Book Review

SWITCH How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Switch How to Change Things When Change is Hard is a book that I couldn’t put it down until I was finished. As a leader, and as a Christian, we are called to be change agents. The authors explained change like a switch, like turning on a light. That’s why it was so impressive.

Change involves involving the two parts of a human that are needed for change: The emotions, and thinking. The Emotional side is like an Elephant, and the Thinking side, a Rider, perched on top of the Elephant. In any area requiring change personally, within business , or governmentally, the task at hand is to Motivate the Elephant (emotions), direct the Rider, (analyze), then shape the proper path to travel down.

You also must determine if you need a rider appeal, or do you need an elephant appeal. And as you can imagine, the answer is not always obvious.

Switch How to Change Things When Change is Hard was laden with actual cases of change. In some of the cases, times where the opposition was in full force, and success seemed impossible, was displayed in a powerful way. I took a lot of notes while reading this book and view it as an excellent resource for a team to go through together.