143 Quotes by Chip Heath

This is how concreteness helps us understand – it helps us construct higher, more abstract insights on the building blocks of our existing knowledge and perceptions. Abstraction demands some concrete foundation. Trying to teach an abstract principle without concrete foundations is like trying to start a house by building a roof in the air.

Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that’s the second surprise about change: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.

And that’s the charge for all of us: to defy the forgettable flatness of everyday work and life by creating a few precious moments.

Stories are flight simulators for our brains.

When Blakely and her brother were growing up, her father would ask them a question every week at the dinner table: “What did you guys fail at this week?” “If we had nothing to tell him, he’d be disappointed,” Blakely said. “The logic seems counterintuitive, but it worked beautifully. He knew that many people become paralyzed by the fear of failure.

The status quo feels comfortable and steady because much of the choice has been squeezed out. You have your routines, your ways of doing things.

Challenge plot, the Connection plot, and the Creativity plot.

Good ideas are often adopted quickly. When all retailers adopt centralized checkout as a “best practice,” it’s no longer a competitive advantage for anyone.

Rather than focusing solely on what’s new and different about the change to come, make an effort to remind people what’s already been conquered.