Category Archives: books

How to change things when change is hard

I just finished “Switch: How to change things when change is hard”, by Chip and Dan Heath.  I loved their first book “Made to Stick” and decided why not spend my mini break (and sadly the month after) reading their book on change.

I am that girl who writes notes in books.  Now that I have switched to ebooks, I am trying to find a good way to store my notes and highlights (is there an app that moves them to a safe place?).   I’ve had two library books stashed in my kindle app for over a month Switch and Steal Like an Artist (I just posted about that on my other blog).  Syncing would wipe out my notes.  The time has come to share my thoughts so I can upload new books.

  • “For anything to change, someone has to start acting differently”
  • “For individuals’ behavior to change, you’ve got to influence not only their environment but their hearts and minds.  The problem is this, Often the heart and mind disagree, Fervently.”
  • “Change is hard because people wear themselves out”
  • The brothers Heath had an interesting visual on change.  You have an elephant, a rider, and a path.  They took the concept from Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Happiness Hypotheses”“You’ll direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and Shape the Path.”
  • Bright-spot philosophy,”What’s working and how can we do more of it?”
  • Don’t get hung up on understanding the past to make change.
  • Create “Big Hairy Audacious Goals… 10 to 30 year goal(s) to progress towards an envisioned future.
  • “When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle si going to look different once you get there, just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.”
  • “Checklists simply make big screwups less likely”
  • “When you’re leading an Elephant on an unfamiliar path, chances are it’s going to follow the herd.  So how do you create a herd?”