3 Great Books for Understanding People's Choices
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What makes these books great?
Great books start as good books. They take on subject matter that enriches our understanding of what it means to be human and they tell great stories in language that invites us to listen. They offer lasting value; their teaching sticks and we find ourselves quoting them again and again.
This lens introduces 3 books that have been great books in my learning and teaching about how people make choices. They are clear, practical, readable and they stick.
How people make the choices they do remains a well-studied mystery. The more we learn, the more we find about what drives our choices from outside our awareness. Sometimes we are driven by unconscious processes and sometimes we are 'nudged' by structures around us. The patterns are less complex than our brains and more complex than our conscious awareness.
These books do not clear up the mystery. They do offer interesting observations and useful guiding principles for working with choice and change.
As you read about them (and then read them!), keep in mind choices that you are making now, choices that you have made, and choices that other people have made that have puzzled you. Use these choices as benchmarks and test cases.
You'll learn lots about your strategies and biases for choice and for change.
This lens introduces 3 books that have been great books in my learning and teaching about how people make choices. They are clear, practical, readable and they stick.
How people make the choices they do remains a well-studied mystery. The more we learn, the more we find about what drives our choices from outside our awareness. Sometimes we are driven by unconscious processes and sometimes we are 'nudged' by structures around us. The patterns are less complex than our brains and more complex than our conscious awareness.
These books do not clear up the mystery. They do offer interesting observations and useful guiding principles for working with choice and change.
As you read about them (and then read them!), keep in mind choices that you are making now, choices that you have made, and choices that other people have made that have puzzled you. Use these choices as benchmarks and test cases.
You'll learn lots about your strategies and biases for choice and for change.
Three Great Books - and two runners-up
If I had to pick only five books to explain how people think so they could make better choices, I'd pick these.
The Art of Possibility
Benjamin and Rosamund Zander
I'd like to flip through the pages of this book and retrieve my responses so that I can give you a synopsis. I can't because I keep having to buy new copies: I can't resist lending this one to people who need a lift, a change or an inspiration.
This is not a research text: it is a celebration of what changes when people focus on what is possible and good. Much of it overlaps with what I teach (with roots in NLP and evolution through literature, positive psychology and strategic thinking). The stories are magical and the principles are mostly clear and memorable. No one who reads this book will not hear the phrase "Remember rule #6" at precisely the moment when it is needed.
Read this book for a fluent, useful movement between individual focus and awareness of structure and systems. Read this book because you will learn to give other people an A and because you will learn rule #6. Read this book because the stories are really, really good.
And then think about the title. Think about art and think about possibility. Be encouraged to make choices that make life bigger, lighter, and more rich in possibility.
This is not a research text: it is a celebration of what changes when people focus on what is possible and good. Much of it overlaps with what I teach (with roots in NLP and evolution through literature, positive psychology and strategic thinking). The stories are magical and the principles are mostly clear and memorable. No one who reads this book will not hear the phrase "Remember rule #6" at precisely the moment when it is needed.
Read this book for a fluent, useful movement between individual focus and awareness of structure and systems. Read this book because you will learn to give other people an A and because you will learn rule #6. Read this book because the stories are really, really good.
And then think about the title. Think about art and think about possibility. Be encouraged to make choices that make life bigger, lighter, and more rich in possibility.
Ben Zander on Shining Eyes
Change or Die
Alan Deutschman
It's not about being gentle or kind or nice. It's about what works. Fear just doesn't motivate people.
Deutschman's message is brilliant and tricky and easy to remember: there are 3 keys to successful change in individuals and organizations and fear doesn't make the list. Neither does vision or desire.
What does make the list? Relate, repeat, reframe. People who want to make changes in themselves or their organizations need to form relationships supportive of the change, repeat the change over and over until it is no longer a change, and give new meaning to what the change represents.
We could talk about the order in which the steps need to occur, but in fact they occur simultaneously. We enter new relationships and behave in new ways and talk about those relationships and behaviours in new ways - all at once.
Deutschman provides stories of successful, sustainable change from a program for heart patients, program for criminals and a car manufacturing plant. He also refers to lots of research on models of change from the world of psychology.
You'll remember the stories. You'll remember that there is no one model that works everytime. And you'll remember the 3 keys to change.
Deutschman's message is brilliant and tricky and easy to remember: there are 3 keys to successful change in individuals and organizations and fear doesn't make the list. Neither does vision or desire.
What does make the list? Relate, repeat, reframe. People who want to make changes in themselves or their organizations need to form relationships supportive of the change, repeat the change over and over until it is no longer a change, and give new meaning to what the change represents.
We could talk about the order in which the steps need to occur, but in fact they occur simultaneously. We enter new relationships and behave in new ways and talk about those relationships and behaviours in new ways - all at once.
Deutschman provides stories of successful, sustainable change from a program for heart patients, program for criminals and a car manufacturing plant. He also refers to lots of research on models of change from the world of psychology.
You'll remember the stories. You'll remember that there is no one model that works everytime. And you'll remember the 3 keys to change.
Change or Die
Alan Deutschman on 3 keys to change
Gut Feelings
Gerd Gigerenzer
If you've read Blink (Malcolm Gladwell), then you've encountered some of Gigerenzer's research. He's a psychologist who researches the difference between how we think we make choices and how we really do. The book ranges over many different areas and includes both the way the personal unconscious (feelings) influence us and the way we are influenced by social structures.
I like the simple illustrations. Take for example, the "Benjamin Franklin" method of making a choice between two alternatives. Write down all the benefits for each alternative. See which list is longer. Then . . . notice how you feel about the result. If you're disappointed, go with the alternative with the shorter list.
Been there. Done that.
Gigerenzer's makes interesting observations on the difference between what is logical (supported by science and research) and what we believe to be logical (supported by general 'knowledge' and social pressures). He demonstrates the limits of reason as it interacts with the unconscious processes and desires that drive most choices.
It's a little scary. It's a bit of a wake up call to pay more attention and ask more questions.
It's a great book for re-imagining how we think we think.
I like the simple illustrations. Take for example, the "Benjamin Franklin" method of making a choice between two alternatives. Write down all the benefits for each alternative. See which list is longer. Then . . . notice how you feel about the result. If you're disappointed, go with the alternative with the shorter list.
Been there. Done that.
Gigerenzer's makes interesting observations on the difference between what is logical (supported by science and research) and what we believe to be logical (supported by general 'knowledge' and social pressures). He demonstrates the limits of reason as it interacts with the unconscious processes and desires that drive most choices.
It's a little scary. It's a bit of a wake up call to pay more attention and ask more questions.
It's a great book for re-imagining how we think we think.
Two Great Thinkers Talk about Social Change
Malcolm Gladwell and Mark Kingwell talking about how the world changes
The HOPE Symposium 2009
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Practices for making positive change
As books go, these aren't as good as the 3 great books. As descriptions of practices that are both accessible and effective, they are tantalizing and often useful.
by Linda_F
Linda_F
I love to teach people to be wide awake to what they are thinking and communicating. Life is too short to live on auto pilot: we all need to practice... more »
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