Wishing You Good Heath
HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER
Title: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Competencies: leadership, adaptability, strategic problem solving, change management, self-development
Who benefits: leaders, managers, any individual confronting “change issues”
Consultant Usage: must read for organizational consultants
What’s it about? This book by the Heath bros. – Dan and Chip – of Made To Stick fame, came out a few days ago and thanks to my Kindle I am already well into this fun read. More than a year ago my friend Jeanne Hartley wrote me about one of my postings and said, more or less, “But why don’t you like this book?” I have tried to keep that question in mind no matter whether I like or dislike anything I read.
Personal themes emerge for me. I like books with stories that have a point. I like clear, unambiguous writing – not dumbed down, just well written. I like to feel like I am having fun reading a book or article.
Switch exceeds my expectations in these areas. It is a joy to read if you are interested in the topic. And the topic is “Change”. Avalanches of books have already been written on the topic; but occasionally someone comes out with a fresh perspective. And that’s what the Heath brothers have done.
For me there are three themes running through the book. The first is the fear of change. I found their ideas about what it is and how to deal with it to be fresh, refreshing, and reinsuring.
The second theme is about how to determine if something is broke and then fixing it (something that has been a part of the cultural identity of the United States) and identifying something that is beyond broke and needs a change (something that is not in the cultural nature of the US). If you think this is easy, just think “Detroit – car industry”.
The brothers Heath have a cute phrase to describe the tendency to fix something that is beyond repair: TBU – true, but useless. True-but-useless is a clever form of denial.
Rather, they say in the third theme, we need to cultivate a mentality of discovering what is working and how do we do more of it. They encourage us to “clone success”. Sounds simple – hard in practice.
Well I am encouraging you to have a look-see if you have any interest. If you don’t have time for the whole book, you can read excerpts at the Fast Company website. One caveat, the excerpts read rather choppy; book flows much better.
I will end here. I want to get back to the book. Happy reading.
Catch you later.
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