Have you ever noticed that people never seem to do what you want?!?!?!?
Or simply do what they are told … ???
Or, frankly, just do what would be sensible under the circumstances !?!?!
The world, it seems, is full of idiots.
And, I would wager, few of them share your view of the world. Even when they do, they are too cautious or lazy or enthusiastic or unhinged or just blatantly distracted to give you any help.
Getting stuff done, especially when other people are involved, is a bind. So much so, that even Machiavelli told us this 500 years ago:
“there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things”, Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
For my second choice of healthcare improvement books (if you missed the first one, it’s here) I’m offering a brilliant piece of work on how to effect change. Admittedly, it’s not a ‘healthare’ book - but the lessons and insights it offers are highly applicable
Title: Switch
Authors: Chip and Dan Heath
Date of Publication: 2010
Amazon rating: 35 in Business Creativity Skills
(also number 7 in “Bhagavad Gita” - which is weirdly incongruous, if not plain wrong)
Why you should read it
You’ll get some excellent tips on how to shift the dial.
Synopsis
The book is based on a single metaphor of human psychology first proposed by Jonathan Haidt in his equally memorable book ‘The Happiness Hypothesis’. This metaphor suggests that our human mind is like ‘The Rider and The Elephant”
This is best visualised as a tiny mahout balancing atop a massive pachyderm, attempting to make its way through the jungle.
The elephant is immensely strong, capable of hugely useful and powerful things, but also easily spooked. The elephant is your emotional mind. It is powerful and hard to train in the right way and in the right direction. If poorly managed, it can do a lot of damage.
The rider, by contrast, is your intellectual mind: clever and thoughtful and able to plan and learn, but physically weak by comparison.
Together they make a great team, but the rider and the elephant need to be handled in different ways. You, as a leader-of-people, seeking the “introduction of a new order of things”, need to recognise that your fellow human beings have two sides: a rider with whom you can argue logically and sensibly as well as an elephant that you must motivate by coaxing and encouraging, but without spooking it.
The fundamental insight here is that, when working with other human beings, you must take care to consider, and cater for, their emotional elephant before you try to engage them logically.
It’s worth repeating that: … BEFORE you try to engage them logically.
If you fail to engage people at an emotional level, you will make no progress. The elephant may well take-off and charge through the jungle. No amount of pleading or coaxing will bring it back. Don’t spook the elephant. Key lesson.
The book is divided into three sections: Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant and Shape the Path. Each of these are subdivided into a further three sub-sections that have anecdotes and guidance on how you might do this.
If you’re frustrated that people don’t seem to do what you ask, or follow your lead, the implication is profound and important. You have to actually do work to engage people at an emotional level - and (shock) there are actually techniques that you can use to do that.
If your attempts at motivation involves sending lengthier and lengthier emails, explaining in more and more detail exactly what needs to happen … well, you need this book. But you probably won’t read it.
If, however, you recognise that ‘bringing people along with you’ is part of your remit, and you wish you cold do it better, then you’ll probably gain a lot from reading it.
Thankfully, it’s an easy read. Well worth the effort.
My rating
Readability: 7 / 10 (fast-paced, US Self-Help stylee with lots of anecdotes)
Applicability: 7 / 10 (you have to work it out, but there are lots of golden nuggets)
Giftability: 6 /10 (solid but not terribly exciting)