#WIF10 Switch to Chip Heath: change is an elephant ride away

Ha. Change is hard; Change is futile; People resist change; but it can be done. That's why salsa is more popular than ketchup.

Stanford Professor and co-author (with his brother) of Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, uses marriage (the world's second most profound change) as an example of why change is a tough nut. People get married happily, even though if you presented the conditions of marriage to a business owner, they'd say you were nuts. And what about the most profound change? Having a kid. "Who would sign up for that?" As a business, nobody; but for a family, it's an easy decision. That's the paradigm that makes change hard.

Switch looks at the easy changes to try and explain the hard changes. The truth is we are not resistant to change, but schizophrenic about it. We want to look good, but we really like to eat. Same goes for business. We want to innovate, but we are comfortable with how things are. That's the conflict between the analytical and emotional brains. The emotional brain he likens to an elephant, and the analytical brain is riding the elephant. Unless the elephant wants to go where the rider wants to go, the rider is not going. For change to occur, the two brains must be aligned. Thus the rider needs direction and the elephant needs motivation. Shaping the path makes it easier for the elephant. That's three steps for change:

1. Direct the Rider
2. Motivate the elephant
3. Shape the Path

He applies the three-steps to health care. Five minutes in, this is the funniest presentation of the day--slides of elephants with funny captions--and unique in analyzing the challenge of the human element in change and innovation.