Switch 06: Shrink the Change (Chip & Dan Heath)

People find it motivating to be partly finished with with a longer journey than to be at the starting gate of a shorter journey. One way to motivate action is to make people feel as though they’re already closer to the finish line than they might have thought. For example, the hotel maids who were told that their jobs included as much exercise as was recommended, or the car wash promotion which gave vehicle owners 2 free stamps on their journey to collecting 10 stamps.

Getting a head-start is likely to change the way you behave – it’s almost like the identity issue we discussed in the last chapter. When you change your identity – your perception of yourself – you are more likely to act in line with the new identity you’ve adopted.

What small wins can you point to that you’ve already achieved? The Heath brothers advise that instead of raising the bar to meet the challenge, maybe we should lower the bar and rake in those small wins that will help to motivate the elephant. When any change effort feels like it will require too much work, we will procrastinate. 

Thinking about the BHAG – the final outcome – feels like it requires too much work. Scale down the mission. Make it easy to start and to keep going. Starting is always the hardest part. Start small and gain momentum. Shrink the change and make it easy to succeed. Small wins get you fired up quickly. Prove to yourself that you can do this, and you’ll be well on your way.

In today’s world that lusts so much after instant gratification, people will most likely quit when there isn’t any visible progress for a time. They'll think they've failed because they dont see any progress. When you shrink the change, you are less likely to run into resistance.

Measure progress regularly and make adjustments where you need to. Get your team involved, or join a mastermind group for accountability.

Success leaves clues. Look to past successes, yours or someone else’s, how has this been done successfully in the past? What can I borrow from past successes?

Imagine that in the middle of the night, while you were sleeping,  a miracle happens and all your troubles are resolved. When you wake up in the morning, how will you know? Devise a way to quantify progress toward the miracle, and celebrate every incremental victory. These micro victories and micro celebrations give you confidence that you can reach the next milestone.

Clarity is a big part of success, and clarifying your milestones is very helpful. Ask yourself, what would it take to get to the next milestone? Establish a clear set of goals that are within immediate reach. When you set small, visible goals and achieve them, you start to believe with conviction that you can succeed.

The brothers quote John Wooden who said, “When you improve a little each day, eventually, big things occur. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement; seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens. And when it happens, it lasts.”

Shrinking the change makes you believe that this is no big deal, that you can actually do this. It reduces the demands you place upon yourself because you only have to do a little bit of work to get to the next level.

They warn us though, that small wins are not guaranteed. Just because you set smaller milestones doesn’t mean that you’re going to cruise from victory to victory. There are many things that are out of your control, which means there’s a lot that could go wrong. But we have to focus on what we can control to give us the best chance of success.

Here’s the final piece of advice:

you want to select small wins that have 2 traits.

1) They’re meaningful. 2) They’re within immediate reach.

It’s critical to ask yourself, “What is the next action?”

When a task feels too big, there will be resistance.

Big changes come from a succession of small changes.