How to change when change is hard | Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA)

02/02/2010 • by MACPA

How to change when change is hard

Answer: Switch.

Switch your mindset from focusing on problems to finding bright spots of success and building on them.

Actually, Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard is the name of the new book by Chip and Dan Heath, best-selling authors of Made to Stick(one of my favorites).

But wait, there's more:

Imagine my surprise when I picked up the latest issue of Fast Company magazine and found an article by the same name — “Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard,” and it featured the CPA profession as an example of the right kind of change!

CPAs and Fast Company?

The Financial Literacy campaign and the famous Benjamin Bankes (Feed the Pig) are shown as an example of making big changes through a series of small choices (successes). See the ad mentioned in the article below:

This campaign was the brainchild of the AICPA and the Ad Council and has brought the financial literacy message to millions and millions of Americans. In addition, as if to model the entire “Switch” philosophy, this campaign and the financial literacy movement has been adopted and amplified by almost all of the state CPA societies involving thousands of CPA volunteers. As the authors say, “find a bright spot and clone it.”

Our post CPAs drive the financial literacy message home gives a great example of a major bright spot that started with the passion of a past MACPA chair Pat Reese and how she has made a difference. See a short video of Pat in action.

In addition to Pat's work, we have had volunteers speaking to students at high schools and colleges and working with the armed forces to provide free counseling on financial literacy before they deployed. We found some bright spots and cloned them.

I had the opportunity to see Dan Heath live at my favorite annual conference (DigitalNow: Association Leadership in the Digital Age) a couple of years back, loved his book Made to Stick, and just pre-ordered Switch. I will give it a full review after reading it. I think I am gonna love it.

So let's start today off by switching our brains to a positive mindset, looking for those bright spots and building on them one step at a time. Who knows? Maybe we can change the world.

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