Book Review: “Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard”

By Chad

Well, I just finished reading Switch by Dan and Chip Heath, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The book focuses on the necessary elements to effectively creating a change – in your personal or professional life or in your business or organization.

Elephant, Rider, and Path

The book investigates change through three metaphors: two for different aspects of the personalities of the people affected by a change, and one representing the environment surrounding that change.

The three-pronged analogy is borrowed from a book the authors read prior to writing Switch called The Happiness Hypothesis by a psychologist named Jonathan Haidt (I haven’t read this book yet myself, but it’s been added to my ever growing list of required reading!).

I could honestly go on forever about the details of this metaphor, because I think its nothing short of brilliant, but I’ll try to keep it brief.

In a nutshell, your personality is made up of two main components (similar to Freud’s ego and superego) – an Elephant and a Rider sitting on that elephant’s back holding the reigns and attempting to guide the elephant along.

The problem is that the Elephant sometimes wants to go in a direction that rider disagrees with, and since the elephant is so much larger than the tiny Rider, there’s not a lot he can do about it – he can only pull on the reigns for so long until the Elephant wears him out and does whatever it wants.

Examples from the book of the elephant’s emotional tendencies are failing to quit smoking, cheating on a diet or saying something you don’t really mean in a fit of anger. Our “Elephants” represent action – not thought or analysis, just response to the world around us.

The Elephant represents emotional responses and instincts. The problem is that those emotions and instincts are often counter to the changes we need to make in our lives – so we need to convince the Elephant (ourselves) to move in a less than comfortable direction.

The Rider’s job is to direct the Elephant down the right Path (the third part of the metaphor), even when that path is difficult to travel.

The Rider is our analytical mind – the part of us that can see around obstacles and look at the bigger picture.

The problem with the Rider is that he can spend too much time over-analyzing a change and then nothing happens (that familiar “spinning your wheels” feeling we’ve all felt when undertaking a new challenge).

The third component to Haidt’s metaphor is the Path – which is simply the environment surrounding a change. This can be the culture, the attitudes of the people around you or systems that are already in place that help or hinder your efforts.

Seeing The Metaphor In Action

Throughout Switch, Dan and Chip Heath demonstrate effective change with a simple, three part process based on the metaphor described above:

• Motivate the Elephant
• Direct the Rider
• Shape the Path

Each of the steps in this process is the focus of one of the books three main sections. Essentially, you need to get the Elephant moving, give the Rider a clear destination to travel in (preventing him from spinning his wheels) and shape the Path you’re traveling on to eliminate or avoid obstacles.

All three of these sections is further broken down into three smaller pieces, and the book is full of examples of all off the different components.

As you read, the authors introduce you to wide variety of changes (and the people behind them) that they studied while writing this book. These changes range from individuals to companies, from departments to entire corporations and governments.

Why This Book Works So Well

Let’s be honest – the concepts this book are based on aren’t the kind of thing that sounds thrilling to everyone. In spite of that fact, the authors did a very good job of making it an extremely entertaining book to read.

The simple fact the book is broken into well organized sections – and those sections broken into isolated stories that make a point and reinforce each other – keeps the content of the book fresh and interesting from beginning to end.

Add in that the authors added in plenty of small side notes that are full of humor and personality and you forget you’re reading a “personal development” book because you are constantly engaged in short stories that are both entertaining and easy to identify with.

Dan and Chip Heath do a remarkable job of drawing parallels between different types of change efforts, allowing you to see some of your own habits and tendencies as they exist on a national or corporate level.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that this book is loaded with moments that leave you thinking “Yup. I totally do that…”

All in all, this a great read for anyone who has a habit they don’t like, or something they think they need to improve in their life or their business (which I think covers pretty much all of us )

If you’re interested, Switch is available on Amazon, and I’d definitely recommend picking up a copy.