Heath, C. and D. Heath (2010) Switch, New York: Broadway Books

This business best seller uses some very common language and excellent examples to encourage others to make changes of all sorts mainly in business settings. Further, they use paradoxing a great deal. This means you encourage one thing by suggesting something else. It is also called reverse psychology.

There are some very useful main points followed by iterations and examples. First is the RIDER. This component in one’s mind and the collective continually thinks and plans. It is the intellectual side of one’s psyche.  The ELEPHANT is the emotional side. It needs to be directed and it is a very large creature. In other words, the RIDER needs to direct the ELEPHANT to places and things that it does not want to go.

Parenthetically, Freudians will recognize that the RIDER is a combination of the Super Ego and the Ego. Super Ego sets generally high standards and the Ego has to be the broker between the id (which is the ELEPHANT) and the RIDER.

So how do you get to your destination?

You motivate the ELEPHANT with bright spots (authentic compliments

to a worker.) You also learn numerous other strategies that a worker may see through if they do not believe that you are legitimate. Each strategy is clearly defined and discussed. Many are given an entire chapter.

Lastly, you have to discover the PATH. You may go many different ways, but some paths are a lot better than other paths. They tell you how to

pick a path even if it is by accident and how to try to shape either the workers or the path.

Once the path is found for a work organization, they tell how organizations get a turnaround in  morale and productivity.

So briefly, the main building blocks are  RIDER, MOTIVATION, ELEPHANT and PATH.

This is also the book to refer back to if you have found a successful path , but it needs “tweaking.”

This a great book in an interesting cover where a wall switch is in the

“OFF” position and as a reader you probably want the switch to be

“ON” You are saying that if it was just that easy and it is not. Hopefully

for the reader, this book helps you to make a change when it is hard to do.

The authors wrote best selling MADE TO STICK and now this one. Readers should include the general public, managers, and academia.