I love this metaphor from the book “Switch: how to change things when change is hard” by the brothers Heath:
We are like an elephant with a rider on top. Our elephant represents our bodily needs, our emotional pulsions.
The tiny rider on top represents the rational mind.
How does the rider get the elephant to move in the intended direction, without too much frolicking around? That’s certainly not by any large action involving all its strength, by pushing the elephant around (which would be quite impossible). It is by building a relationship with the elephant, by knowing intimately what are the elephant’s hot buttons. And then, it is by providing the small impulses that are needed to show the right direction.
We are so much influenced by our rational Industrial Age approach of action and reaction that we often look for change actions that are as large as the final intended action. The best change actions are those small actions, requiring a small energy but emotionally engaging, that will create incredible, massive change. It is an art to engineer those actions. There are many examples in the book how massive change actions finally had very limited results, while sometime small change actions completely redefined an organization or a community.
Ride your elephant more elegantly. Do not try to force it to move in a direction. Find the right small, emotionally engaging move that will create sustainable, incredible change.
