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So what was the major takeaway from the first book in our Summer Book Series—Our Iceberg is Melting? It was building a coalition to make change. In the second book of our summer series, Switch by Chip and Dan Heath, we expand on this premise to uncover other tools along the path to enact change within an organization. Let’s take a high-level approach to a certain aspect of the book that focuses on finding the bright spot.

First of all, we need to get out of the mindset that change is hard. This is often a mental block that keeps people from being successful. In Switch, there are so many examples of situations where people made change happen under unbelievable odds. It truly resets how you approach challenges. Even if you think change is impossible, take a moment to look around and seek out anyone who has achieved success in your organization. They accomplished their goal with the same or similar challenges you’re facing. Learn how they did it and see if you can implement the same process to overcome your situation and enact change. That’s finding the bright spot.

In the book, there’s a situation in a village where children are suffering from malnutrition. Trying to figure out how to solve their dire situation, the villagers look to nearby communities dealing with the same challenges. Villages on the same iceberg so to speak. They discover one community facing the same pestilence, war, disease, and contaminated water. All the factors which can lead to child malnutrition. But they also learned how this community overcame their nightmare by implementing necessary changes. The village in need eventually learned from the successful village and implemented the necessary changes. But it wasn’t for lack of resources that created the dire situation. It was a lack of perspective, insight, and process.

This would have never been discovered if they didn’t look for the bright spot in nearby villages dealing with the same challenges. It’s always easier to make excuses and say the situation isn’t conducive to the change that’s necessary. But often times, in reality, the solution is there-hiding in plain sight. Finding success often illuminates a path.

Join us for the next book in our summer series, The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, as we take it a step further to gain insights on how to best utilize the team you currently have to overcome challenges and enact change.

Join us in our journey of growth and exploration as we explore the final book in the series:
• Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss