Read Mar 2020.
Just finished reading this wonderful book "SWITCH" that I had purchased four years back on the recommendation of Bill Gates who had listed it as one of his favourite books that he read in 2015. As usual, I picked it up for reading in Feb 2020 and finished reading just a while back.
It's not a story book and hence the concentration span is not like reading works of James Harriot or John Steinbeck.. however, it was not boring at all..
The crux of the book is that when you are out there to solve any problem be it social, political, business or whatever, don't analyse failures but pick a bright spot that has succeeded and find out why he/that succeeded and replicate that across.. he has given dozens of examples, that read almost like short stories, to get the point home.
They, Chip and Dan Heath, well know management gurus, have split the analysis of any issue into three steps an elephant, a rider and the path and emphasises synchronization of all three for success.
This "theory of change" covered in the SWITCH is identical to a theory called Positive Deviance or PD that was developed by Jerry and Monique Sternin in the seventies and propagated by Professor Arvind Singhal of UT, El Paso. Heaths give credit to Sternin and many others on whose work the book illustrates. Dr Singhal lectures around the globe and conducts workshops to put the theory in a very convincing way and I was fortunate to attend some of his workshops that has imbibed the PD and Liberating structure work in me. The theory can be used to solve/resolve any issue.. it was demonstrated in lifting the iron curtain, solving lack of education/attending primary schools, solving malnutrition in Vietnam, improving healthcare and HIV prevention etc etc.
This could also be used to solve and lessen the harsh impact of Corona virus Covid-19, provided governments of the world give an ear to PD and understand.
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