Recently I was introduced to this book by a friend. I had known about the book for a while as I have read Made to Stick by the same authors a few years ago and liked their lucid style of capturing complex concepts in simple metaphors. Here is some notes I made as I listened to the audiobook on Scribd –
Bigger popcorn bucket size makes people consume more popcorn and vice-versa. To reduce eating more, reduce the plate size. To reduce eating unhealthy, reduce buying unhealthy food, once they are in the pantry, chances of eating them goes up significantly.
Forcing the team to think about “Under One Roof”, people started thinking about making room for other critical departments under one roof, for example, Radiology in the same building, improving breast cancer diagnosis. A woman coming in for an exam in the morning might be able to leave that evening with the results.
We all have the Rider and the Elephant in each of us, to appeal to a person we need to think about both aspects.
Who is a Rider? Analytical self
Who is an Elephant? Emotional self. Elephant tries to paint the rosiest picture of things, creating positive illusions. “truth teller” can break these illusions to help the Elephant make progress.
Show the Rider where we are headed with charts, data analytics. Show the Elephant the big picture and vision. Both Elephant and Rider are part of the same person.
What is a B&W goal? Back and White goals are basically binary goals, the state can be either 0 or 1, like “I will not drink wine”, “I will not eat processed sugar”. Binary goals are easier to practice than trying to moderate, in other words, Analog goals 🙂
At the beginning, don’t look for the middle, look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get going. Focus on what we can control, the next step and the next.
When parameters are well understood and things are static one can apply analysis, think and change something to improve results. However, in real life, parameters are not well understood, uncertainty reigns, not enough data is available. How can one make decisions in that situation?
See → feel → change OR
Analyze → think → change
Problem of change is not one of lack of information but it’s one of identity and emotion. People don’t buy BMW because of the information in the Ad but the emotional appeal, identity to “this kind of person drives BMW”, same with Nike shoes, “this kind of person uses Nike shoe”
Elephant needs quick wins to get fired up.
If you want to change a behavior, give clear direction (Rider), boost motivation and determination (Elephant) alternatively remove friction, create a slope and nudge them (Path).
Shape the Path, build habits. (Atomic Habits by James Clear is a good book on this topic)
Fataki (an explosion in Swahili, someone to stay away from) – Eliminating sugar daddies in Tanzania by popularizing the term “Fataki” on radio station campaigns, like “that guy is such a Fataki”.
How do you make the Switch?
- Direct the Rider
- Find the bright spots
- Point to the destination (like B&W goals)
- Motivate the Elephant
- Have someone read the email and ask if any of them is worth replying to
- Build identity – “John you are such a controlled guy”
- Build the growth mindset
- Shape the Path
- Break the environment e.g. break the breakberry
- Tweak the environment (turn of the sound, silent mode, no buzz)
Good relationships with colleagues is not going to happen based on Myers-Briggs types, it’s built from reinforcing bright spots, look for little rays of sunshine.
The more you are exposed to something the more you like it e.g. Eiffel Tower, just an ugly metal structure.
Cognitive Dissonance – people don’t like to think in one way and act in another way. So once they start acting in one way, they will like to continue to act that way, it helps with good habits, inertia is a good thing here.
When change works, the Rider, the Elephant and the Path all are aligned. Change follows a pattern. Clear destination helps with the change.
What will you SWITCH?
