Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life

by Alan Deutschman

Book Overview

"CHANGE OR DIE. What if you were given that choice? We're talking actual life and death now. Your own life and death. What if a well-informed, trusted authority figure said you had to make difficult and enduring changes in the way you think, feel, and act? If you didn't, your time would end soon--a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when change mattered most?"

This is the question Alan Deutschman poses in Change or Die, which began...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060886897
• ISBN13: 9780060886899
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Harper Business
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Why We Need More Change

Change or Die deserves a wide audience, not as a self-help book, but as an important way to understand why so many elements of our society are not working. We label more and more acts as criminal. We build more prisons. But crime doesn't go away. We keep asking, "Who should pay for health care?" when in fact over nearly 80% of health "care" costs could be reduced (or even eliminated) by iifestyle changes. Psychologists have long known that change is rarely a matter of willpower. Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot The Dog warns that most of our education and training systems are not based on sound psychological guidelines. Deutschman, as a journalist, presents case studies showing how groups of people changed following a few key principles. They identified with a person, leader or community. They got to practice, over and over again. They learned to think "as if" they had already changed. And they learned to reframe their experiences. So prisoners at Delancey Street become members of a community. They learn to act "as if" they're ordinary, law-abiding citizens. They develop what Deutschman calls a middle-class mindset. Dieters who followed Dean Ornish's program first joined a support group. They practiced new styles of eating and exercise. And they reframed their views about health, moving from helpless patients to strong achievers who took charge of their own health. These two examples are most powerful, although Deutschman includes a few others (a parole officer learns to talk to clients a new way and businesses absorb cultures). In fascinating first-person narratives, he recounts his own struggles with mastering college French and with his own weight loss. In each case, he failed with credentialed teachers at Princeton and a high-priced gym, respectively, but mastered French and exercise when he connected to teachers with whom he shared interests. As a former professor myself, I would add that the university system combines learning with assessing. Sometimes those goals conflict. Faced with limited time and an expectation that not everyone can earn A's, not to mention consequences of getting too friendly with students, few teachers can create the connection that Deutschman describes. Ironically, as a society, collectively we're like the patients in the Dean Ornish study. His patients knew they should lose weight and exercise. We know we're implementing programs that don't work. Why do we keep doing it? Why do we keep building prisons and creating health programs that don't address the causes of the problem? And do we really need to learn from credentialed experts? Ornish's own change agent was the man who taught his sister's yoga class. It seems that relationships lead to therapy, not a particular set of techniques. It's little wonder that lightly-trained coaches, without the cloaks of power and professionalism, have been successful as change agents for many of their clients. If institutions and widely held beliefs don't change, more of

Inspirational

This book/CD is inspirational. I have ordered and distributed to my friends and family over a dozen copies. Reminds us that anything is possible.. It hit home with me as the recent death of my mother was something I was struggling with. She chose death over lifestyle changes and it was driving my family and I crazy. The CD/book helped me understand better what was really going on, and how I was making coices that were wrong as well. It is on my top 10 list...

One Powerful Book - This should be on the desk of every Entrepreneur, Manager, and CEO

I liked this book for a number of reasons not the least of which was the way that Deutschman broke down psychological principles and complex social theories into chunks that anyone can use. This books is powerful because it is simple, reinforces the main point, the three R's of change. Relate, Repeat, Reframe Those three keys to change will be meaningless outside the context of the book, but they are very powerful principles that Deutschman brings into clear focus for your business and your life. One of the things that really brought this book home for me was the examples that he chose as the models for how the change process works, they were unexpected yet very relevant. If you've ever wondered how to create real change in your organization or even to achieve a goal like weightloss (as the author did) this book shows you a clear path to success based on sound psychology and solid thinking. If you've ever set goals you didn't reach or have any significant dream or desire to change something in your life or your business, this book is a handbook that you'll use over and over again. I'm buying it for everyone on my team and in my personal mastermind group. Dave Lakhani Author: Persuasion The Art of Getting What You Want and The Power of an Hour Business and Life Mastery In One Hour A Week.

Must-read book for anyone hoping for change

Whether you are a political activist, a business executive helping a company change its approach or a mere mortal struggling to keep a New Year's Resolution, this book is a must-read. There are so many authors out there offering false hope in many of these areas. Their books sell, but their readers are unlikely to make any lasting changes in their communities, companies or lives. Deutschman analyzes why change is so hard and shows concrete lessons gleaned from the exceptions. This is not the wishful thinking of a feel-good TV therapist or infomercial peddler. These are the insights of a journalist who has interviewed leading thinkers and "doers".

Hopeful

Admittedly, I was drawn to this book simply because of its combative title and stark cover design (no author attribution on the front, just the words "Change or Die" in bold print), but once I got the book and started flipping through it, I was actually quite drawn in by the content, and, though I usually regret purchasing hard covers, I don't mind having shelled out twenty-five bucks for this one. The theory that Deutschman presents in this book, that most people go about change the wrong way, thus ensuring failure, thus becoming further locked in their cycle of bad habits, is provocative. A pessimist like me would leave it at that--yep, change is impossible, but Deutschman, an optimist, believes that change is possible if we "re-frame" our notion of how change really happens. Through many examples of effective leadership (the most compelling is that of Mimi Silbert who turns ex-cons into productive citizens through the Delancey Street Foundation), Deutschman shows that given the right motivation, the right leadership, and a supportive community, real and significant change can happen. Woven throughout the book is Deutschman's own voice, which is quite charming and disarming as he discusses difficult changes he went through in his own life: from finally passing French at Princeton after multiple attempts, to dropping 40 pounds after years of near obesity, to becoming a Democrat after having been a young Republican. Pessimistic as I've been about the current state of the world, Deutschman's theories make me wonder if maybe, just maybe, the way the world is right now is not the way it must remain.