In 2006 Dr Jonathan Haidt published his book, `The Happiness Hypothesis`. www.happinesshypothesis.com
This year, 2010, Chip Heath and Dan Heath published their book, `SWITCH – How to Make Change When Change is Hard` www.heathbrothers.com
This book by the Heath brothers builds on the analogy set by Haidt: that is, the rider, the elephant, and their path.
For Dr Haidt, the way humans go about things brought to mind a rider on an elephant. The rider represents our logical side and the elephant represents our emotional side. Our logical side is constantly struggling to control our emotional side.
The choice of elephant bangs home the point we are often under the control of our emotions rather than vice-versa.
The Heath brothers provide many examples of how we can use the Rider-Elephant-Path analogy to understand how to bring about positive change.
The Heath brothers recommend a 3-part frameworkto guide you when you need to change behaviour:
- What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem
So, we must Shape the Path - What looks like laziness is often exhaustion
So we must Motivate the Elephant - What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity
So, we must Direct the Rider
The Heaths provide a convincing argument…we should consider all three factors – the rider, the elephant, and their path – when we work to create positive change. And, there are several strategies and tactics for helping people with each of these three factors.
We can build the Haidt-Heath thinking into our methods for creating positive change.
More on creating positive change in future blogs…
Reader comments (4)
Comments from the original blog platform, 2008–2021.
Rick Baker ·
"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." Victor Frankl
Activestor Thoughts ·
Factors that influence how we think and what we do Factors that influence how we think and what we do
rick baker ·
"Knowing why you want to do something shifts your perspective from the negative to the positive." Dr. Doug Hirschhorn '8 Ways to Great', (2010)
rick baker ·
"Happiness is fleeting. But, honour is immortal." Murdock Mysteries, 'Wu Chang', Season 7, Episode 16