Quotes from Chip Heath

Not cocky overconfidence that comes from collecting biased information and ignoring uncertainties, but the real confidence that comes from knowing you've made the best decision that you could.

For a fee, Vocation Vacations could arrange for you to spend a few days shadowing people who were living your dream. The jobs available for visit included cattle ranching, managing a bed-and-breakfast, owning a winery, and—there it was!—starting a bakery.I

Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it.

decision paralysis. More options, even good ones, can freeze us and make us retreat to the default plan

To get the Elephant off its duff, you need to reassure it that the task won't be so bad.

action triggers can have a profound power to motivate people to do the things they know they need to do.

Frey's challenge to walk the grounds already added a sense of play to the moment. What if he had also given them a "character" to role-play during their observations?

Action triggers simply have to be specific enough and visible enough to interrupt people's normal stream of consciousness. A

Employees as cast members" is a generative metaphor that has worked for Disney for more than fifty years.

her successes came despite a lack of authority and resources.

Picking out tiny chunks of work at a time stays the panic.

Trip over the truth. Frey's activity allowed the vestry to discover insights for themselves

Rescue—if people are facing a daunting task, and their instinct is to avoid it, you've got to break down the task. Shrink the change. Make the change small enough that they can't help but score a victory. Once

Lots of us have expertise in particular areas. Becoming an expert in something means that we become more and more fascinated by nuance and complexity. That's when the Curse of Knowledge kicks in, and we start to forget what it's like not to know what we know

If you want to change things, you've got to appeal to both. The Rider provides the planning and direction, and the Elephant provides the energy. So if you reach the Riders of your team but not the

big changes come from a succession of small changes. It's OK if the first changes seem almost trivial. The challenge is to get the Elephant moving, even if the movement is slow at first.

community for bright spots—successful efforts worth emulating.

has a problem focus when he needs a solution focus. If you are a manager, ask yourself: "What is the ratio of the time I spend solving problems to the time I spend scaling successes?

George A. Miller's "Magical Number 7" has an expansion module, under certain conditions. We can load around 7 coherent "units" into our mental working space, but depending on our learning and expertise, those units may vary in size.

In one study, some people were asked to restrain their emotions while watching a sad movie about sick animals. Afterward, they exhibited less physical endurance than others who'd let the tears flow

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Ronald Reagan famously posed

The most basic way to get someone's attention is this: Break a pattern. Humans

practical strategies for creating special moments using the four key elements of memorable experiences: elevation, insight, pride, and connection.

As the authors of the book Surprise put it, "We feel most comfortable when things are certain, but we feel most alive when they're not.