"What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem"

I got hooked on to Chick and Dan Heath after reading their first book "Made to Stick". They explained six key principles: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions and Stories that made messages stick in our minds. I tried the concepts in my blogs and presentations - and they worked. And made a big difference.

Now here is SWITCH. How to change things when change is hard. We are in the midst of huge change that has affected us. I wanted to see how the concepts in the book may apply to what we have been through.

Here are the contents of the book:

1. Three Surprises About Change

DIRECT THE RIDER

2. Find the Bright Spots

3. Script the Critical Moves

4. Point The Destination

MOTIVATE THE ELEPHANT

5. Find the Feeling

6. Shrink the Change

7. Grow Your People

SHAPE THE PATH

8. Tweak the Environment

9. Build Habits

10. Rally the Herd

11. Keep the Switch Going

GENERAL

How to make the Switch

Overcoming Obstacles

Next Steps

Here are some interesting quotes from the book.

"What looks like a problem is often a situation problem."

"To change someone's behaviour, you have got to change the person's situation."

"For an individual's behaviour to change, you have got to influence not only their environment but also their hearts and minds."

"What looks like laziness is often exhaustion"

"What looks like resistance is often lack of clarity."

"For a hospital to reduce its 'defect rate', it had to acknowledge having defect."

"Understanding a problem doesn't necessarily solve it. Knowing is not enough."

"Bright spots are gold to be mined."

"Any time you have a bright spot, your mission is to clone it."

"What is working and how can we do more of it?"

"Bad is stronger than good."

"We need to change from archeological problem solving to bright spot evangelising."

"When you want someone to adopt a new way, explain the 'new way' clearly. Don't assume the new views are obvious."

"Trying to fight inertia and indifference with analytical arguments is like tossing a fire extinguisher to some one who is drowning. The solution does not match the problem."

I found every chapter valuable. What is more the Heath brothers have a writing style that lubricates the mind. I don't mean that the book is an easy read. It makes even otherwise difficult concepts easy to understand.

Back to my original question - Does SWITCH help us change during this extraordinary situation? When change has been forced upon us?

My answer is YES.