Currents:Book Review—Change, Illustrated GILL IAN RICE

Heath, Chip, and Heath, Dan. Switch: How toChange Things When Change Is Hard. BroadwayBusiness, 2010. 320 pp.ISBN: 978-0385528757 (hardcover). $26.00.

Jay, Joelle K. The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices ofPersonal Leadership. Praeger, 2009. 290 pp.ISBN: 978-0313378058 (hardcover). $32.95.

Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson. This Child Will Be Great:Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s FirstWoman President. Harper, 2009. 368 pp.ISBN: 978-0061353475 (hardcover). $26.99.

Afghanis and Iranians are celebrating the New Yearas I write. In my garden, Mexican gold poppies trem-ble in the desert breeze. As evening approaches, thecitrus blossoms release their fragrance to begin anew cycle of reproduction. Less than a month ago,I shivered in the English winter and gazed at gaunt,bare trees stoic in the chill. Each year the renewalin nature seems miraculous to me, and encouragesme to contemplate my own renewal. The books bythe Heath brothers, Joelle Jay, and Ellen JohnsonSirleaf all deal with renewal, change, and possibil-ities: in one’s personal life, in one’s organization,and in one’s country. Revitalization is an ongoingprocess and is something that challenges us all.

In The Inner Edge, Jay quotes Peter Drucker whoobserved that, although we are experiencing hugetechnological changes, this is not what historianswill record when they study our era. Rather, hestressed that we live in a time of an “unprecedentedchange in the human condition. For the first time—literally—substantial and rapidly growing numbersof people have choices. For the first time they willhave to manage themselves. And society is totally

unprepared for it.” We are confronted with theresponsibility of coping with these choices in ourstruggle to maintain both a successful professionallife and a good quality of life. Jay’s goal is to helpbusy leaders achieve success without sacrificing thequality of their lives. Her book differs from mostleadership books in that her focus is not on lead-ing an organization or even a team, but on lead-ing oneself. Jay defines the “inner edge” as “youbehind the scenes: your thoughts and motivations,your aspirations, your plans, your decisions, yourstrengths and weaknesses, your values, and yourway of becoming a success.” This is in contrast tothe “outer edge,” which is the “you that you show tothe world”—your words, actions, and interactionswith other people. She refers to numerous studiesthat demonstrate the effectiveness of individual lead-ership development for those individuals’ organiza-tions: higher customer satisfaction, lower turnover,higher productivity, innovation, higher earnings pershare, and higher long-term profitability.

The Inner Edge includes discussion of ten practices(such as getting clarity, taking action, identifyingwhat’s exceptional about oneself, maximizing time,learning, and seeing possibilities) to help peopleembrace leadership for themselves—as a way of life.Jay includes illustrations, exercises, worksheets, andresources, as well as a Web site (www.theinneredge.com), which has further resources and audiopresentations. Commenting on typical work envi-ronments, Jay suggests that “it’s difficult to retain adecent quality of life when the weakest member ofthe team is perceived to be the one who gets homein time for dinner.” Henry David Thoreau said: “Itis not enough to be busy. The question is, what arewe busy about?” Jay wants to help her readers bemore thoughtful and productive, instead of busy.

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c© 2010 Wiley Per iodicals , Inc .Publ ished onl ine in Wi ley InterScience (www.interscience.wi ley .com)Global Business and Organizat ional Excel lence • DOI : 10.1002/ joe .20341 • Ju ly /August 2010

First, it’s crucial to choose where to put your atten-tion instead of bouncing along from task to task.You need focus areas that are clearly defined. Oneway of finding these is through a process Jay calls“daydreaming with meaning.” To encourage actionsthat fit into these focus areas, Jay proposes severalsimple techniques. One is the “CATA List,” a chartwith four categories. The first category contains Cat-alysts, found by asking the questions, “What is theone thing I can do that will have the greatest im-pact on my vision?” or “What action would youtake if you could find uninterrupted quality time be-cause you know it would make the biggest differencein your ability to attain your vision?” The secondcategory is Achievements, which are important ona daily basis, and can include relationships, prior-ity projects, and deadlines. Third, Tasks are actionsthat often have to get done, such as meetings, butthat take away time from what’s really important.Lastly, there are the Avoidances, a category mostleaders find hard to fill. Take at least 25 percentof the things off your to-do list, advises Jay. Stressand busyness do not equal success; goal clarity andcommitment do.

Quoting a Chinese proverb, “Tension is who youthink you should be. Relaxation is who you are,”Jay presents examples of reflective questions thatcan help people realize their unique strengths. A keypractice of personal leadership is to identify, maxi-mize, and leverage those strengths. This helps you towork faster, make a bigger impact, be happier, andget an advantage. What do you love to do? Whatdo you do without even thinking? Given the freedomto do things your way, how do you do them? Whendo you feel dragged down? What do you dread? Re-flective questions as well as other techniques helpyou understand your own attributes and the valuesthat are important to you.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, current president of Liberia,writes in her autobiography, This Child Will BeGreat, that in 1992, when she interviewed for ajob with the rank of assistant secretary-general at

the United Nations Development Programme, shebroke with tradition and refused to go to New Yorkand lobby the various African ambassadors in res-idence. She wanted to get the job on the strengthof her qualifications, not on the effectiveness of herlobbying skills. She got the job. Throughout her life,Sirleaf has not been afraid to stand up and speak outagainst injustices in society. Sirleaf was the first fe-male minister of finance in Liberia when Samuel Doeseized power in a coup. Other ministers were exe-cuted, but she believes that she was saved becauseof her reputation as a rebel and of speaking pub-licly against earlier administrations. Her strengthsinclude being true to herself and her values, seizingopportunities to travel to the United States to studyand to work, and finding good mentors and personalconnections.

In organizations, it’s also vital to play to strengths.In Switch, the Heath brothers urge people to look forbright spots in a situation and focus on figuring outhow to clone those, instead of having a problem fo-cus. Relatively small changes can have big impacts.Humans have a tendency to stress the negative. In astudy of 558 emotion words in the English language,a psychologist found that 62 percent were nega-tive, versus 38 percent positive. Eskimos are reputedto have 100 different words for snow; the Heathbrothers conclude, “[I]t turns out that negative emo-tions are our snow.” They cite many studies to sup-port the notion that “bad is stronger than good.”Contemplate the ratio of time you spend deal-ing with problems to the time you spend scalingsuccesses. Switch includes a hypothetical situationborrowed from author Marcus Buckingham to fur-ther illustrate our problem focus. Your child comeshome with her report card. She got one A, four B’s,and one F. Where will you spend your time as aparent? “Let’s get her a tutor.” Or: “Maybe sheshould be grounded until that grade recovers.” It’sthe rare parent who would say, instead: “Honey,you made an A in this class. You must really havea strength in this subject. How can we build onthat?”

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Jay argues that to be a better leader and lead a bet-ter life, you need to stop worrying about who you’renot and start benefiting from who you are, just asWarren Bennis said, “Becoming a leader is synony-mous with becoming yourself.”

This is similar to the identity model of decisionmaking, an approach put forth by James March ofStanford University and discussed in Switch. We askourselves three questions when we have a decisionto make: Who am I? What kind of situation is this?What would someone like me do in this situation?The Heath brothers point out what’s missing here:a cost-benefit analysis. The identity model explainsthe way most people vote, which contradicts the ideaof the “self-interested voter.” It shows why a SiliconValley millionaire would vote against a Republicanwho’d cut her taxes, and why an auto mechanicin Oklahoma would vote against a Democrat who’dgive him health insurance. Because identities are atthe heart of the way people make decisions, anychange effort that defies someone’s identity is prob-ably doomed to fail.

The Heath brothers present an interesting case studyof a Brazilian company that has succeeded by in-venting and nurturing an identity. The company isBrasilata, a manufacturer of steel cans, in a ma-ture, unexciting industry. Its founders were inspiredby the philosophy of Japanese car manufacturerssuch as Honda and Toyota, which empowered theirfrontline employees to take ownership of their work.Employees could stop the assembly line if they spot-ted a product defect and managers actively so-licited ideas for innovation from the workers. In1987, the Brasilata founders launched an employee-innovation program modeled on the Japanese ap-proach. Employees became known as “inventors,”and when starting at the firm, they signed an“innovation contract.” They thus took on new iden-tities: inventors, not employees. In 2008 these inven-tors submitted 134,846 ideas—an average of 145.2ideas per inventor! The suggestions have led to newproducts and new designs. In 2001, during a severe

energy crisis, the inventors dreamed up hundredsof power-saving ideas. Within a few weeks, Brasi-lata reduced its energy consumption by 35 percent,below the company’s quota, and was able to sellits extra energy. Cognitive dissonance helps to per-petuate a positive change, such as when Brasilatachanged the identities of its employees to inventors.People don’t like to act in one way and think in an-other. Once they take even a small step and begin toact in a new way, it becomes increasingly hard forthem to dislike the way they are acting. As peoplebegin to act differently, and as their identity evolves,it reinforces the new way of doing things.

Having your own teams is another way of becom-ing a leader. These are not typical work teams, butteams that give you emotional support throughoutyour endeavors. Jay suggests three teams: the Mas-termind, the Dream Team, and the Imaginary Ad-visory Board. A Mastermind is a small group ofperhaps three to five people: dedicated peers whosupport and share each other through the challengesof life and leadership. It’s not networking, not men-toring, and not political. It can be formal, such asan intense periodical meeting where a group of busi-ness owners discusses leadership. It can be informal,where a group of friends meets weekly over lunch.Each takes turns to be the one who identifies a chal-lenge or goal she is facing, and all discuss how toreach the best possible outcome.

A Dream Team is a collection of advisors with whomone meets on an individual basis. Sirleaf recognizesthe importance of this group. She recounts a meet-ing with Robert McNamara. She became acquaintedwith and was inspired by Julius Nyerere, first presi-dent of Tanzania: she was inspired by how he livedhis life with great moderation and simplicity, andeven greater integrity. Her meeting with NelsonMandela was also memorable.

The Imaginary Advisory Board is a meditative exer-cise, where you identify the people you most admire,living or dead. You imagine questions you would ask

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them and what their responses might be. Jay urgesreaders to let the energy and wisdom of the imagi-nary advisors remind you of who you are and whoyou want to become.

Learning has been a lifetime activity for Sirleaf. Adaughter of illiterate parents, she saw possibilities atvarious junctures of her life and she reached out forthem because she has a learning mind-set—outlinedby Jay as a mind-set that is “curious, open, and en-thusiastic.” Jay delineates the benefits of continuouslifetime learning as feeling powerful and confident.These benefits have clearly come to Sirleaf. As achild of eight, she was chosen to give a recitationat a church service. Despite having rehearsed exten-sively, she froze at the front of the church and couldnot remember any of her lines. She vowed that shewould never fail at public speaking again and soughtevery opportunity to gain an education, even afteran early marriage at age 17.

Jay advocates “letting it happen” as a path to achiev-ing your vision, rather than “making it happen.”Quoting Shakti Gawain, in Creating True Prosper-ity (1997), she explains that “making it happen” isthe active mode and is the business-oriented, typ-ically Western approach. The mind-set associatedwith this behavior is rational, strategic, concrete,action-oriented, and goal- and results-driven. Con-trast that with the mind-set for “letting it happen”:intuitive, trusting, insightful, knowing, optimistic,and open to possibility. Of course, it’s important tohave a balance of both approaches, but as Jay ob-serves: “When we let things happen instead of mak-ing them happen, we experience circumstances thatare almost too good to be true, because we have fi-nally gotten out of the way and let a greater wisdomtake over.” Seeing possibility is not wishful thinkingor even luck; it arises from expressing what you wantas clearly as you can and being open to receiving it.Jay advises a number of practices to achieve thisstate of being; one is the practice of “not-doing”—not actually doing nothing, but engaging in mindfulactivities such as listening to classical music, walking

through the park, painting, gardening, preparing ameal, hitting a bucket of golf balls, or playing fetchwith the dog. The Heath brothers stress that havingmore options, even good ones (think of Drucker’schoices), can freeze us. We get decision paralysis. Inthese circumstances, we need focus and clarity, andthe practice of “not-doing” can be invaluable.

The Heath brothers refer to The Heart of Change byJohn Kotter and Dan Cohen (2002), where they re-port on a study conducted with Deloitte Consulting.The study involved interviews of over 400 people inover 130 companies in the United States, Europe,Australia, and South Africa, in order to understandwhy change happens in large organizations. The re-sults showed that managers initially focus on strat-egy, structure, culture, or systems. They analyze,think, and then change. According to Kotter andCohen, they usually miss the most important issue:“the core of the matter is always about changing thebehavior of people, and behavior change happensin highly successful situations mostly by speaking topeople’s feelings . . . people find ways to help otherssee the problems or solutions in ways that influenceemotions, not just thought” (p. x). The sequence ofchange, then, is not analyze-think-change, but see-feel-change. Analytical tools work well if the param-eters are known, the assumptions are minimal, andthe future is not fuzzy. These are not the character-istics of most change circumstances, however.

Switch includes a dramatic illustration of how emo-tions matter in behavioral change. A manager soughtto reduce purchasing costs for his company. He dis-covered that the company’s factories were purchas-ing 424 different kinds of gloves. All factories wereusing different suppliers and were negotiating theirown prices. The same pair of gloves that cost $5 atone factory might cost $17 at another. The man-ager collected one pair of each of the 424 differ-ent pairs of gloves and tagged each with the pricepaid. He piled them up on the boardroom confer-ence table and invited the division presidents to visitthe “Glove Shrine.” The executives were shocked.

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The glove exhibit became a roadshow, traveling todozens of plants. The manager soon had the changehe had sought. The company changed its purchasingprocess and saved a considerable amount of money.What would you have done if you were the man-ager seeking the change? Many of us would haveprepared a PowerPoint presentation, complete withcomplex analysis and spreadsheets. This would havespoken to the thinking of the target audience: ana-lyze, think, change. Instead, the manager decided toappeal to the audience’s emotions: see the pile ofgloves, feel shock, change. To motivate people, it’sessential to engage their emotional side.

A business cliche is to raise the bar. The Heath broth-ers argue that it should be lowered. Make the changesmall enough so that people can’t help but score avictory. Change is not an event but a process. Peopleshould be encouraged to have a “growth mindset.”This is similar to the emphasis by Jay and Sirleafon continuous learning. In the business world, theretends to be no learning stage. Instead, people planand then they execute. There is no learning stageor practice stage. Failure, however, is a necessarypart of change. The leaders at IDEO, the world’sforemost product design firm, understand the needto prepare their employees—and, more importantly,their clients—for failure. Team leaders use a “projectmood chart.” It’s a U-shaped curve. At the project’soutset there is hope, a peak of positive emotion. Atthe end, there is confidence, another positive peak.In the middle is a valley representing a negative emo-tion, labeled “insight,” where it’s easy to become de-pressed because insight doesn’t come easily. It feelslike failure. This is where Jay’s practice of “not-doing” and “mindful activities” can be invaluable.The Heath brothers conclude that people will onlypersevere if they perceive falling down as learningrather than failing.

In Liberia, Sirleaf is challenged because there is alack of capacity. She explains that she is trying torebuild a nation in an environment of raised expec-tations and short patience: everyone wants to see

change immediately—that’s why they voted for her.On her presidential inauguration day, she thoughtthat the whole country felt like: “Wow! She willwave a magic wand, and the next day there will bea total transformation!” Immediate change is im-possible, however. Not because of the lack of finan-cial resources, but simply because the capacity toimplement whatever change she has in mind doesnot exist. It’s not inefficiency. It’s not laziness. TheLiberian people simply do not possess the necessaryskills. On-the-job training courses are being imple-mented; more children go to school; and young peo-ple are traveling overseas for educations. All of thistakes time, and time, says Sirleaf, “is a luxury we donot possess.”

Sirleaf spent 35 years advocating for change beforeshe became president. In This Child Will BeGreat, she ponders the question of whether leadersare born or made. She opines that leadership re-quires stamina and the ability to remain committedto your cause—what Jay would refer to as clarity.Sirleaf continues that a great leader must sacrificeoneself, because if you ever stop to think about yourown preservation, safety, and survival, you willimmediately become constrained. Personal consid-erations and needs become secondary to the achieve-ment of your goal. While some people might be bornwith these qualities, life experiences enhance andstrengthen them. In particular, Sirleaf considers thather nine-month imprisonment during Doe’s regimewas an important lesson in leadership. It did notmake her angry or bitter; it made her remorseful andsad. She had already held several senior governmentpositions, yet she had no idea about the conditionsthat existed in her country’s prisons and about theways in which ordinary people ended up there. Shewrites: “Perhaps this should be part of the propergrooming of leaders: to be put into a position whereyou suffer what the common person suffers. Howelse can you really understand what you’re workingto do?” Sirleaf’s observation goes to the heart of theHeath brothers’ thesis that change is only possibleif people can be motivated on an emotional level as

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well as the analytical, thinking level. Likewise, Jaynotes that, in the United States, at least, we don’ttalk much about our values and emotions. Thismakes us feel vulnerable, especially in a workplacesetting. However, she contends that emotions arean important part of who you are: “It’s not soft ortouchy-feely to acknowledge what matters most toyou. It’s human.” Sirleaf clearly understands this.

Around the world, spring, the season of renewal,occurs at different times. For humans, the impetusto renew and improve is ever-present. The books byJay, the Heath brothers, and Sirleaf include a wealthof illustrative material to inspire and advise us as tohow we might change ourselves and our situationsfor the better.

References

Gawain, S. (1997). Creating true prosperity. Novato, CA:New World Library.

Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. S. (2002). The heart of change:Real-life stories of how people change their organizations.Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Gillian Rice is Professor Emerita at Thunderbird School ofGlobal Management and was a Fulbright Senior Scholar atthe University of Bahrain in 1996–1997. She holds a PhDfrom the University of Bradford. Dr. Rice’s research in-terests include environmentally related consumer behavior,the fair trade movement, and models of employee creativ-ity and organizational innovation. She can be contacted atgillian.rice@thunderbird.edu.

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