When Change is Hard

I recently read and started to apply on a huge project the methods of the book Switch-How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.  This is by far the most "go out there and use it immediately" book I've ever read about making big, scary changes in an organization even when you don't have much authority or resources at your disposal.  This book's core technique is making things happen for me on my new project faster than I ever would have dared to dream possible.

The authors present a simple model for change that they borrowed from Jonathan Haidt's book The Happiness Hypothesis:  a rider, an elephant, and a path.  When change happens, a rider first decides where he wants to go.  Then he motivates the elephant to move.  And the change will happen fastest if the path has been cleared.

Chip and Dan Heath give powerful examples of people who persuaded companies, governments, and societies to make profound changes using these three steps:

1. Script the rider.  The "rider" is the rational brain.  Provide a clear, concise description of the behavior that is needed to get the result.  Tell the "rider" where to go.
2. Motivate the elephant.  The "elephant" is emotion.  Emotion makes things happen.  Emotion gets things done.  The "rider" is too analytical, too indecisive, too puny to act in powerful ways.  It is only when people feel strong positive or negative emotions that they will overcome huge barriers to change.
3. Clear the path.  Make the change you want easy.  Instructions, training, technical support--anything that you can do to keep the rider and the elephant from changing their minds.

The model is so easy to remember that I find myself at meetings almost daily thinking, 

• "What is the single most important thing I'm asking this person to do? (Script the rider)
• "How can I help them visualize how much this change will make their lives better? Or how much failure to make the change will cause issues?"  (Motivate the elephant)
• "How can I make this as easy as possible for them to do?  Can I write a program that does most of the calculations for them?  Do I need to give more training or write more instructions?"  (Clear the path)

In my new project, I'm working with parts of the business I know almost nothing about, with different departments that sometimes don't get along with each other, and yet I'm making fast progress getting people aligned because I have a vision in which every department wins and I'm taking the time to help each department see what is in it for them.

Are 10,000 steps enough?

A "Fit-Bit"--my hi-tech pedometer--has a base goal for total number of steps per day:  10,000 steps.  I can change this goal anytime I want.  But is 10,000 steps enough?

It depends.  According to The First 20 Minutes, by Gretchen Reynolds, 10,000 steps is enough exercise if all I'm trying to do is to live longer.  Couch potatoes have a much greater chance of dying young than active people.  As you become more active, your chance of living longer keeps increasing.  But most of the gains are achieved once you reach about 20 minutes a day of moderate activity such as walking 4 miles per hour.  You need to exercise more minutes if you exercise more lightly, and fewer if you exercise intensely.  But, overall, you can be pretty sure to have more than enough if you walk 10,000 steps.

Further, it apparently doesn't matter much how you accumulate the steps through the course of the day.  Bringing the laundry up from the basement, climbing stairs to your office, walking to a meeting--it all counts.  So having a pedometer is a great way to see whether your approaching or exceeding this goal.

But what if you want to do more than just outlive a couch potato?  What if you want to lose weight?  Get stronger?  Build your agility and endurance?  If you also want to do these things, 10,000 steps will NOT be enough.  You'll need intense cardiovascular exercise and resistance training.  If you want to be more flexible, you'll need to stretch or do yoga.  But the 10,000 steps is still a good starting point, a base level of activity that is likely to lead to a longer life.  I can take these steps and then add weights, yoga, or cardio.

Fit-Bit

In the last few weeks, my wife and I bought and started using "Fit-Bits".  This is a new device from the website fitbit.com that automatically tracks the steps you've walked in a day, the miles, the number of flights of stairs (you get credit for hills), how many hours and minutes you slept, how many times you woke up in the middle of the night and when.  There are default daily goals such as 10,000 steps and 15 flights of stairs, but you can update these if they get too easy.  When you just get NEAR your computer, the "FitBit" transmits your latest accomplishments to the website so that you can see charts of your results for the day, the week, or any other time period you like.  For things that are NOT automatically detected by the device, such as your blood pressure, your weight, or what you eat, you can manually log these in so that you have a "one-stop shop" to track your healthy habits and their results.

FitBit sends me e-mails when I reach milestones such as 15,000 steps or 25 flights of stairs.  "Great job, Ben!"  These e-mails have no real value, but--for no good reason--they feel good.

As evening approaches and I'm only at 8,566 steps, I find myself searching for something to push me over the top.  A couple of games of ping-pong?  Run around the house putting things away, praying that something I see downstairs really belongs upstairs so that I'm forced to climb some stairs?  Sometimes I'll even jog in place without shame just to cross over the 10,000 step barrier.

In their book, Switch: How to Change when Change is Hard, authors Chip and Dan Heath refer to a study of hotel maids.  One group of maids was given a lecture on the importance of exercise.  The second group was given a similar lecture with a twist:  they were told that a study had shown that their CURRENT routines, as hotel maids, going from room to room, cleaning and making beds at a fast pace, gave them a very high level of exercise.  They were told that they already were exceeding the exercise recommendations of most medical experts.  In the study, each maid stepped on a scale and had their weight recorded.  Months later, the maids were weighed again.  Those who were told that they ALREADY were exercising a lot just by doing their jobs lost significantly more weight than the other group.  The study concluded that it was likely that they started valuing the impact of their movement at work on their health and were motivated to move more and move more briskly.  I think the FitBit has a similar motivating effect.  It helps me place a lot more value on walking the floors of the building, on doing chores in the house, on taking the stairs to my office instead of the elevator.