143 Quotes by Chip Heath

One of IDEO’s designers even sketched out a “project mood chart” that predicts how people will feel at different phases of a project. It’s a U-shaped curve with a peak of positive emotion, labeled “hope,” at the beginning, and a second peak of positive emotion, labeled “confidence,” at the end. In between the two peaks is a negative emotional valley labeled “insight.

Relationships don’t deepen naturally. In the absence of action, they will stall.

If the Rider isn’t sure exactly what direction to go, he tends to lead the Elephant in circles. And as we’ll see, that tendency explains the third and final surprise about change: What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.

This is the great trap of life: One day rolls into the next, and a year goes by, and we still haven’t had that conversation we always meant to have. Still haven’t created that peak moment for our students. Still haven’t seen the northern lights. We walk a flatland that could have been a mountain range. It’s not easy to snap out of this tendency. It took a terminal illness for Gene O’Kelly to do it.

Mother Teresa once said, “If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” In.

In Sternin’s judgment, all of this analysis was “TBU” – true but useless.

Mental simulation is not as good as actually doing something. But it’s the next best thing. And the right kind of a story is a simulation.

Here’s how it happens: One person reveals something and waits to see if the other person will share something back. The reciprocity, if it comes, is a sign of understanding, validation, and caring. I’ve heard you, I understand and accept what you’re saying, and I care for you enough to disclose something about myself. An unresponsive partner – like a seatmate on a flight who puts on his headphones shortly after you make a comment – terminates the reciprocity, freezing the relationship.

If you want a reluctant Elephant to get moving, you need to shrink the change.