Nonprofit Book Review: SWITCH, How (Nonprofits can) Change Things When Change Is Hard

Are you a nonprofit chair seeking to get more out of your board members (this is part of your job in case you didn't know)?  Or maybe you are a board trying to get more out of your Chair or your Exec.  Or maybe even you are an exec trying to change your staff or clients. 

Chip Heath and Dan Heath (the authors of Made to Stick) have provided an excellent introduction on "How To Change Things When Change Is Hard" through their 2010 book: SWITCH.  Yes, this is the latest in Pop Management literature right up there with Jim Collins and Peter Drucker.  And like Mr. Collins and Drucker, the Heaths have combined essential marketing, psychology and organizational development theory with lots of illustrative and real-life stories to defend and explain their theory.

Without giving away the plot, SWITCH offers the premise that each of us and we as groups have two sides: a Rider and an Elephant.  The Rider is the "head" and the Elephant is the "heart" or feeling.  The Rider sets the goals and points direction.  The Elephant must "feel" or see the benefits in order to follow the Rider.  Without the feeling side, no permanent change will occur.  There are a couple of other steps but this is the context.  Maybe not news but it's simple and makes sense.

I don't want to offer more because after all, the authors have done the work of ironing out their theory for practical use.  I will offer one example that provided me with an 'a-ha' about their thinking.  Let's say that coming out of the recession has been particularly hard for some consultants.  The consultants can certainly think about all the reasons that business is so challenging and develop a plan to address the challenges.  An alternative: identify the consultants who seem less affected by the recession.  Identify their chief characteristics or strongest elements and determine what personally needs to change to get to the goal.

SWITCH makes this illustration make sense.  I appreciated the lessons SWITCH has to offer as well as the simple and direct approach to explaining and demonstrating the theory. 

Nonprofit Board Chairs -- I think this is a really excellent buy for you in particular!

Comments

[book publishing]

We're in a world where what was unthinkable 10 years ago, is now happening all around us. The role of nonprofits is bound to become more important, SWITCH is a GOOD idea.