Due: 7-20-13!
Submitted: 7-20-13!
Score: _____ out of 25

Week 7 Reading Response

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In the book Switch, Heath and Heath explain “how to change things when change is hard”.
Making a change of any kind is difficult because there is a battle within yourself between the
Planner and the Doer. Or, as they use as an analogy in this book from Jonathan Haidt, this battle is between the Rider and the Elephant. The Rider is the rational side of ourselves, and the Elephant is our emotional side. The authors then go on and give us real-life “change” situations in which we are able to identify how this analogy can be helpful.

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A principle they gave was this, “what looks like a people change is often a situation change”.
(pg. 3) The example they gave was when a study was conducted by giving movie-goers either a medium bucket of popcorn or a large bucket of popcorn. The catch was this, the popcorn was purposefully made to taste awful. The results showed that those with a larger bucket ate more than those with a medium bucket. The researchers decided they needed to show and motivate people to eat healthier. However, that “people solution” - for example, teaching a lesson is a people change - was not necessary. All they needed to do was give movie-goers smaller portions, thus, a “situation change” - for example, changing the situation so people eat less.

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It’s a characteristic of human nature to try to change things ourselves. We come up with a problem, we plan a solution, and we want to fix it ourselves. A lot of times, this can spring up from the want of recognition in the world. However, sometimes using people to change a problem is not always the most effective and efficient way of doing things. If we change the situation itself, people will make changes more readily.

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Another principle was “what looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity”. (pg. 17) I know a young lady who goes to my Bible study. She has not accepted the Lord as her Savior, but she is really searching. To some people, it would appear as if she was resisting the truth of the Gospel, that she is refusing to believe it. However, in reality, she just needs it explained clearly to her in a way that she knows it’s 100% true!

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Searching for bright spots is an important strategy when striving to make a change. What are bright spots? They are successful efforts which are worth emulating. When Jerry Sternin