group Archives - Don Kasprzak

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard looks to be another great read from Chip and Dan Heath who wrote Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. It was quickly listed as one of the top 100 business books of 2007….I couldn’t agree more. They launched a website dedicated to the lessons of Made to Stick and continued their book’s conversations online.

In mid 2009 it was announced Chip and Dan were finishing a follow up book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard scheduled to be released February 16 2010 and have also launched a new website supporting both Switch and Made to Stick plus their Fast Company column and speaking engagements.
–Hint: grab their RSS feed to stay ontop of their latest work.

Here is my review of their opening chapter. Exactly how do we change? How do individuals, organizations and societies change in a world of rapid news, technology and fast food? Better understood its not only old dogs that don’t change but individuals, small groups and large complex organizations.

The Heath Brothers introduce fundamental research to introduce a three-step framework for identifying the types of change necessary for humans to not only believe in but actually accept. Easier said than done right?

Welcome human psychology to the new evaluation of both rational and emotional sides of our brains. This is where Chip and Dan really shined in Made to Stick!

James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds proves useful in understanding the impact (both positive and negative) regarding knowledge of isolated individuals vs. collective intelligence that shapes business, economies, societies and nations.

Surowiecki opens the book with a great example of the surprising “wisdom” possessed by groups of people. The book is a easy, enjoyable read.

As much as I enjoyed the learning I was somewhat more interested in learning the faults of crowds…specifically his analysis of NASA and the Columbia tragedy. To some extent the exact same lessons can be lifted from NASA and applied to Watergate, the highly intelligent crowd in the White House of Nixon’s inner circle.

The NASA “crowd” knew the danger yet did not as a group act to save the lives of their astronauts. In this lesson, I’m not convinced of the blanket approach to the wisdom of crowds. But Surowiecki is able to relay a number of cases in which this applies in business and societies.

The ability of crowds to outsmart a individual experts on any given topic ultimately supports the strength of communities, but as noted above even groups of specialists with graduate degrees have the ability to ignore their collective wisdom.