Ride the Elephant

In his remarks at the Network Team Summer Institute, Commissioner King held up a book about change that he referred to at several points during the institute. The book he held up (and referred to) was Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath. I dutifully noted the title during the institute in August, but it wasn’t until a few weeks later that I got around to reading it. I’m glad I didn’t wait too much longer.

 

Now we all know that there is no shortage of books about change and leadership – our bookshelves are full of them. If you are like me, some of those books influenced your practice; some didn’t. I like Switch and I think it’s already starting to influence my practice. Basically, it uses an analogy previously described by Jonathan Haidt in his book,The Happiness Hypothesis: the elephant and its rider.

The rider, in the metaphor at the center of the books, sits atop a big elephant. The rider (which represents the rational part of human behavior) uses knowledge and reason to guide the elephant – sort of like a leader of a big system. The elephant represents the emotional part of human behavior. Our emotional side is governed by instinct and short term needs. If you can picture a rider perched atop a great big elephant you can get a sense of the struggle the little rider has to steer the big elephant. Most of the time, the elephant is going to go where it wants to go! The challenge is for the rider to persuade the elephant to go in a desired direction to a desired location. A reluctant elephant won’t get anywhere. A directionless leader won’t get the elephant/rider pair anywhere, either. Of course, both the rider and the elephant need each other for this to happen. Working together is not enough, the Heath brothers caution. What also must be clear is the path to take.

 

With a clear path the rider can know where to lead and know how to avoid spinning her/his wheels. With a clear path the elephant will encounter fewer obstacles and distractions. Of course, if you know where you are going you are a lot more likely to get to your destination.

 

If you think about our present situation it’s easy to identify the rider and the elephant. The rider is the reform agenda – the rational places we have to go. The elephant is our present system and status quo – comfortable and reluctant to change. The rider has to work with the elephant. In our roles as educational leaders we have to make sure that the path is clear to both the rider and the elephant. Not always easy to do – but absolutely necessary if we are to get our elephant and rider anywhere. Toward the end of chapter 1 in Switch, the Heaths describe their framework which they suggest can get us through any change situation:

 

• Direct the Rider. What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity, so provide crystal-clear direction.
• Motivate the Elephant. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. The Rider can't get his way by force for very long. So it's critical that you engage people's emotional side—get their Elephants on the path and cooperative.
• Shape the Path. What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. We call the situation (including the surrounding environment) the "Path." When you shape the Path, you make change more likely, no matter what's happening with the Rider and Elephant.

So, as you move ahead, make sure you take care of all three components if you want change to happen. Oh, and in all your spare time, you might want to get Switch and give it a read. I think you’ll like it.