I know you are all dying to read the conclusion of yesterday’s blog, so I won’t make you wait any longer…

To put the question of change into perspective, today we are going to look at the tenets of Switch by Chip and Dan Heath.  Switch is about “how to make change when change is hard” and apparently getting a mass population of people addicted to technology to stop tweeting/texting/Facebook status-ing while driving is HARD.  In order to make change happen you must relate to the rider, the elephant, and the path.

But you may ask yourself… what does an elephant have to do with getting me to put down the cell phone?  Good question.  When you make a decision to do something, your brain is thinking in two parts: the rider and the elephant.  The rider is the logical, rational decision-making part of the brain.  The part of the brain that says, “Yes, I know it is dangerous to tweet and drive and I know that in many places it is now against the law.”  The elephant is the big, immovable emotional decision-making part of the brain.  The part of the brain that says, “But what if it is a really important call and someone needs me to tweet the number to 911?”  You know you shouldn’t, but it is just too tempting…

The rider directs the elephant, but first the rider must know exactly which path to take.  To harness the rider, Switch says we must “script the critical moves.”  If we want people to stop using cell phones while driving, we must point out  step-by-step in absolute clarity how this is done.  For example, a PSA outlining a person getting in the car, turning off the phone, and putting it in the glove compartment.  Simply telling people not to use the phone while driving is not specific enough.  This is not to insinuate that people are dumb, but we all need a push in the right direction that does not leave any wiggle room for interpretation.

To harness the elephant, Switch says we must “find the feeling.”  I know we have all seen the horrific (both in content and production value) videos shown in driver education classes across the country.  While negative images are not always the most effective, vivid pictures of car crashes have a way of making young drivers think twice about driving under the influence of alcohol.  The elephant is moved by an emotional appeal.  Maybe it would be valuable to have a magazine ad of a woman holding a baby.  The tagline underneath reads, “This image would not have been possible without the help of millions of drivers NOT using their cell phones while driving.”  I think that’s a pretty strong and positive image and would move me to think twice about texting and driving.

Finally, in the final stages of decision-making the rider and the elephant move down a path toward the intended direction.  To build upon our long and lengthy metaphor, if the path is littered with boulders and quicksand the rider and elephant will not make it very far.  One way to make the path easier to follow is to “rally the herd.”  Make it something that everyone is doing.  As much as we may want to think we are individual thinkers, we’re not.  People feel pressure to do what everyone else is doing, and it is a powerful feeling.  Oprah has done a great job at tackling the path of distracted driving.  She has created the No Texting Campaign where you can go to make an oath to refuse to text and drive.  You should do it.  All the cool kids are.

So there you have it. Move your elephant rather than tweeting about your dog if you want to make a change in people.

Question: Can you think of any ad campaigns, office situations, or other that have used the tenets of Switch (the rider, the elephant, and the path) to make a hard change?