Switch applied How to change things when change is hard (in a large product company) @jovaneyck 

Source material https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8140252-switch Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives? The primary obstacle is a conflict that’s built into our brains [...] Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems—the rational mind and the emotional mind—that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort—but if it is overcome, change can come quickly. 

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Direct the rider ● Find the bright spots ○ Green CI motivates other teams to replicate ● Script the critical moves ○ Clear steps for simple/complicated (cf. Cynefin) problems ○ E.g. “how to migrate from TFS to git” ● End-goal postcard ○ Always keep end-state visible ○ E.g. “Evolve our architecture, processes & pipelines towards continuous value delivery” 

Motivate the elephant ● Find the feeling ○ $$$ loss for management ○ Cycle time & delighting users ● Shrink the change ○ Automate all the things ○ Improvement kata: what’s the next small step we can take? ○ Proof-of-concept ○ Pitch improvements as “experiments” to try out ● Grow the people (instill sense of identity + foster growth mindset) ○ Brown bag lunches, community sessions ○ “Never the expert”/skill liquidity + coaching 

Shape the path ● Tweak the environment ○ CI pipeline gates ● Cultivate habits ○ Post-it on kanban board to follow up “daily deployment to QUA environment” ○ Behavior = Motivation * Ability * Trigger [B.J.Fogg] ● Rally the herd ○ Community building, brownbag sessions 

Workshop ● Think of something you want to change at work or in your personal life ● Apply the rider-elephant-path framework to come up with a battle plan ● Discuss / brainstorm with peers 

Take-aways ● Change is hard: within yourself, in your organization ● Why? Conflict between rational & emotional parts of the brain. ● You can play on three fields to increase the odds of succeeding ○ Rider: the rational brain ○ Elephant: the emotional brain ○ Path: the context