Quotes About Change

change rarely happens unless it's motivated by feeling

Ambiguity is the enemy. Any successful change requires a translation of ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors.

When change happens, it tends to follow a pattern. We've got to stop ignoring that pattern and start embracing it.

It's clear that we imitate the behaviors of others, whether consciously or not. We are especially keen to see what they're doing when the situation is unfamiliar or ambiguous. And change situations are, by definition, unfamiliar! So if you want to change things, you have to pay close attention to social signals, because they can either guarantee a change effort or doom it.

ladder your way down from a change idea to a specific behavior, you

Ambiguity is the enemy. Any successful change requires a translation of ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors. In short, to make a switch, you need to script the critical moves.

the more successful change transformations were more likely to set behavioral goals: 89 percent of the top third versus only 33 percent of the bottom third. For instance, a behavioral goal might be that project teams would meet once a week

What tires out the Rider—and puts change efforts at risk—is ambiguity

Can I ask you a sort of strange question? Suppose that you go to bed tonight and sleep well. Sometime, in the middle of the night, while you are sleeping, a miracle happens and all the troubles that brought you here are resolved. When you wake up in the morning, what's the first small sign you'd see that would make you think, 'Well, something must have happened—the problem is gone!'?

Change begins at the level of individual decisions and behaviors, but that's a hard place to start because that's where the friction is.

by disrupting routines, we can create more peaks.

peaks can also be used to mark transitions. (Think weddings and graduations.)

Knowledge does not change behavior," he said. "We have all encountered crazy shrinks and obese doctors and divorced marriage counselors.

A good change leader never thinks, "Why are these people acting so badly? They must be bad people." A change leader thinks, "How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people?

Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that's the second surprise about change: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.

Transitions should be marked, milestones commemorated, and pits filled. That's the essence of thinking in moments.

And that's the first surprise about change: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.

Until you can ladder your way down from a change idea to a specific behavior, you're not ready to lead a switch.

Many armies fail because they put all their emphasis into creating a plan that becomes useless ten minutes into the battle

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

To get someone's attention break a pattern of thinking.

Never fall in love with an idea. They're whores: if the one you're with isn't doing the job, there's always, always, always another.

Kiddies, Graphic Design, if you wield it effectively, is Power. Power to transmit ideas that change everything. Power that can destroy an entire race or save a nation from despair. In this century, Germany chose to do the former with the swastika, and America opted for the latter with Mickey Mouse and Superman.

Never fall in love with an idea. They're whores: if the one you're with isn't doing the job there's always, always, always another.