If you’re a fan like I am of Chip and Dan Heath you probably already know they’ve got a new book out called Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. They begin by asking a provocative question: Why do some huge changes like marriage come joyously while some trivial changes like using a new expense report meet with huge resistance?
They boil it down to this: our rational mind is sometimes at war with our emotional mind. Each side can help drive or resist change. (We want to get in shape but it is more fun to sit on the couch and play Guitar Hero.) The Heaths offer lots of good advice for driving change by appealing to each side of our nature. Along the way they advise:

•Follow the bright spots – find what’s working, celebrate it and clone it
•Script the critical small parts of the change – think in terms of very specific behaviors you want to change
•Point to the destination – make it clear where you’re going and why it’s worth it
•Find the feeling – rational recounting of benefits costs and benefits doesn’t always work. Find way to make a simple emotional connection with the desired change
•Shrink the change – break down the change into small parts that are manageable
•Build good habits – when behavior becomes a habit it doesn’t overtax our brains
•Rally the herd – behavior is contagious as we all learned in junior high school, so help good behavior spread

The Heath brothers write for Fast Company and are masters of following the communications advice they put forth in Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Throughout their new book they offer surprising, compelling anecdotes and revisit them to illustrate and underscore their messages.

Lots of fun. You’ll enjoy this one! If you want to experience a sample check out their website for this book:

http://heathbrothers.com/switch/