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

What is it that prevents 90% of heart patients from changing their lifestyle after bypass operations?

Why does the criminal pentitentiary system fail within 6 months for two-thirds of cases?

How did Toyota win over disgruntled GM motor employees and turn the Fremont site into a Lean showcase?

Deutschman shows that facts and fear are no panacea to change. The real key is to give people hope and Deutschman takes the reader through many successful case studies based on 3 keys, or the 3Rs: Relate, Repeat & Reframe. In addition to the three main case studies, the book also covers studies of significant change initiatives at IBM, Yahoo & MicroSoft amongst others as well as in the author's personal life. The book can be recommended as an interesting read for anyone contemplating personal change or change in the working environment, or indeed life as a Change Agent.

The only minus with the book is the cheapness of the cover and paper. However, for less than £10 who can complain when the content makes the book a rivetting read.

As I began to read this book, I made a number of correlations between Alan Deutschman's observations and those shared by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of the Species (1859) and by Joseph Schumpeter in Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942). Specifically, Deutschman asserts that both individuals and organizations are involved in a process of natural selection and will survive the competition only of they can adapt to their environment. According to Darwin, "There is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, and it follows that any being, if it varies however slightly in any manner profitable to itself under the complex conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected." Deutschman seems to believe (and I agree) that the process evolution can serve as a case study of creative destruction. According to Schumpeter, it is a "process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one." Creative destruction occurs when something new kills something older. For example, personal computers. The industry, led by Microsoft and Intel, destroyed many mainframe computer companies, but in doing so, entrepreneurs created one of the most important inventions of this century. Schumpeter asserts that the "process of creative destruction is the essential fact about capitalism." Individuals as well as organizations must constantly adapt or they will fall behind and eventually perish.

In his Introduction, Deutschman explains that his main topic in this book is "how to change when change [begin italics] isn't [end italics] coming naturally: when the difficulties [begin italics] persist [end italics]. He identifies and then explains how to use three "keys" to release change from what James O'Toole has so aptly characterized (in Leading Change) as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of comfort." Deutschman calls these keys the "Three Rs": Relate (i.e. "Your form a new, emotional relationship with a person or community that inspires and sustains hope"), Repeat (i.e. "The new relationship helps you learn, practice, and master the new habits and skills that you need"), and Reframe (i.e. "The new relationship helps you learn new ways of thinking about your situation and your life"). Of special interest and value to me is Deutschman's brilliant use of case study material that focuses on how people in three quite different categories - heart patients, criminals, and workers - eventually were able to achieve significant changes in how/what they thought, felt, and did. In each instance, there is a central figure who plays a prominent role.

Meet Dr. Dean Ornish whose story "is all about change on every level: how he changed his own life, how he's helped heart patients change their lives, and how he's been trying for three decades to change the health care system in the United States."

Meet Mimi Silbert (born in 1942) who founded the Delancey Foundation project in 1971 (it helps serves ex-felons, prostitutes, substance abusers, homeless, and others who have hit bottom) after teaching criminology as a university professor and working as a consultant to state prisons and more than 50 police departments. Deutschman tells us Silbert (born in 1942) "exudes energy and laughs uproariously every few moments. Through two hours of conversation, she only rarely mentioned any terms that you might hear in an academic course or read in a psychology book," although she earned two PhDs.

Meet GM's plan in Fremont, California, at which labor relations had become so bad that it was closed in 1982. At that time, the local union was fighting more than 600 unresolved grievances, including more than 60 contested firings. Two years later, Toyota decided to revive the operation and forged a joint venture with GM, New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI), and retained a former U.S. secretary of labor, William Usery, as its consultant for labor relations in the U.S. He told a reporter, "Commies and drug addicts, gambling, fighting, refusing to work - that was Toyota's idea of a unionized American work force."

The changes that were achieved within all three groups - heart patients, criminals, and workers - are best revealed within Deutschman's narrative, in context. Suffice to say now that the success of various changes depended on leadership provided by Dean Ornish, Mimi Silbert, and the SUMMI managers who understood how to relate to those in need of change, repeat as often as necessary whatever the desirable behavior may be, and meanwhile, reframe the values, attitudes, and perspectives so thoughts, feelings, and behavior will focus on "what matters most."

When concluding this book, Deutschman notes that Ornish discovered that heart patients weren't motivated by the idea that they could live to eighty-six if they changed, not even if they were eighty-five. ""They're motivated by knowing that they can enjoy and improve their lives [begin italics] right now [end italics]. That's the idea that I've tried to convey. I'm not advocating change because it can make your life or your organization better at some distant time in the future. I believe that engaging with people and learning new skills and ideas are among the greatest pleasures of [begin italics] everyday [end italics] life...So, kind reader, that's my parting wish for you: Change and [begin italics] thrive [end italics]!"