Getting people to make a decision is like trying to move an elephant.
In Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath, the authors split our human psychological makeup into two entities, the elephant and the rider.
The elephant is our emotional powerhouse, that large force within us that is capable of accomplishing amazing things when moved to action. It is a force so great that the rider, the rational embodiment of our willpower, has trouble controlling it without expending enormous amounts of energy, energy that is both expendable and exhaustible.
We do not, according to the authors, have an unlimited supply of this willpower, so when the going gets tough, when change becomes hard, we run out of steam and lose the battle.
In the first chapters of the book, they give examples of successful change agents in a variety of situations, all seemingly impossible and improbable, from saving lives in the healthcare industry to buying 1% milk.
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
What is clear in all this is that change occurs when people are moved (emotionally engaged and prepared to act) and when they are given specific things to do, very specific things, like buying 1% milk instead of whole milk to reduce the intake of saturated fats in our diets.
We see examples of attempts to motivate us to change all the time in television commercials which play on our emotions to get us to talk to our doctors about a particular medication or take a test drive to feel all eyes upon us when we pull into our driveways.
But appealing to our emotions is only part of the package that leads to change. What is needed is a clear path to follow, those specific actionable items that we can do to get us to the desired result, seeking that prescription from our doctors, or buying that BMW.
So, how do you make big changes in your business? Or how can we survive in a world of change that seems to be way out of our control, with too many variables, with really big problems to solve?
The authors make a very interesting observation. Too many options, too many steps, and we lose interest, fail to make a decision, and continue with the status quo. Life is just too complicated, we say, and we do nothing.
They give an example of a study of surgeons who had decided after the failure of a series of medications to combat arthritis, the patient would need knee replacement surgery. However, when told by the pharmacy that there was one drug they hadn't tried, 47% of the doctors opted to prescribe the drug and avoid surgery.
That sounds promising, in that they were thinking of the patient experience and long recovery period.
But when they were told that there were actually two drugs that had not been tried, and not one, over 70% of the doctors would have opted for the surgery instead of prescribing either of the drugs.
What?
It seems that our analytical nature, the rider of the elephant, has trouble with decision making. The more choices we have, the harder it is to steer the elephant off the usual path. In this case, the path most familiar was the path of knee replacement.
So, how do we make big changes happen? How do we move the elephant?
- Appeal to the emotional side - make sure the motivation to change is there and it s real. Our surgeons could be focused on the patient experience first. What will he or she have to go through if we choose surgery?
- Look for bright spots, examples where choosing the new path worked - Talk with surgeons who have had success with alternatives to surgery and share their experiences.
- Set a clear path - come up with a few simple steps or rules to follow to guide the decision-making process. A simple rule could be to try every non-invasive approach first before opting for surgery.
- Provide support and mentoring - Change is tough. If you want it to be successful, you need to demonstrate strong commitment to it.
Change is critical to survival as well as for growth of our businesses. Without it, we will see a steady decline in sales and revenues. We will also continue doing what hasn't worked until we are too convinced it is the only way that we fail to see the reality around us.
So, take a look at the issues facing your business and imagine a world where those problems are miraculously solved. What does it look like? What can you do that you couldn't do before? Now think. Have you ever had moments where you felt like that?
Those are the moments to focus on, the examples of when things have gone right. Moving the elephant is all about capitalizing on the simple things that work, rather than looking for the complicated solutions that are impossible to achieve.
I like that. It is the way I tend to think. Thanks, guys, for helping me move the elephant.