How to change things

(Image from IKEA Hackers | Quote from Switch)

I've just started reading Switch, and am so excited by the things I've read so far, and the impact they may have on the plans we're making for change in our company right now.

Switch is a book about "How to change things when change is hard", by brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath.  And let's face it, when isn't change hard?

In the first chapter they suggest there are three surprising things about change (and I'm not giving anything away here, as you can read the first chapter for free over on heathbrothers.com):

1. What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.
2. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.
3. What looks like resistance is often lack of clarity.

These are not earth shattering revelations, but when you think about them in the context of why change is hard, they can provide real ah-ha moments.

As I mentioned previously we are working at changing the way our information is managed internally, and thinking about how small steps may help to get us to our end point.

Point 3 fits right in with that.  It's not always that people don't want to do what you're asking them to, often they just don't know what the first step to take should be, so they don't take any steps at all.

You can't just tell people "You need to manage your information better".  You need to say, you should do a, b and c.  Then once they've done a, b and c give them d, e and f to do.

See, not earth shattering, but what a difference this will make to the planning, training and communication around any change.

Have you read Switch? What have you taken away from it?

PS: Thanks Elle for the recommendation :)