Switch: Why Change is Hard
This is one of those books that someone checked out using my libby and I decided to indulge in it because i’ve run out of things to read again (that I want to). Written by 2 brothers, it talks about why change is hard (because humans don’t really change without a good reason), and how to make changes in your life or organizations by dealing with incentives that resonates.
the core gist of the book comes down to that humans aren’t just a logical self. We’re a logical self with an emotional core and we can’t often just logic ourselves into doing things (witness how hard it is to get people to eat less and exercise more, 2 things that most folks agree will help with our health). The real trick then, to get real change effected in most folks is to make sure that we change things slowly and ideally with an eye on what would make our emotional core not cry out at it. Humans (most things really) abhor change, so to make changes sticky you have to appeal to both the emotional as well as the logical.
They give a few nice examples, like residents at a hospital trying to enact more reasonable hours, how one company dealt with customer support, and a few minor examples, and in all the cases, the hard part was getting folks to embrace change emotionally, rather than the logical sense. this tracks well with my understanding of human beings (we’re just animals at the core of things after all), and the examples are well researched examples.
the caveat I have about this and most self help books is that its actually pretty hard to make use of in your own personal life. going back to the exercise and diet example….making real change is very hard for most folks and it doesn’t get easier even when you know the tricks. maybe especially when you know the tricks. So I think this falls into the category of “things you know, but probably won’t help you”.
All in all, worth a read.