Bestselling authors, Chip and Dan Heath released their book, SWITCH: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, within a couple weeks of when I launched, Lead Change by Design: A Toolkit to Make Ideas Happen. Both of these books represent some of the latest thinking in leading change and I wanted to compare and contrast my work with theirs.

First, kudos to the Heath brothers. I recommend SWITCH for anyone leading change in their organization, community, government, and family too. It’s a must have on your bookshelf.

I was pleased to see that the ideas and insights in SWITCH have a lot in common with what I wrote about in Lead Change by Design. I think the main difference is our approach. The Heath brothers write of three things that you must do for change to occur.

Direct the Rider (the rational side of our brain that deliberates, analyzes, plans and provides direction)

    • Follow the bright spots
    • Script the critical moves
    • Point to the destination
Motivate the Elephant (the emotional side of our brain that is instinctive and feels pleasure and pain)

      • Find the feeling
      • Shrink the change
      • Grow your people
Shape the Path
      • Tweak the environment
      • Build habits
      • Rally the herd
The ideas in SWITCH are presented as areas to consider. It’s like someone telling you, “so you want to make a change, think about these areas as you proceed.” Although an experienced leader may know how to take these concepts and apply them, someone new to leading change might wonder, “Okay, but now what? Where do I start?” In Lead Change by Design, my approach was more like, “So you have an idea, or a change you think is needed, here’s a framework with a set of tools to make your idea happen.” Lead Change by Design helps the reader know where to start. I wanted to provide a toolkit for anyone, anywhere, anytime leading change—no title required. Think about where ideas and innovation comes from in an organization. Everywhere!

Ideas happen at all levels in the organization but folks don’t always know how to make those ideas happen. SWITCH presents powerful concepts and  stories to help people think about what they need to consider when leading change, but it doesn’t help people know where to start and what steps they need to take to shape, connect, design, and market their idea. That’s where my toolkit comes in. ; )