CSR Career Advice: Read 'SWITCH'

Responsible Careers:  All aspiring Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) professionals or (SEIs) are looking for career advice to achieve one common goal:  integrating social and environmental impact into business decision making.  In trying to get business done - better, it is obvious that stellar change management skills can considerably help CSR professionals amplify their impact.

Therefore, if your goal is to emerge as CSR talent, developing stellar change management skills would certainly be an asset. To do so, I would highly recommend that you read SWITCH: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath.  What I liked most about SWITCH is how straightforward its change management principles are: In order to successfully make a SWITCH happen, you have to help people change their behavior by leveraging 3 factors.  First, the behavioral change will need to align with the person's rational thought process (referred to as 'directing the Rider').  Second, the behavioral change is most likely to happen when the change is fueled by an emotional desire to change  (referred to as 'motivating the Elephant').  Finally, the environment and reward systems will need to be modified to enable the change to take place and be sustainable over time (referred to as 'shaping the Path').  The key take home message from the book in terms of career advice is that the best way to drive change is to create a new behavioral system that successfully directs the rider, motivates the elephant, and shapes the path.

SWITCH provides a number of concrete strategies you can leverage to successfully direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant and shape the Path.  These strategies are presented sequentially and are highlighted through examples that span an amazing array of issues, including international development, corporate spending, malnutrition, government purchasing procedures, and wildlife preservation.  Given the broad spectrum of issues and examples provided in the book, I would not recommend to read the book from start to finish.  Instead, I would recommend that you start reading the book by flipping through the pages to find the 'clinic' sections.  These are summarized case studies that can really help you better understand how each factor (and their interactions) contributed to create positive changes in each situation.  Then read the chapters that are most relevant to the clinics that most resonate with you.

Note that SWITCH doesn't end with the book.  Indeed, the authors also gave their readers a nice gift, a comprehensive online SWITCH resource center, filled with additional insights and examples.  The combination of the book and associated online resources makes SWITCH a great framework for you to quickly get career advice on how to drive change in your current organization through your current job. Here is a road map that you can follow:

1)Understand the current system - The book and online resources are sure to help you better understand how to scope and design projects that will increase your ability to drive positive change in your company (from the CSR department or from a traditional role).  I would recommend that you find which examples from the book (or the free online resources) resonate most with you and resemble a situation you are currently trying to change.

2) Apply the SWITCH framework to your project - Use the SWITCH framework to scope the rational, emotional an environmental factors that need to be changed to reach the new state you would like to achieve.  Based on this framework, you are sure to discover which rational, environmental and environmental facts most contributed to make your company's procedures what they are today.  Then, create several scenarios introducing some of the most relevant switches you found through the book and online resources.

3) Create several SWITCH scenarios - I would recommend that you design various 'change' scenarios.  Include a timeline for each scenario, so that you can best control the number and the frequency at which you introduce SWITCH elements into your project.  Keep these possible scenarios as simple as possible and use the SWITCH frameworks provided in the clinics to create a one-page plan for each alternative you come up with.

4) Test the waters through trusted advisors - Share your one-page plans with mentors and colleagues to test drive your solutions and assess feasibility.  Refine your approach and ask for a second round of advice.  When the top scenario emerges, start implementing that scenario in your department.  Along the way keep using the SWITCH frameworks to further calibrate and adapt your approach to the company's culture over time.

In sum, SWITCH is filled with valuable career advice and is a worthwhile investment for aspiring CSR professionals as well as for any aspiring responsible leader.  If you have used SWITCH or other resources to get business done - better, please share your insights and career advice below!

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