Book of the week: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath

(Broadway Business, $26)

Whether you’re trying to improve your work habits or revamp an entire organization, change can be a challenge, said Sangeeth Varghese in Forbes.com. In an excellent new book filled with “great anecdotes,” brothers Chip and Dan Heath offer a refreshing look at how to teach new tricks to old dogs. Unlike similar management books, “it begins by delving deep into the human psyche to examine why we all so resist change so much of the time.“ The authors note that big changes—whether personal, organizational, or societal—need to start with small steps, said Kerry Hannon in USA Today. Every step requires buy-ins from an individual’s emotional side—what psychologists refer to as “the Elephant”—as well as direction from the rational side (aka “the Rider.”) The Heaths offer a convincing formula for getting these two forces on the right path. “‘This framework is no panacea,’” the Heaths concede, “but it’s surely a start.”

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