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INSIDE THIS ISSUE - March 18, 2010
1. A Note from the Editor
The Elephant and the Rider: Lessons about Change
by Tracy Steen, Ph.D.
March 18, 2010
A Note from the Editor
Tracy Steen, Ph.D.
The Elephant and the Rider: Lessons About Change
Old habits die hard, and I'm learning why.
Last month I wrote about changes--why we should make them and how we can make them stick. Since we look for diverse topics for the ABDSG, I didn't expect to write again about change in the very next issue, but that was before I read Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard and became reacquainted with a fascinating twosome called the Elephant and the Rider.
The authors who introduced this metaphoric duo in Switch are brothers,
Chip
Heath, Ph.D., of Stanford and Dan
Heath, MBA, of Duke. They often give what they call "change management"
advice to business executives, but they contend that all change efforts--from
"change the world" for activists to self-help for individuals--are
similar in one important respect. The person who wants change must reconcile
conflicts within his or her own mind.
What conflicts are those? The Heaths point out that psychologists believe our minds are governed by two systems: the rational mind, which is analytical and slow to act, and the emotional mind, which is impulsive and more susceptible to habit. It is these potentially conflicting systems that the author labels the Rider and Elephant, a metaphor first conceptualized by psychologist Jonathan Haidt.
Perched atop the Elephant and holding the reins, the analytical Rider appears
to be in control, but the emotional Elephant is powerful and enormous in size
relative to the Rider. It's not hard to imagine who gets the better of whom
when there's some disagreement about the way to go.
We are all familiar with situations in which our emotional mind overrides our reason (i.e., when our Elephant overpowers our Rider). It happens when we shut off the alarm clock and oversleep, or when we blow the diet by eating "the whole thing," or when we use the time set aside for working to indulge in something more pleasurable. The analytical Rider's ability to strategize for long-term goals can easily be thwarted by the emotional Elephant's desire for instant gratification.
The Elephant isn't always the bad guy, however. He has strengths as well as weaknesses, as does the Rider. In his capacity for emotion, the Elephant can supply the energy and determination needed to reach a goal. The Rider, on the other hand, despite his analytical ability, can actually slow down progress if he is unable to stop analyzing and reach final decisions. According to the Heath brothers, you have to make dual appeals in order to effect change: "The Rider provides the planning and direction, and the Elephant provides the energy."
To get to that kind of cooperation, it is important to understand three underlying tenets on which the philosophy of Switch is grounded:
1) What looks like resistance to change is often a lack of clarity. If you want to make progress toward your goal, ambiguity is the enemy. The Rider must be sure of the direction he wants to go or he will make the Elephant anxious.
2) "Self-control is an exhaustible resource." Changing behaviors, especially deeply ingrained habits, requires exhausting self-supervision by the Rider. The greater the change you attempt, the more exhausting it can be for your self-control. When people say change is hard, it's often because their efforts are so tiring.
3) To change behavior, you have to change the situation. That includes not only the environment but the heart and mind as well. The problem is-- often the heart and the mind disagree. The authors refer to the overall situation as the "Path." Shape the Path and you will make change more likely.
Shape the Path, motivate the Elephant, and direct the Rider at the same time, and you are on your way. It's a 3-point pattern for change:
Direct the Rider
Motivate the Elephant
Shape the Path
Direct the Rider
You can appeal to the Rider within yourself by carefully defining your goals--not
just your ultimate goal, but each step that must be accomplished along the
way. Script your critical moves and don't allow yourself to agonize over potential
problems. Remember that the Rider has a tendency to let indecision slow down
progress. By focusing on the destination and keeping to your script, you will
give direction to the Rider and strengthen him for any unavoidable conflicts
with the Elephant.
Motivate the Elephant
The powerful Elephant can dominate any situation unless motivated to cooperate
with the Rider. To keep him moving forward as a collaborator for change, you
must supply both feeling and confidence. Or to use the author's terminology,
you must "find the feeling" and "shrink the change."
You can't move the Elephant with facts; you have to generate enthusiasm for the destination. He is all about emotion, so "find the feeling." Let him dream your dream.
The Elephant must also have confidence that he is capable of making whatever change the Rider has in mind. If presented with change that seems too great, the Elephant will resist. You can successfully address this challenge by "shrinking the change." Give the Elephant a series of small goals leading to small successes, and larger goals will seem to shrink as the small successes build the Elephant's confidence.
Shape the Path
One of the major concepts guiding Switch is the idea that our surroundings
influence our thoughts and behavior to a far great extent than we realize.
If you are in a setting that is not conducive to your success, your goal becomes that much more elusive. (For a simple example-- if cookies are in your desk drawer, the five pound weight loss is less likely.)
To bring about change, the authors note that it can often be accomplished by simply tweaking the environment. In other words, "shape the path." (Or to follow up on our earlier example--get those cookies out of the house!)
Shape the Path--Motivate
the Elephant--Direct the Rider. Switch
is a book filled with true stories of businesses and people who have brought
about transformative change through this 3-point pattern. As mentioned earlier,
the Rider and Elephant who act as the key agents of change in the book are
metaphoric creations of psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who introduced them in
The Happiness
Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom.
Though both books make use of the elephant and rider metaphor, they are quite different in their focus. Haidt explores religion, philosophy, science and psychology to look for answers to some of life's most pressing questions. In the following quote, Haidt summarizes his first chapter and gives some insight into how he envisions the relationship between the rider and the elephant: