Book Review: Switch by Chip & Dan Heath

I’m just finishing “Switch: How to change things when change is hard” by Chip and Dan Heath.  As I’m sure everyone who knows me knows, Chip & Dan Heath wrote one of my all time favorite “business” books, “Made to Stick” which talks about how to express ideas so they’re memorable and make an impact.  When I found out they had a new book coming out, I immediately placed a pre-order with Amazon.  Shortly before the release, when I got an email from one of their assistants asking me if I’d like a copy sent to me, I said “Of course!”  I was flattered that they knew I was a fan of their work and reached out, and I was excited to be able to read the new book.

I’ve ended up with two copies of Switch now (my pre-order and the promotional copy) and I am thrilled to have two, since it’s a book my husband is now starting as well, and this will eliminate any book battles at bed time, akin to our competition to read the last Harry Potter, when the first one to bed got to read the book and the other had to wait until the next night for a crack at it.

I love books that seem to get to the fundamental nature of problems and conflict, boiling things down into their essence and parts, so you have a new lens or template through which to view the world.  Made to Stick did this very well, condensing disparate parts and pieces of what makes stories, ideas, and messages of any sort memorable into a template of sort that helps me every day when I look at how to present ideas to others in a compelling way.

Switch takes on the huge problem of why change seems so almost physically painful, whether that change is personal or professional.  When we look at a big problem, like education or healthcare, it can seem impossible to tackle.  The problem seems too big.  There seems to be no good place to dig in and start making a change, and there seems to be too many external restraints that need to be overcome to make the problem seem remotely doable.  It may be written off as a “cultural problem” or a “system”problem or even a “few bad apples” problem, but in the end, a few small changes can often lead to cascading change, much like Malcolm Gladwell talked about in The Tipping Point.

Switch starts out with an analogy that change can be like a rider on an elephant on a path.  The rider is analytical by nature, the elephant is big and emotional, and the path is the things that need to be done to move forward to get to the destination that we all aspire to by creating change.  While I was initially not in love with this analogy, but it works in the book as a tool to frame out the different parts of creating successful change or innovation in any group or situation.

For change to be successful, all three of these components need to work together- the facts and numbers analytical portion must be happy; the moody and resistant portion of the group must be reasonably happy and convinced that they’ll give change a try, and the pathway needs to be clear enough and short enough to motivate the riders and elephants to choose it as an option or alternative to the status quo.

Let’s take a personal situation and apply this formula. (It’s easier than solving healthcare in a blog post.)

I just walk/ran my second half marathon.  For someone who just really started a concerted fitness program seven months ago, this would have seemed like a silly and crazy thing to even consider a year ago.  My elephant knew I needed to get in shape and get healthier, but there always seemed to be a reasonable excuse to avoid the gym- the pathway to health and fitness seemed foggy and the goal was noble but not specific and defined.  My “rider” knew what I needed to do, but we needed to construct a path to get there.

One of the steps was finding a personal trainer.  This way, I get to work out privately, and I’m coached so I pushed myself more than I would on my own- I have someone to impress.  I have an appointment to keep, and I’m not discouraged by the extra-fit others that are already at my destination, but just show me how much farther I have to go, causing a distraction from the smaller steps I need to take every day.

Another huge step was to find big external goals to work for, like these half-marathon events.  The distance events are like the end of a semester exam, as much as measurements of strength or pounds or inches lost are.  They are a test of strength, endurance and preparation, and show me what I can accomplish, as well as providing a comparison point for past performance.

By creating a pathway with many little goals along the way and big tests, the goal of better health becomes more achievable and more doable.  Every day behavior like skipping workouts or eating too much crap has its own built in penalties- for any endurance event, you pay the price for everything you did right or wrong along the training path.  This then makes the daily changes a bit easier to do as well, knowing the big wall is coming up fast as the race approaches.

I need the numbers- the analysis of the progress to satisfy my rider.  I need to feel good about myself and the changes that are occurring to satisfy the elephant, who might rather be eating girl scout cookies and watching Project Runway.  And all of this is easier when the path is much more specific, clear, and the change looks doable in its chunked-out parts.  It makes even thinking about doing another half-marathon possible, because I know the change is possible and the next goal is attainable, because I’ve done it before.

The brilliance of Switch is that this formula is tied into Maslow’s heirarchy of needs and one that applies to almost any situation.  For example, most of the strategies suggested to help kids with ADHD succeed in school involve not trying to fundamentally change the child, but change the environment to help the child do what’s needed.  Checklists of chores takes the amorphous “Do your chores” and breaks it down into specific, doable tasks, itemized and specific.  Showing a child how to be a bit more organized, and giving them tools that help ensure that they can keep the system up, with frequent checks, develops new, more constructive habits.  Getting rid of the daily speedbumps that turn a child off course- whether that’s always having things ready the night before to avoid morning panics, or smoothing the homework path by putting all their tools in one box and having a set place and time for work, or even putting hooks by the door so everything is available and convenient are small changes that can lead to big results.  Change can occur even in kids known to struggle in school, but they need those small successes to satisfy the elephant who needs to feel good, and they need “stuff to do” to satisfy the rider, but the pathway and environment are just as critical to success.

IDEO, the legendary design firm, works so well because their template works to make change of systems or design of new products integrate almost seamlessly into the way things are done.  they start out with understanding the problems or issues at hand- really getting to know what’s going on and how the situation isn’t working.  They then observe people using current products, or working with a customer, to understand how things are done now, and to start to get ideas about where a system or process might eb breaking down. Then they start the brainstorming and visualizing possible solutions ot the problem.  They rapidly put together prototypes, and then evaluate and refine what worked or didn’t work with the inital attempts, to tweek and further diagnose what will work in the end.  Then, they take their final product and implement it- what Seth Godin calls “shipping”- because all the greatest ideas in the world are worth nothing if they aren’t actually put into use.  Success means shipping- you’ve got to get the ideas out the door and into the real world- where the rubber meets the road.

While I’m still thinking a lot about Switch, it’s a book that helps me tie together all the separate ideas discussed above:

- how personal change and cultural change aren’t really so different;

-how many people problems can be solved by tweeking external environments and expectations;

-how good design and understanding problems are both key to making change successful,

and how in the end, it’s all measured by the implementation, and satusfying both the numbers people and the emotional folks as well- it’s a good change if people can see the difference and that how they feel about the change may be as critical to the outcome as any other part.   Never short-change the power of dedication, passion and enthusiasm- they will carry you pretty far down even a murky path, provided the obstacles aren’t too big at first.

I would definitely recommend Switch, another excellent book by Chip & Dan Heath- and don’t worry if you don’t love the metaphor of the rider and the elephant.  Like all good mysteries, it makes more sense in the end than in the beginning.

Tags: books, change, chip & dan heath, culture, economics, education, elephant, path, rider, switch

First Impressions of Linchpin by Seth Godin

I was one of the lucky early few that signed up by making a donation to the Acumen Fund, to get an advanced copy of Linchpin by  Seth Godin.

Seth has asked people to read it, think about it and give a thoughtful review.  I couldn’t wait to tell you about it until I finished the book- I’ve found myself quoting concepts in the first few chapters to friends  already, so I thought it was time to share.

Seth starts out the book by talking about how the old American dream and template we’ve all been fed is history.  There are tons of people who still believe all you have to do is follow the rules and you’ll get a job where you then follow the rules and get rewarded.  But the bottom line that many folks are finding out is that following the rules has ended up being a sucker’s deal, a bait and switch bargain.  The safety and security of jobs and pensions and retirement at a reasonable age, in reasonable health, where you enjoy a permanent vacation until you die is history, and we just have to accept that.  It sounds harsh, but I think we all know that’s true.

As someone with young kids, I know I have to prepare them for a very different world than the one I grew up in, and  that is both scary and challenging.  They’re going to need flexibility, maintain those qualities of being curious, being creative and innovative problem solvers for the rest of their lives.  With schools still programmed, in many sectors, to produce widgets for giant “work”  machines, how can I counteract this effectively?  Certainly, my kids are growing up exposed to innovative thinkers making their own game every day, but I know I still have to find more opportunities for them to flex these muscles on their own now, so they are willing to do so as they get older as well.

Seth encourages all of us to be creative, to be artists, to become remarkable and indispensable.  I wanted to find an exception to this rule, but I found I can’t.  At first, I thought- well, you know the professions- Doctors, Lawyers- we need those folks to make everything else work- how much real creativity do you have as a physician?  Well, and then I took a closer look at what my husband does every day.  Sure, he’s an OB-GYN, but he’s involved with research, working on projects including looking at fetal growth curves, how they can eventually eliminate prematurity, and other projects that at the heart of them require this creative problem solver mentality.  He has to take everything he knows, figure out the problems that are still there, that cause problems big and small every day, and design research protocols to try to make them better, so each patient coming through his clinic gets the best care possible.  It means getting the doctors and nurses and patients in the practice to consider different schedules, to try new clinics like “birth control before breakfast” and step out of their own comfort zones and potential myopia.  He has to ask people to try to do things differently and make a difference- not just by bringing new people into the world (which is pretty amazing in and of itself) but to be able to do so in a constantly changing environment, with financial pressures, with each patient having their own unique set of problems, and being able to improvise on the fly.  The best doctors do this well, and do become linchpins, not only to their patients, but to their colleagues and institutions where they practice.

I wanted to find some exception to Seth’s rule, being a believer that education and formal college educations are not worthless, but have value beyond memorizing facts. I want to believe we do teach people things in school that matter and its not all about grinding creativity out of people.   But I think becoming a linchpin is not about whether you’ve had any formal training or education in anything- it’s ultimately about taking your cumulative knowledge and experience from every thing you have ever done, and be willing to use all of it, at any time, as tools to solve the next problem.

For example, I started reading Seth Godin and a bunch of books in the “business/management” section of the bookstore, not long after my husband introduced me to Marcus Buckingham and the Strength-based approach to, well, everything.  I rapidly found that all the books in the education and parenting section of the book store, where I frequently spent time, were missing the boat.  The really interesting stuff about managing people, developing them to reach their full potential, and the like were all sitting in the business section.  I realized that running a family is exactly like running a small business, and everything I knew had infinite applications outside of the box one might put them in.  “Pediatric logisitics”- managing kids/people, schedules, activities, performance (grades), camp, and keeping an eye on the larger issues at the same time are all the same skill sets I use in my business, in running Podcamps, in every other aspect of my life as well.

The main point here is this- you have to be a person who strives to make a difference in everything you do.  You have to care.  You need to look out for yourself, but you also can’t afford not to look out for others as well.  You need to be able to use all of your experience, no matter where it’s from, and weave it into a new solution to try and make a change for the better.  There are no more silos.  There are no more boxes.    It’s all about bringing all your resources to bear to try to solve problems big and small, and not being afraid of having a “crazy” idea.  Those crazy ideas in the hands fo the right people, shared with other people who care, mean all sorts of resources can be marshaled and then moving the needle becomes easier than ever.

Thanks, Seth, for the jolt of espresso to my creativity, and for reminding me how important it is to care .  Thanks for the reminder that we have  to be willing to try the “impossible” (which turns out only to be a bit difficult) and can be accomplished if we just try to see the possibilities rather than shut down because it seems risky or scary.

I look forward to the chapters to come.

Tags: creativity, education, linchpin, seth godin, taking risk

Cyclical Economics And Issues of Scale

Businesses have cycles of good times and bad times.  there also seems to be a larger trend of mergers and acquisitions, followed by splintering, spinoffs, and the rise of the small but feisty competition.

Back when I was an undergrad in the mid-eighties, the Wharton kids were all looking to join big Wall Street firms  and do mergers and acquisition work.  By the time we graduated, the heyday for this was coming to a close, and instead the recent grads had to readjust their expectations because the days of wining and dining newly minted graduates from one of the country’s most prestigious business schools had begun to dry up.

Mergers and acquisitions has always been about buying up smaller companies and acquiring talent you don’t have one your own.  It can be an extremely strategic and cost effective move.  But the bigger firms and businesses become, the harder they become to manage.  There are more and more moving parts.  Instead of trying to satisfy a niche audience very well, there becomes a push to satisfy the most number of people possible.  So instead of rabid fans of the special, businesses begin to play to the ubiquitous middle of the road.  And this works, sometimes for years.  But eventually, they become vulnerable to the small, nimble and risky competitor, which has less to lose by taking chances.

Seth Godin wrote about this in a recent blog post about the publishing industry.  What would happen if your profits dwindled?  What would you do differently?  Because that is the exact mindset of your competition.  They don’t need to clear millions of dollars of profit every year- they are perfectly happy just taking a small chunk of your business, until the point when you can no longer continue as is and they have sunk you, one small bite at a time.

Looking at retail, the big department stores have consolidated, in part, because there’s been a development of many brands with their own stores, own infrastructure, that no longer depend on the buyers for a big store for placement and sales.  In fact, with the internet, they can set up their own store for very little, and avoid placement in your big store at all.

Our local malls are experiencing a large amount of turnover, in part due to the failure of the anchor stores and their diversity, but also because of the rise of more and more small brands competing in the same niche you could find in the Department store.  Should I buy a Coach bag from Macy’s or the Coach Store, three doors down?  At this point, price only matters.  And Macy’s is no longer the only place to go to obtain this same merchandise.  Their shelf space has become more and more irrelevant in distribution.

My husband even remarked that health care is entering the same cycle we’ve seen in family farms.  Small individual businesses (independent doctors and their practices) are gradually consolidating and often coming under the wing of one larger entity (first large practice groups, or practices are bought outright by a hospital) for the sake of scale, the benefits of negotiating price and taking advantage of larger discounts, lowering administrative costs and the like, until very few individual small businesses will exist outside these larger entities, for good or for ill.

The problem with this consolidation/splintering cycle is that the large businesses become vulnerable to poaching by the specialty/niche providers, because the niche providers have less to lose.  the large firms can take advantage of economies of scale, but it also becomes easier for them to lose their way, lose their compass, manage all the different parts and cease to worry about pleasing the customer but instead become more interested in whatever they have to do to maintain themselves.  They start to think like sheep and less like scrappy entrepreneurs that are willing to take risks and try new things.

It’s the gradual onset of “This is the way we’ve always done it” that becomes the vulnerable Achilles Heel- the inability or unwillingness to take a look at what you are already doing, and imagine that it could be done differently, or better.

None of this is to say that big is bad or entrepreneurs get it right.  I’m trying to say that if big has its very clear advantages, is there opportunity for them to develop sections, departments, or even a think tank that has the task of looking at the business as a competitor might, but from inside the gates?  In there room to constantly challenge the status quo?  Or is there just a balance between big and small that can be managed the way W.L. Gore does, by not letting any one building or division grow beyond a certain size, because it eliminates the intimacy and flow of ideas that they value so highly?

As I see big industries disrupted by the way the internet is changing our decision making process, I wonder if what the big boys need is as simple as remembering what it was like for them before they were big.  And I wonder if the small guy, looking to become a part of something larger have to be equally concerned how to maintain their edge once they are in a safer harbor.

Sometimes security and safety is a panacea- an alleged cure-all that instead of solving all of our problems, actually creates some of its own in the process.  It can make us forget what it was like to be hungry and struggle, and we need just enough of that struggle to remain competitive and innovative.  Without it, we get lazy and complacent.  And striking a balance between these two extremes is not easy at all.

Tags: acquisitions, business scale, business size, consolidation, cycles, cyclical economics, issues of scale, mergers, Scale

What The Dog Saw-A Review

Complete Set Could be Yours!

I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, What The Dog Saw. Unlike The Tipping Point, Blink, or Outliers, which are basically “single” ideas expanded into book form, What The Dog Saw is a collection of Gladwell’s remarkable writing from The New Yorker. You can see this collection, in part, as ideas that elaborate or continue themes Gladwell talks about in previous books, and others that might fit into a future book as well.

Each of the pieces does a great job at what I think Malcolm does best- take a few stories, and deconstruct them, to underlying principals,as if each story were a puzzle piece to solving some larger mystery or problem you’ve thought about but never really found a solution to yourself. He is a fantastic story teller, and can make anything from ketchup to hair dye fascinating. (This link will take you to an audio excerpt from the book from the section on hair color).

But what I get most from Malcolm’s work is insight.

For example, I read about Ron Popeil in the early chapters, and the deconstruction of the infomercial pitch made me think about how those pieces are elemental to any sort of business- you need to have a product or service that can be the star, and you have to find a way to tell the Star’s story, make it intriguing, and then make sure you ask for the money, so everyone can share a piece of the Star’s story for themselves. If you take those pieces and then keep them in mind when you are, say, constructing a presentation, or your website, you start to look at it in a whole new light.

In later chapters, Malcolm talks about genius, and how we also make snap decisions- an idea that’s reminiscent of Blink. But it’s making me consider how we evaluate people, how people evaluate each of us, and what small things you can do to create better “impression management”. There are some people, and one of my children is this way, who are naturally charming and engaging. These are the people we love to be around- they seem to be extra alive and have that X factor that gains them attention whether they want it or not. As a parent, I see part of my job as developing the person behind the charisma, and trying to make sure my child has the smarts and experience to back up his charm. In the end, that first impression opens up doors and lets you have greater access to opportunity, but it’s the execution on that opportunity that will eventually determine whether or not you’re successful.

What The Dog Saw is one of those books I’ll keep coming back to, because there are stories in here, and puzzle pieces I’ll be combining and recombining for a while, to see what new picture shows up in the end. Thank you, Malcolm, for a new book that causes me to think and consider more than any other book I’ve read recently- there’s gold buried in these pages.

Contest!

Thanks to the great folks at Little Brown Publishing, I received a set of Malcolm Gladwell’s books (pictured above) and they would love to send one of my readers their own complete set as well!

(I’m glad to have it, since I regularly lend out these books to friends, and ironically, my golden doodle took a bite out of What The Dog Saw, but didn’t do too much damage – here’s proof:)

(What the Dog Saw became briefly What the Dog Tried to Eat, but fortunately not too much damage).

Please leave a comment here or on one of the other posts I’ve written since November 15, 2009 on what I’m learning while reading “What The Dog Saw” and we’ll place all the names in a hat and do a drawing- I’ll announce the winners here, and Little Brown will send you a complete set for your own, just in time for the Holidays.

Thanks for stopping by, and even if you don’t win, I highly recommend What The Dog Saw. The sections make it easy to pick up and put down- a great book to read every night before bed, for example. I came away from the book simply in awe of Malcolm Gladwell’s writing and ability to tell stories- sometimes shifting in between diverse and seemingly incongruous stories, to show us the analogies and similarities that bring what makes us tick to light, and I only hope to aspire to that kind of brilliance in my writing.

Tags: Blink, Gladwell, hair dye, hatchette, malcolm gladwell, outliers, tipping point, what the dog saw

Always Learning

I had the distinct pleasure of organizing the Web2Open at this year’s Web 2.0 Expo in New York City.

Over these past few days, I’ve met a new group of amazing people, with skills and passion in over-drive.  People who have brilliant ideas, projects and powers to make things happen.  It’s been truly inspiring.  Instead of the Web feeling old hat, it feels like a place where magic can still happen, and it’s becoming less and less about just the shiny objects and more about using tools for self-actualization.  We’re moving up Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs, and it’s beyond looking for food, clothing and shelter, and more about who we can become.

On many levels, the Web2Open was also about the evolution of the unconference as well.  It’s about giving people a platform to share their passions, to meet people they might never otherwise run into, because of geography, or cultural reasons, or any of the reasons we sometimes shut ourselves off from what’s truly possible.  For example, I had a truly amazing dinner with JC Hutchins last night, discussing creativity, valuation of creativity, and how we decie between doing the easy thing and the hard one, and the strength it often takes to say no to people who are really looking out for their best interest, not yours.

I’mn learning that community is not just a bunch of people, but it’s people you can call and they not only pick up the phone, but they are happy to sign onto your plan or idea, because they trust you.  Your community can have many layers and the strength of the connections may vary, but the best stuff happens when you say “I have this opportunity for you- what do you think?”  and there seems to be very little pause before they say “You bet- count me in.”  That’s priceless.  That’s people voting with their feet, their voices, their wallets, and they do it in part because they know you will deliver and make it worth their while.  And when time, attention and money are tight, that kind of opt in is priceless.

It’s going to take some time to fully process everything that’s happened, let alone dig out of my inbox and send the PDF’s I owe people, links, etc.  What I can say for sure is this memory will be with me for a long time.

Thank you to O’Reilly Publishing, Brady Forrest, Jen Pahlka, Sara Milstein, especially Meghan Reilly who helped us pull this all together from the TechWeb end;

Christopher S. Penn, the Marketing Ninja, Michelle Wolverton, the best VA and friend ever, for their support and assistance;

All of our great volunteers to who helped man the desk- more on these superheros in my next post;

All the speakers, attendees and everyone who participated in any way in the Web2Open.  You made it the event that it was, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been a part of it.

Tags: web 2.0 expo, Web2open