Excerpt (Chapter 1) of Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (Heath & Heath). The chapter presents three surprises about change: (1) What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem (shape the Path), (2) What looks like laziness is often exhaustion (motivate the Elephant / self-control is exhaustible), and (3) What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity (direct the Rider). The chapter supports these points with empirical studies and vivid anecdotes: a popcorn container study (larger buckets → 53% more eaten), Clocky alarm-clock sales, a radish-versus-cookie self-control experiment, Jon Stegner’s glove pile, a milk-purchasing intervention (low-fat milk market share rose from 18% to 41%, holding at 35% after six months), and Donald Berwick’s 100,000 Lives Campaign (enrollment process and reported prevention of ~122,300 avoidable deaths by June 14, 2006). The chapter introduces the three-part framework—Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant, Shape the Path—as a practical guide for designing change initiatives.
Questions this document answers
53 percent more popcorn (≈173 extra calories; ≈21 extra hand-dips).
About 35,000 units (at $50 each).
424 different kinds of gloves.
Before: 18%; After campaign: 41%; Six months later: 35%.
Save 100,000 lives by June 14, 2006 at 9 a.m.