concrete steps in each of the critical phases of a change process: direct the rider, motivate the elephant and shape the path. Applying them may require from the reader a slight or more significant change of beliefs and opinions.

Cosmin Alexandru

Co-founder Teamology Institute