Over the last fifty-two blog posts, we examined the book Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath. We viewed the book through the lens of a leader looking to create change in their software development organization. Today, we revisit the book and see just how far we’ve come.
Three Surprises About Change
We began the book by examining three surprises about change:
- situation problems often look like people problems
- exhaustion often looks like laziness
- lack of clarity often looks like resistance
People Problem vs. Situation Problem
In my first blog post and video, The Popcorn Study, I covered situation problems that look like people problems. We learned about a study of eating behavior. Researchers determined that the size of popcorn buckets can be the lone determinant of how much popcorn people ate.
Next, in 4 Reasons Your User Stories Suck, I applied this concept to software development. It showed how poorly-written user stories are often due to environmental causes.
Laziness vs. Exhaustion
Then, in The Cookies And Radishes Study, we saw an example of exhaustion that looks like laziness. Researchers measured how much longer people persisted at a draining task after completing an earlier willpower-draining task. They contrasted such people with those who had not previously had their willpower drained.
Next, in Is Your Product Owner Lazy or Exhausted?, we saw an example of exhaustion being mistaken for laziness. This time, it was the product owner that doesn’t keep the backlog prioritized.
Resistance vs. Lack of Clarity
Then, in The West Virginia 1% Milk Experiment, we saw an example of lack of clarity showing up as resistance. A West Virginia study of how to reduce saturated fat in the American diet led researchers to provide clear instructions that drastically reduced resistance.
Finally, in 2 Tips to Make Pair-Programming Less Scary, I showed an example of lack of clarity showing up as resistance in software development. Resistance to new techniques like pair-programming can be due to lack of clarity around roles and processes. I gave two tips on how to clarify the pair-programming process and help reduce resistance.
The Rider and Elephant Metaphor
To address the above three kinds of problems, the rest of the book focused on three approaches we can use. These approaches provide clarity, reduce exhaustion, and gain control of the situation.
At this point, we introduced the rider and elephant metaphor. The rider is your rational mind that keeps the elephant under control when they agree on a direction. The elephant is your irrational mind that can quickly overpower the rider. The book breaks down into three major actions you can take to produce a “switch”:
- direct the rider
- motivate the elephant
- shape the path
Directing The Rider
Directing the rider is about three things:
- finding “bright spots”
- scripting the critical moves
- pointing to a destination
Finding “Bright Spots”
First, in Positive Deviants and the Not-Invented-Here Problem, our journey took us to Vietnam. Save The Children’s Jerry Sternin used the “find the bright spots” technique at the level of a village. As a result, we was able to solve malnutrition and avoid the “not invented here” problem.
Next, in Psychotherapy without Archaeology, we then applied the same concept at the individual level using solution-focused therapy. Solutions-focused therapy doesn’t find “bright spot” individuals in a community. Instead, it finds “bright spot” moments in a person’s life when they were able to overcome a psychological problem.
Then, in How To Find Test-Driven Development Bright Spots, I applied the “bright spot” concept to Test-Driven Development. We saw the benefits of learning from teams that are similar to yours and are practicing at a higher-level. This is a great way to address the “not-invented problem”. Otherwise, new practices get rejected by organizations who think, “It won’t work here because our teams are special.”
Scripting The Critical Moves
Next, we motivated the need to script the critical moves by examining the paradox of choice in How to Resolve the Paradox of Choice.
Then, we saw an example of an organization that scripted the critical moves in 4 Simple Rules That Transformed Losses Into Profits.
Following that, we examined what not to do in Save Your Change Effort from Food Pyramid Vagueness.
Finally, we saw just how powerful the technique can be in Can Child Abusers by Reformed?
I applied the same concept to software by having a script for refactoring in Kill Technical Debt by Scripting the Critical Refactoring Moves. I started with several definitions of technical debt. Then I introduced a five-step process to make refactoring a regular part of a software engineer’s job.
Pointing To A Destination
We ended the story of directing the rider by pointing to a destination. First, we saw in Beat Analysis Paralysis with a Destination Postcard how Dr. Laura Esserman pointed to an inspiring destination to build a breast care center at UCSF.
Next, in How to Eliminate Wiggle Room with a Black & White Goal, we talked about the need for such “destination postcards” to leave no wiggle-room by examining some changes in how BP increased their well-drilling hit rate from one-in-five to two-in-three.
Finally, I applied the “point to a destination” concept in Inspire Your Team with a Continuous Delivery Destination to using continuous delivery to give a compelling direction to a software team and how black-and-white rules are critical to achieving continuous delivery.
Motivating The Elephant
The next major topic in the book after directing the rider was to motivate the elephant. Motivating the elephant consists of:
- finding the feeling
- shrinking the change
- growing the people
Finding The Feeling
First, we saw in How Target Became a Giant by Embracing Design how a trend manager at Target transformed the company. She turned Target into a design powerhouse by helping executives to visualize and feel how design could revolutionize their company.
Next, in Find The Retro Feeling, we saw how retrospectives help the team visualize work and talk about feelings. First, I walked through the five-step Agile Retrospectives format. Then I got specific about how I apply it in my team to ensure everyone has an opportunity to contribute.
Positive Illusions
Then we were introduced to Attila The Accountant in Positive Illusions: The Story of Attila The Accountant. Attila lacked empathy for customers because of a positive illusion that accounting was only about attention to detain and rigor. After exposure to the problems he was creating for customers, he found the feeling and learned to measure himself differently.
Next, I took the idea of breaking positive illusions to software teams in Feeling The Pain of High WIP. I showed how “walk the board” standups help us visualize the work in ways that break illusions. For example, such standups can break the illusion that we are managing our work-in-progress limits when we aren’t.
Positive and Negative Emotions
The final aspect of finding the feeling was to distinguish between positive and negative emotions. In Positive Psychology and The Burning Platform, we learned about how negative emotions can be motivating. But we also learned that negative emotions narrow your thinking and that positive emotions broaden it.
I applied this concept in The Surprising Benefits of Slack by summarizing Tom Demarco’s book Slack. Demarco tears down the idea of using tight deadlines to motivate. He shows how introducing slack in a schedule frees up time for broader thinking. This is the same kind of broader thinking that we saw in the previous episode with positive emotions.
Shrinking The Change
The second aspect of motivating the elephant is shrinking the change because big changes demotivate. First, in Honey, I Shrunk The Change, we learned about a car wash that motivated customers using pre-stamped loyalty cards. Such cards make it seem like you’re further along in your journey towards a free wash. As a result, they are far more motivating that those that start you at square one. This is true even when you need the same number of stamps for both types of cards.
Next, in You’re Farther Along Than You Think, I examined several desirable software team behaviors. Many teams practice these behaviors to some degree. But it is typically hard to motivate teams to practice them rigorously. This includes behaviors like pair-programming and test-driven development. So we reframe the skill-acquisition challenge to highlight how far they’ve already come. They aren’t starting pair-programming from zero. Instead, they are starting from already being skilled at code review. They aren’t starting test-driven development from zero. Instead, they are starting from already being skilled at unit-testing.
Then, in Stepping Stones To Success, it’s all about providing little victories along the way to a big win. We met sports coaches who teach that having meaningful goals within immediate reach is the best way to motivate teams.
Finally, in The Strangler Pattern, small wins are how you replace a big, complicated system with a better one. You get the motivational benefits of small wins and you avoid the risk of a big rewrite.
Growing The People
The third and final aspect of motivating the elephant is to grow the people. First, we learned in Grow The People about a man who saved a parrot from destruction by growing a new identity for the people of St. Lucia as parrot stewards.
Next, in Start Where You Are, I talked about growing a new identity for your team as Agile, DevOps, or XP practitioners by examining what they already take pride in.
Then, in Voting Against Our Own Self-Interest, we learned about the two models of decision-making, the consequences and identity models, and how an identity model can cause us to vote against our own self-interest.
Next, in The Cobra Effect, I applied the concept of an identity model to software developers who take on an heroic identity and how rewarding heroics can have unintended side effects.
Then we learned about an identity that had a much more positive effect in Why Do Nurses Quit? when we examined how identifying with the profession of nursing led to better retention at Lovelace Health System.
Next, in The Foot-In-The-Door Technique, we talked about using the using the foot-in-the-door technique to build a new identity.
Finally, in Listen To The Tests, I talked about growing a test automation engineer’s sense of ownership with the “listen to the tests” technique.
Growth Mindsets
The final example of growing the people to motivate their elephants was to help them build a growth mindset. First, in The Two Mindsets, I introduced the concepts of fixed and growth mindsets from Carol Dweck’s book Mindset.
Next, in Mindset and Athletics, I talked about how mindset affects athletic performance and how the media likes to portray top-performing athletes as “naturals”, further reinforcing the prevalence of fixed mindsets.
Then, in Mindset and Business, I talked about how mindset affects performance in business and how the fixed mindset leads to groupthink.
Next, in Mindset and Relationships, I examined how your mindset determines how you deal with rejection, how it relates to emotional intelligence, and how it affects our belief in whether relationships should take effort or not.
Then, in Cultivating A Growth Mindset, I talked about how to help the people in our lives make the shift from fixed to growth mindsets.
Next, in Mindset In Software Development Organizations, I compared and contrasted fixed-mindset and growth-mindset organizations in terms of their organizational design, their culture, their adaptability to change, the way they communicate, how they are managed, how they motivate employees, and how they hire and fire.
Finally, in Mindset And The Agile Manifesto, I took a look at the Agile Manifesto and how its values lined up with the fixed mindset / growth mindset dichotomy.
Shaping The Path
The final section of the book Switch was all about shaping the path. This breaks down into:
- tweaking the environment
- building habits
- rallying the herd
Tweaking The Environment
First, we saw in Shape The Path how the environment can be tweaked to drastically change behavior. TV shows like the Dog Whisperer and Super Nanny show how making simple environmental tweaks can get dramatic behavior changes out of dogs and children.
Next, in Tweaking Environments, we saw a study out of Stanford that showed how simply providing a map transformed “jerks” into “saints”.
Then we saw powerful examples of environmental tweaks in The Sterile Cockpit Rule, which answers the question, “If right behaviors don’t happen on their own, what can you do about it?”
Finally, in The Haddon Matrix, we learned about a highly structured way to address environmental influences in injury prevention and I showed how to apply it to software service outage prevention.
Building Habits
Build Habits taught us about the power of the environment to influence both our good and bad habits through the story of a veteran who returned from Vietnam an addict but, through the power of his environment, quickly kicked his habit.
Next, we learned about Action Triggers to make it more likely to stick to a new habit by tying it to an environmental cue that reinforces it. I extended this idea to software development with examples of placing such triggers in story cards and in retrospectives.
Next, in Gulf War I and the Daily Standup, a daily habit of standing up at meetings that helped logistics managers stay focused during Gulf War I showed up again in the Daily Scrum ceremony, teaching us that to support a change, habits need to advance the mission and be easy to embrace.
Finally, The Humble Checklist taught us how to reinforce good habits by using checklists.
Rallying The Herd
First, we learned about rallying the herd by seeing just how effective the influence of others’ behavior is on our own in The Bystander Effect.
Next, in The Hotel Towel Strategy, we learned that the good behavior of the group is not of much use unless you find a way to publicize it. I applied the concept to software teams by using the example of pair-programming as a transmission mechanism for good habits.
Finally, in The Designated Driver, we learned ways to publicize new, positive behaviors to society as a whole. I extended this to software organizations using communities of practice as a means of giving facilitators repeated exposure to good facilitation techniques.
I would love to hear what you thought of today’s video and article or even what you thought of the series as a whole, so feel free to comment below, on The K Guy Twitter, or on The K Guy Facebook fan page.