Week 40: Cookie Throwbacks & "Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard"

The book, "Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard" and I thought it was time to do a little cookie-recap, or "Flashback" summary for this "Flashback Friday"⁠

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This book is timeless! ⁠

So, of course - the golden question... WHY THIS BOOK?⁠

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The book walks through numerous examples of how to get people to change their behaviour. I can relate to this because my role is to get people to change their behaviour to be more inclusive and take accountability around self-reflection. ⁠

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The first chapter explains the emotional Elephant side and the rational Rider side telling the reader that you need to address and reach both. Then in order to be successful you need to clear the way for them to succeed. Make it really easy to reach the changed behaviour.⁠

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A great example of how Target wanted to be different and in 1992 it was a 3 billion dollar retailer compared to Wal-Mart which was 30 billion dollars. In 15 years they went from 3 billion dollars to over 63 billion dollars. How did they do this? They hired Robyn Waters who went from going to Italy and working with Armani to “ready to wear” fashion. She found early adopters who would take on something new and hired a designer to create different turtlenecks. The success of the coloured turtle necks gave her more leverage and she inspired her team by bringing in coloured M&Ms and coloured iMacs to get an emotional reaction. Teams wanted to work with her and were inspired by her work.⁠

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Chapter 9 is my favourite and it's focused on building habits. As I reflect on this I realize I love learning about how to create new habits and will read a lot about it. Putting things into practice and staying consistent is another challenge that I am working on. ⁠

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Even though it is 12 years later since this book was published I think it would be a great gift for someone or yourself to figure out how to create behaviour change.⁠

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Share your thoughts and comments below. Let me know if you enjoyed this book.⁠

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& don't forget to check out the hashtag or my previous posts for my favourite cookie recipes!⁠