Works
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, 2007
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, 2010
- Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, 2013
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
Commander's intent. Under the principle of simplicity, the Heaths borrow the military idea of commander's intent: a short, plain statement of the goal that lets people act on and pass on a plan when the detailed instructions no longer fit.
Direct the rider, motivate the elephant, shape the path. The Heaths frame change as a conflict between the rational mind and the emotional mind. Their advice includes finding the bright spots, what already works somewhere in the system, and copying it; scripting the critical moves, because ambiguity breeds resistance; shrinking the change into steps small enough to take; and shaping the path by tweaking the environment so the desired behavior is easier.
Widening options, ooching, and tripwires. The Heaths offer a four-step process against common decision biases. It includes widening options and avoiding whether-or-not choices; ooching, running small experiments to test an idea before committing; and tripwires, signals set in advance that prompt a decision to be reconsidered.
What it explains
The Heaths explain how to make a change easy to understand, try, and adopt: a goal stated in one sentence, local proof that it works, small first steps, and small tests before large commitments. Their books are popular syntheses of research in psychology and organizational behavior.