To Make a Switch, Part 3

"Switch" is the title of a new book by Chip and Dan Heath; it's being released February 15 and I've been posting about a pre-release copy all week. Their new work focuses on the two independent systems in our minds: the rational mind and the emotional mind. They compete for control in our heads all the time, and the paradox is that only by harnessing each of their strengths can lasting change take place. Whether the switch you seek is in your family, in your organization, or in society at large, you'll get there by making three things happen. Here is the third and final action.

Shape the Path

If you want people to change, you can provide clear direction (Rider) or boost their motivation and determination (Elephant). There is another option to make the journey easier: Create a downhill slope and give them a push. Remove friction from the trail; scatter signs around to tell them they are getting close. In other words, shape the path.

• Tweak the environment
• Build habits
• Rally the herd

To change yourself or other people, you’ve go to change habits.

Forming a habit isn’t all environmental – it’s also mental. Habits are behavioral autopilot, and that’s why they’re such a critical tool for leaders. Leaders who can instill habits that reinforce their teams’ goals are essentially making progress for free. They’ve changed behavior in a way that doesn’t draw down the Rider’s reserves of self-control.

The hard question for a leader is not how to form habits but which habits to encourage. How can you create a habit that supports the change you’re trying to make?

1. The habit needs to advance the mission
2. The habit needs to be relatively easy to embrace

Here's the secret weapon that combines the two strategies of tweaking the environment and building habits.

Make a checklist

Checklists help people avoid blind spots in a complex environment. Checklists simply make big screw ups less likely. Checklists provide insurance against overconfidence. Checklists, in short, help shape the path to change.

This wraps up a week-long look at Dan and Chip Heath's new book "Switch". My posts have only begin to scratch the surface of a highly personal, story-filled book that will have you thinking about change in no time. It's a great companion to their first book "Made to Stick". It would be a great addition for any leader wanting to help navigate an organization through change.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of "Switch" from the authors, but was not required to write about it.

To Make a Switch, Part 2

"Switch", a new book by Chip and Dan Heath, is being released February 15. Authors of the best-selling "Made to Stick", their new work focuses on the two independent systems in our minds: the rational mind and the emotional mind. They compete for control in our heads all the time, and the paradox is that only by harnessing each of their strengths can lasting change take place.

Whether the switch you seek is in your family, in your organization, or in society at large, you'll get there by making three things happen. Here is the second.

Motivate the Elephant

In the terminology adopted by the Heaths, the emotional side of the brain is called the Elephant. To motivate your emotional side, you need to:

• Find the feeling
• Shrink the change
• Grow your people

People find it more motivating to be partly finished with a longer journey than to be at the starting gate of a shorter one. One way to motivate action, then, is to make people feel as though they’re already closer to the finish line than they might have thought. Rather than focusing solely on what’s new and different about the change to come, make an effort to remind people what’s already been conquered.

If you want a reluctant Elephant to get moving, you need to shrink the change.

If people are facing a daunting task, and their instinct is to avoid it, you’ve got to break down the task. Shrink the change. Make the change small enough that they can’t help but score a victory. When you engineer early successes, what you’re really doing is engineering hope. Hope is precious to a change effort.

The goal is to be wise about the things that are under our control. You want to select small wins that have two traits: (1) they’re meaningful; (2) They’re within immediate reach. Small targets lead to small victories, and small victories can often trigger a positive spiral of behavior.

A change journey that starts with dread is evolving, slowly, toward a feeling of confidence and pride.

As change shrinks, people grow

The central challenge of change is keeping the Elephant moving forward. Where the Rider (rational brain) needs direction, the Elephant (emotional brain) needs motivation. Motivation comes from feeling – knowledge isn’t enough to motivate change – and from confidence. There are two routes to building people so that they are capable of conquering the change. You can shrink the change or grow your people – or do both.

The book is "Switch", by Dan and Chip Heath. Because change is a regular part of the leader's life, you need to get a copy and dive in.

To Make a Switch, Part 1

Chip and Dan Heath have a new book being released February 15. Authors of the best-selling "Made to Stick", their new work focuses on the two independent systems in our minds: the rational mind and the emotional mind. They compete for control in our heads all the time, and the paradox is that only by harnessing each of their strengths can lasting change take place.

Whether the switch you seek is in your family, in your organization, or in society at large, you'll get there by making three things happen. Here is the first.

Direct the Rider

The Heath's call the rational side of our brains The Rider - always seeking to be in control. In order to harness the power of your rational side, you need to:

• Find the bright spots
• Script the critical moves
• Point to the destination

You may have heard the phrase "paralysis by analysis" or "decision paralysis" It's where more options, even good ones, can freeze us and make us retreat to the default plan. The default plan is often status quo (that's Latin for "dead and don't know it").

In this case, choice no longer liberates; it debilitates. In times of change, autopilot doesn’t work anymore. Ambiguity is exhausting to the rational brain. Any successful change requires a translation of ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors.

To spark movement in a new direction, you need to provide crystal-clear guidance. If you are leading a change effort, you need to remove the ambiguity from your vision of change.

Even the brief words above can tend toward confusion. So how about repackaging it with a phrase that speaks volumes:

Clarity dissolves resistance

When you’re at the beginning of change, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle is going to look different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.

The book is "Switch", by Dan and Chip Heath. If change is a regular part of your life, you need to get a copy and dive in.

Switch

How to Change Things When Change is Hard



Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the best-selling "Make to Stick", have delivered another excellent book.

I've been reading a pre-release copy of the book. I'm going to post this week on some of the nuggets in "Switch".

The authors argue that successful changes share a common pattern. They require the leader of the change to recognize three surprises about change:

• To change someone's behavior, you've got to change that person's situation
• Change is hard because people wear themselves out
• What looks like resistance to change is often a lack of clarity

To read an excerpt of the book before it hits the stores in February, take a look at this month's Fast Company. In a story entitled"Find a Bright Spot and Clone It, the brothers tell share three stories of how even hopelessly complex problems can have positive movement toward resolution.

Who Killed Change?

Every day organizations around the world launch change initiatives – often big, expensive ones – designed to improve the status quo. According to leadership expert Ken Blanchard, 50 to 70 percent of these change efforts fail. A few perish suddenly, but many die painful, protracted deaths that drain the organization’s resources, energy, and morale.

In his recent book “Who Killed Change?” Blanchard offers a murder mystery setting investigating the death of another change. One by one, a list of thirteen suspects are interviewed, with the startling conclusion: they all contribute to the change process.

• Culture-the predominate attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that characterize change
• Commitment-a person’s motivation and confidence to engage in new behavior required by the change initiative
• Sponsorship-senior leader who has formal authority to deploy resources toward change initiative
• Change Leadership Team-group of leaders with day-to-day responsibilities for executing change leadership strategies
• Communication-effective communication is critical
• Urgency-why change is needed and how quickly people must change
• Vision-clear and compelling vision allows people to see themselves succeeding
• Plan-A plan is important, but the process of planning is even more so
• Budget-analyze change from financial perspective, allocating limited resources to ensure healthy return on investment
• Trainer-provides learning experiences to develop skills needed to lead change
• Incentive-reinforces the desired behaviors and results that enable change
• Performance management-process that sets goals and expectations regarding behavior and results
• Accountability-process of following through with people to ensure behaviors and results are in line with agreed upon goals and expectations
  

Blanchard’s bottom line: Change can be successful only when the usual characters in an organization combine their unique talents and consistently involve others in initiating, implementing, and sustaining change.

Change is a very present reality in today’s culture – and in churches just like yours. How are you dealing with change in your church? Are you part of the process that will make change succeed? Or are you one of the suspects that will contribute to its death?

Change is in the Air

It's spring in North Carolina, and the trees and flowers are in full bloom. Unfortunately, the pollen that comes with them is too! There has been plenty of rain, and everything is coming up green. Pretty soon, though, summer will be here. Things will begin to dry out, greens turn to brown, and everyone wishes it was spring again. Before you know it, fall arrives: warm sunny days and crisp clear nights. Soon it is winter, cool weather with cold snaps and even an occasional snow. Before long, it will be spring again and the cycle begins again. Living in the Piedmont of North Carolina means I get to enjoy four distinct seasons of weather. You may not like any particular one, but if you wait long enough, a change will take place.

On the surface, these situations all are about change; in reality, they are about transition. In the world of church development that I live and work in, change is a constant. Most often, though, change is not handled well by the parties involved. William Bridges, author of Transitions and Managing Transitions, has provided a powerful model of working through change that church staff leaders should be aware of. Here’s a brief synopsis of his work:

Unless transition occurs, change will not work. Change is best seen as situational event or an outcome – a new building project completed; new schedules put into place; or a new staff member coming on board. When you think about change it is natural to focus on the outcome that the change will produce. If your church is relocating, all the excitement is on the new place you will be worshipping and serving in. If you begin a new program to reach an unreached segment of your community, the focus is on the results.

Transition is different. Transition is the psychological process people go though to come to terms with the new situation. Change is external, transition is internal. The starting point for transition is not the outcome but the ending that you will have to make to leave the old situation behind. Situational change hinges on the new thing, but psychological transition depends on letting go of the old reality and the old identity you have before the change took place. Nothing undermines organizational change as the failure to think through who will have to let go of what when change occurs. It’s not the change that will do you in – it’s the transitions!

Transition starts with an ending – another of life’s paradoxes. Even in good positive changes (think of the birth of a child) transitions begin with having to let go of something (time alone with spouse, regular sleep, spontaneity of going places, etc.). The failure to identify and be ready for the endings and losses that change produces is the largest single problem that organizations in transitions encounter. Once you have learned that transition begins with letting go of something, you have taken the first step in the transition journey.

The second step of that journey is understanding what happens after letting go: the neutral zone. This is the no-man’s land between the old reality and the new. It’s the shady, hazy time when you are between the old sense of identity and the new. It is that place where the old way is gone but the new doesn’t feel comfortable yet.

The neutral zone is of critical importance to completing a transition. If you don’t understand its importance you are likely to try to rush the process and become discouraged when you don’t make it through. You may also become frightened or overwhelmed in this limbo-land, and be tempted to bail out – which would derail the transition and place the whole change in jeopardy. Most importantly, though, would be the loss of opportunity if you chose to leave the neutral zone prematurely.

The neutral zone provides the individual and the organization the greatest opportunity for creativity, renewal, and development – in short, innovation. Even in a time of confusion and chaos, the seeds of new birth are planted.

The final step of the transition occurs only when ending and the neutral zone have been completed. Now it is time for the new beginning. Like any organic process, beginnings cannot be made to happen by a word or act. They happen when the timing of the transition process allows them to happen. Beginnings take place only after people have accepted the ending of the old, navigated the uncertainty of the neutral zone, and see themselves as ready to undertake something new. Beginnings involve new understandings, new values, new attitudes, and most of all, new identifies.

Most organizations try to start with the beginning rather than finishing with it. They pay no attention to endings. They do not acknowledge the existence of the neutral zone, and then wonder why people have so much difficulty with change.

Church leaders must learn how to lead their churches through change. If there is anything certain about the future, it is that there will be change. We may not be sure what it will look like, we may try to resist it, but the only certainty is that between here and there will be a lot of change. Where there is change, there will be transition. Learn how to end well, navigate the neutral zone, and embrace new beginnings, and you will be able to look back successfully at change, ready to welcome the next change coming your way.

Change and What You Do

Change is important. But it’s also important to cling to core values. Paul experienced that tension, and God helped him to facilitate change while not abandoning his core values. In Acts 16:6-10, Paul is all set to carry the Gospel message to Bithynia – but the Spirit of God redirected him to Macedonia. Change – new direction. But it was only a new direction, not a new message. Paul’s core value was not Bithynia; it was fulfilling God’s desire to expand His kingdom. Because he didn’t confuse his desire (to go to Bithynia) with his core value (to follow God’s call), Paul sailed straight for Macedonia.

In the great book Built to Last, Jim Collins notes that once a visionary company identifies its core ideology, it preserves it almost religiously – changing it seldom, if ever. Collins concluded that:

core values in a visionary company form a rock-solid foundation and do not drift
with the trends and fashions of the day. In some cases, these core values have
remained in place for over one hundred years. Yet, while keeping their core
ideologies tightly fixed, visionary companies display a powerful desire for
progress that enables them toe change and adapt without compromising their
cherished core ideals.

The point? Capable leaders who recognize their core values can change practices and procedures to enable their organizations to move forward while preserving those same core values.

Like Paul, all godly leaders need the ability to hold on to core values while making those changes necessary to advance their cause.

Change and How It Works as a Leader

Change is tough enough when we’re the only ones involved. But the role of a leader is to bring about change in others and in an organization. All of a sudden, there are more people involved, and this change business just got a lot tougher!

God modeled some powerful principles of organizational change when He urged the exclusively Jewish church in Jerusalem to embrace Gentiles (Acts 10:9-23). This passage shows how God led Peter from being an opponent of change to becoming its champion. Take a look at these 7 principles of change God led Peter to model.

• God started where Peter was.
• God allowed Peter to challenge the idea
• God gave Peter time to work through his resistance
• God permitted Pete to experiment with small changes first
• The change proposal was well-prepared
• God didn’t ask Peter to “change”; He invited Peter to participate in what Peter already loved
• God convinced a key leader and allowed that leader himself to champion the change
  

Can you think of a situation today that these principles would be of help to you? If so, then Change Away!

Change and Who You Are

Change and innovation are integral components of both biological and spiritual growth. In the medical world, a clinical definition of death is a body that does not change. Change is life. Stagnation is death.

• If you don’t change, you die.
• It’s that simple. It’s that scary.

Spiritual growth is more about process than product, because all believers are in a process (whether we resist it or not) of becoming the people God meant us to be. In the same way as biological growth, without change, spiritual growth is impossible.

Consider Abram and the immense change through his encounters with God. This was not simply a shifting of external elements in his life, and adjustment to his schedule. God asked for a complete overhaul of Abram’s career, dreams, and destiny. God even changed his name to Abraham to signify the depth of the change.

When leaders contemplate change, their first consideration must be the anchors that provide stability in a changing environment. Abraham believed in the Lord, and that security allowed him to pursue revolutionary change. Similarly, the Christian life is an ongoing process of change and internal revolution, grounded in the belief that this process is reforming us to become more Christ-like.

How do you find yourself resisting the changes God brings into your life? Do you focus more on process or on product?

Change and Who God Is

Most of us have an aversion to change – especially when things are going relatively well. But we serve a God who says “Behold I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5). God is not interested in preserving the status quo; He is committed to nothing less than an entirely new order of creation. It started with the incarnation of His son into our world, and it continues in each of us who become “new” in Him. We are a new creation in Jesus Christ, and should be exhibiting this “newness” each day in different ways.

How are you changing today?

Chaordic Churches and Leaders

The book is a little dated, but the content is as current as can be: SoulTsunami, by Len Sweet.

Chapter 10: Get Chaordic, is where I've been spending awhile. Here's a synopsis from the book's website. Take a look at it now - and join me for more of the conversation next week.

Till then, enjoy Resurrection Sunday and celebrate our Risen Lord!

Chaordic is a Good Thing

IYAD

WYAD

YAG

WYAG

If you always to what you always did you always get what you always got

Good Friday, indeed!

Mid-Week Museings

Hey, it's not the middle of the week, but my Wednesday was too busy to post. I left home at 6:45 AM for a full day:

On the road for about an hour to have a breakfast meeting with a new local church pastor, part of my Together Tuesday initiative coming out of Catalyst 2008. A couple of weeks ago as I was returning from a meeting at one of our job sites, I took a different route home and passed by a church. I was impressed to contact the pastor, which I did when I got home. We set up a breakfast meeting for yesterday, and it was a good, God thing. He's relatively new to the area, and the church is doing well. We had a few similar interests and family situations, and it was good to fellowship together. He had a lot of interest in Catalyst so I left my summary with him and encouraged him to check into attending next year.

The monthly conference call with NACDB Advisory Board was next. I pulled over into a parking lot and our group of six spent the next hour reviewing recent developments in our business, making plans for our annual meeting in February, and looking ahead to 2009. Since I'm the secretary of the group, I took notes for later distribution.

Then it was back on the road to my noon meeting, about an hour away from my breakfast meeting. Taking advantage of technology, I had three mini-phone meetings with the office, an architect, and my editor. Safety note: I have a Bluetooth in-ear receiver for hands free talking!

Pulled into Boone for a design review meeting on a project with the church AVL team and Signature Sight and Sound, our AVL systems integrator on the project. 3 hours later, we had a major design modification, revised equipment list, and satisfied customers.

Since I was right around the corner from my son's house, I stopped by and dropped off a Christmas ornament for my new grandson. I knew they weren't there, but it was a great feeling just to pull into the drive of their new house and know that the work they were doing was going to make it a home.

Back on the road for a 2 hour drive to Huntersville, taking advantage of technology again to make a few calls.

At my home office, I did a quick review on a proposal for the next meeting, printed it out, and headed out to drop my son off at his youth group. My daughter arrived home on Christmas break as we were headed out the door.

The meeting at my next prospect went well: we submitted a feasibility study for them and had good dialog with the group. Some of the learnings from Church Unique are coming into play in this setting, and it will be interesting to see how they play out.

Back at home, and time to catch up on the paperwork of the day: Client Meeting Reviews for all my meetings of the day, both in person and on the phone. It's part of my 100% communication pledge: I type up our meeting comments for their review to make sure we all heard the same thing and are clear on next steps. I also typed up the NACDB conference call notes and a year-end summary.

I started and ended the day with a few WhiteBoard exercises: I'm finding the practice very beneficial in several ways. Currently, I have a flow chart of all the projects I'm working on - later today I'm going to translate them into the calendar for the rest of the month. Then I'll clean the board for a new day and a new thought process.

Ended the day with a quick read of a couple of chapters of a book I'm working through for our company's marketing/sales process. Called it a day at 11 PM.

That was a long, but satisfying, day.

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

On the way to the airport yesterday it was a warm sunny fall day so I had the sunroof open and the windows down. I came across a field that had freshly cut and baled hay in it - the old style small bales. The aroma of the hay took me back to my teenage years, when I helped nearby farmers as they would bring in hay for the winter. My usual job was to stack hay bales on a wagon pulled by a tractor - sometimes tossing them from the field, sometimes stacking them on the wagon. Hard work, but good exercise and fun for a bunch of teenagers.

My instantaneous trip down memory lane was shattered when I rounded the corner and saw one man, driving a tractor pulling a machine that picked up the bales, stacked them in neat rows, and when a row was complete lifted the whole thing onto a trailer. The work was quicker, neater, and in the long run more economically advantageous for the farmer.

On the way back from the airport, going down the same road, but on the other side, I saw an elderly gentleman driving a tractor cutting a small field around his house-but with an identical International Harvester tractor and mower that I used in the early 70s. Now, the tractor I used then was old - that made this one really ancient. But it seemed to be doing the job just fine, and the farmer was moving right along in his work.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The season and needs of both farmers dictated their actions. Each was using tools at his disposal to accomplish a task. Each was satisfied that they were doing the right thing, and they achieved their desired result.

Looking back to yesterday's post, Bridges would translate the old French saying above to: There can be any number of changes, but unless there are transitions, nothing will be different when the dust clears.

Situational change hinges on the new thing, but psychological transition depends on letting go of the old reality and the old identity you had before the change took place. Nothing so undermines organizational change as the failure to think through who will have to let go of what when change occurs.

Got Change, anyone?

How do you like change?

My company is hosting a seminar on Thursday October 16, at Huntersville UMC. The theme of the seminar is "Welcome Home"-we're focusing on creating environments that connect people to Christ. We were the design-builder of HUMC, so I thought it appropriate that we have our next seminar there. If you would like more information, check out our company website or leave a comment.

As lead church consultant for JHB, I'm responsible for organizing the whole seminar, but I'm also leading two workshops: one entitiled "The Hospitality Factor", the other, "Leadership for Change". I'll be posting more on hospitality in the future, but my son asked me an interesting question at supper last night that bears reflection - it's all about change.

Out of the blue, he asked, "Dad, what's your favorite season?" Without hesitating, I replied "The next one." He asked if I meant Fall or Winter. I replied "Neither - I mean whatever the next season is. Today, it's Fall. If you ask me in late November, the answer will be Winter." I then replied, "I like to see the seasons change because that mean's something new is coming."

Change, even as regular as the seasonal changes (at least in NC), is constant. I've been a student and practioner of change for a long time. One of the best resources for understanding change is William Bridges' "Managing Transitions". Don't let the title fool you: the first sentence explains the premise of the rest of the book: It isn't the changes that do you in; it's the transitions. Bridges sees change as situational-the new job, new boss, new policy. Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation.

Transition starts with an ending, letting go of something. After letting go, you enter the neutral zone, the no-man's land between the old reality and the new. A new beginning completes the transition, as they mark a time of commitment to a new reality, to be the new person the new situation demands.

So it's Fall, and change is in the air, literally and figuratively.