In a previous article, I talked about an effective strategy to manage-up your bosses and inspire them to adopt your ideas for change. The truth though is that change is always difficult. Whether you are trying to lose weight, enact a new strategy at work, or improve your leadership effectiveness, change has to be appropriately planned and well managed. There is numerous advice about the best change strategies, but my favorite model is the one described by Chip and Dean Heath in their book “Switch.”

Our brains have two independent systems at work- the emotional side and the rational side. Imagine a person sitting on top of an elephant and trying to guide that elephant along a treacherous path. The Elephant is much stronger than the Rider. The Rider constantly tries to control the Elephant but most of the time ends up losing the fight. The Elephant represents the emotional side while the Rider represent the rational one.

Chip and Dean argue that if you want to enact change, you have to engage three strategies:

• Direct the Rider: You have to give specific, clear-cut directions to the Rider. While the Rider is rational, it can get overwhelmed with too much information and too many choices. It needs specific, scripted behaviors. For example, instead of “eating healthy”, which is ambiguous and can lead to too many choices, you need to specifically say “substitute mayonnaise with Greek yogurt”. The same applies for organizational and individual leadership change, you need to provide people with specific actions, instead of vague goals such as “reduce costs,” or “become more assertive.”
• Motivate the Elephant: the Elephant is lazy, and always prefers short-term satisfaction over long-term gains. It is well documented that the amount of self-control we have is very limited. You probably have heard of the cookies and radishes experiment: Researchers took two groups of participants and exposed them to freshly-baked cookies. The first group got to indulge in eating the cookies, but the second group was specifically asked to not eat any cookies and was offered radishes instead. Not surprisingly, the people who ate the vegetables were very annoyed. In the second part of the experiment, both groups were given a persistence-testing puzzle. Those who ate the radishes made fewer attempts to solve the puzzle, and gave up in about half the time than the group that ate the cookies. They were so tired from resisting the cookies that their self-control was clearly depleted to attempt to solve the puzzle! So in order to motivate the Elephant, you have to engage it emotionally, not rationally. Everyone knows that exercise is good, but you need make it an emotional goal by emphasizing that you are doing this so you can be around to play with your grandchildren for example. Similarly, leaders realize that collaboration is better than dictatorship, but to cause them to change their behavior, you have to convince them that it helps them become better liked and that it frees up their time and allows them to spend more time with their families.
• Shape the Path: The Rider can’t take the Elephant from point A to point B, if there are several obstacles or speed-bumps. You need to make the path easier for action. For example, instead of asking people to drink less sugary drinks, serve the drinks in smaller cups. Or if I am working with a leader who is struggling with time management, I don’t just tell her to “become better organized.” Instead, I work with her to help her put a specific plan in place to clean her desk every Friday morning and check her email only at specific times of the day.

One story that best illustrates how these strategies work together to produce desired changes is the well-known story of Don Berwick at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). In 2004, evidence showed that the defect rate in healthcare is 1 in 10. There was a lot of serious research behind the numbers, but nothing was happening in terms of actual change. Berwick only had a limited budget, limited staff, and no authority over hospitals. So on December 14th, 2004, he gave a speech to a room full of hospital administrators at a large conference. He said “We should save 100,000 lives, and we should do it in 18 months. So on June 14th, 2006, at 9:00 am, we will gather here and we would have saved 100,000 lives.” Note how he was very specific in his goal and time frame- he didn’t just say we should improve quality and value. The crowd was astonished and the task was very daunting. So Berwick was very quick to suggest specific interventions: for example, to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia in the ICU, patients heads should be kept elevated- an example of how to “direct the Rider” by providing clear directions.

But he also had to appeal to the emotional Elephant. So he brought on stage with him the mother of a girl who had been killed by a hospital medical error. The mother explained: “I am sad because if this campaign took place 5 years ago, my Josie would still be alive. But I am happy to be part of this, because I know you can do it, because you have to do it!”

Moreover, IHI made joining the campaign very easy- there were not tons of applications and requirements: Just a one page-form to be signed by the hospital CEO. In 2 months, more than 1,000 hospitals had signed up. As soon as the hospitals joined, the IHI team provided them with specific research and procedures to help them enact the changes. They arranged conference calls for hospitals to share successes and struggles. They allowed early adopters to act as mentors for the late adopters. This way, they “shaped the path.”

Eighteen months later, at the exact time and place he had promised, Berwick took the stage and announced that the hospitals have joined efforts to save 122,300 lives! The change efforts have been successful.

Putting it All Together

Enacting change, whether personally, professionally or organizationally, requires careful planning and management, including directing our rational side, motivating our emotional side, and shaping the path.

————————————————————————————————————-
Dr. Amer Kaissi is a Professional Speaker, Executive Coach and an expert on Leadership, Humility & Ambition, Assuming Positive Intent, Psychological Safety & Accountability, Growth Mindsets & Resilience.