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21 " How can you make your change a matter of identity rather than a matter of consequences? "
― Chip Heath , Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
22 " Because identities are central to the way people make decisions, any change effort that violates someone’s identity is likely doomed to failure. (That’s why it’s so clumsy when people instinctively reach for “incentives” to change other people’s behavior.) So the question is this: How can you make your change a matter of identity rather than a matter of consequences? "
23 " make a switch, you need to script the critical moves "
24 " weaknesses—the tendency to get lost in analysis. "
25 " The weakness of the Elephant, our emotional and instinctive side, is clear: It’s lazy and skittish, often looking for the quick payoff (ice cream cone) over the long-term payoff (being thin). When change efforts fail, it’s usually the Elephant’s fault, since the kinds of change we want typically involve short-term sacrifices for long-term payoffs. (We "
26 " In Sternin’s judgment, all of this analysis was “TBU”—true but useless. "
27 " The problem is this: Often the heart and mind disagree. Fervently. "
28 " One of his friends, a marketing professor at Stanford, said, “Think about this from a marketing perspective. We can change behavior in a short television ad. We don’t do it with information. We do it with identity: ‘If I buy a BMW, I’m going to be this kind of person. "
29 " One way to motivate action, then, is to make people feel as though they’re already closer to the finish line than they might have thought. "
30 " So if you reach the Riders of your team but not the Elephants, team members will have understanding without motivation. If you reach their Elephants but not their Riders, they’ll have passion without direction. In "
31 " Most of the big problems we encounter in organizations or society are ambiguous and evolving. They don’t look like burning-platform situations, where we need people to buckle down and execute a hard but well-understood game plan. To solve bigger, more ambiguous problems, we need to encourage open minds, creativity, and hope. "
32 " Rather than focusing solely on what’s new and different about the change to come, make an effort to remind people what’s already been conquered. "
33 " More options, even good ones, can freeze us and make us retreat to the default plan, "
34 " Direct the Rider. What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity. So provide crystal-clear direction. (Think 1% milk.) Motivate the Elephant. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. The Rider can’t get his way by force for very long. So it’s critical that you engage people’s emotional side "
35 " Ambiguity is exhausting to the Rider, because the Rider is tugging on the reins of the Elephant, trying to direct the Elephant down a new path. But when the road is uncertain, the Elephant will insist on taking the default path, the most familiar path, just as the doctors did. Why? Because uncertainty makes the Elephant anxious. (Think of how, in an unfamiliar place, you gravitate toward a familiar face.) And that’s why decision paralysis can be deadly for change—because the most familiar path is always the status quo. "
36 " In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought. "
37 " Don’t obsess about the failures. Instead, investigate and clone the successes. "
38 " Big-picture, hands-off leadership isn’t likely to work in a change situation, because the hardest part of change—the paralyzing part—is precisely in the details. "
39 " To change behavior, you’ve got to direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and shape the Path. If "
40 " In the identity model3 of decision making, we essentially ask ourselves three questions when we have a decision to make: Who am I? What kind of situation is this? What would someone like me do in this situation? "