Switch - Chip Heath [105]
Also, cognitive dissonance works in your favor. People don’t like to act in one way and think in another. So once a small step has been taken, and people have begun to act in a new way, it will be increasingly difficult for them to dislike the way they’re acting. Similarly, as people begin to act differently, they’ll start to think of themselves differently, and as their identity evolves, it will reinforce the new way of doing things. (Think of Brasilata’s “inventors.”)
Kelman points out that these forces aren’t contingent on change efforts being successful in the early going; these aren’t the reinforcing spoils of achieving “small wins.” Rather, they kick in automatically as time goes by. So, although inertia may be a formidable opponent in the early goings of your switch, at some point inertia will shift from resisting change to supporting it. Small changes can snowball to big changes.
3.
These are encouraging realizations: Big changes can start with very small steps. Small changes tend to snowball. But this is not the same as saying that change is easy. If it were, we wouldn’t see around us so many struggling alcoholics and troubled marriages and lagging companies and thwarted social change efforts. Change isn’t always easy and it isn’t always hard. In some ways change is ubiquitous; in others it’s unlikely.
We can say this much with confidence: When change works, it tends to follow a pattern. The people who change have clear direction, ample motivation, and a supportive environment. In other words, when change works, it’s because the Rider, the Elephant, and the Path are all aligned in support of the switch.
Take becoming a parent. If you think the organizational change you’re contemplating is wrenching, forget about it—it can’t hold a candle to the amount of change required by having kids. Whatever acts of will may be required to execute your new idea at work, no one will be called upon to send the controller to college (or to burp the CFO).
Raising children is an absolutely massive change that works pretty darn well, and it’s no great mystery why. For one thing, it’s a clear and vivid destination. We’ve all been kids, and we’ve all seen parents (our own and others) in action. We’ve received decades of vicarious training in parenting. So the Rider knows what direction to go and what kinds of behaviors lead to success. (Mind you, there’s still a lot of winging it en route to the destination.)
People have kids because of feelings, not knowledge. A rosy-eyed couple looks forward to raising a child. They think about what it’ll be like to have their own little bundle of joy. So the Elephant is excited to begin a long and arduous journey that, in other circumstances, might induce panic. Furthermore, parenthood is an identity that appeals—you start making your decisions based on what’s good for the kids rather than on what’s most comfortable for you. The identity is so powerful, in fact, that your Elephant starts embracing short-term sacrifices for the good of the kids.
Once we become parents, our friends and families find ways to shrink the change, especially in the first few months: Your mom comes to help in the first few weeks; your friends bring you food; your employer gives you leave from work; and your relatives keep tabs on you.
And think of all the other ways that society has shaped the Path for raising kids: from little things, like high chairs at Olive Garden, to big things, like maternity leave and school systems and neighborhoods built explicitly to be good places for raising children.
Maybe this sounds like common