Change or die ebook

Preview — Change or Die by Alan Deutschman. 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? Deutschman concludes that although we all have the ability to change our behavior, we rarely ever do.

In fact, the odds are nine to one that, when faced with the dire need to change, we won't. From patients suffering from heart disease to repeat offenders in the criminal justice system to companies trapped in the mold of unsuccessful business practices, many of us could prevent ominous outcomes by simply changing our mindset. A powerful book with universal appeal, Change or Die deconstructs and debunks age-old myths about change and empowers us with three critical keys—relate, repeat, and reframe—to help us make important positive changes in our lives.

Explaining breakthrough research and progressive ideas from a wide selection of leaders in medicine, science, and business including Dr. Change or Die is not about merely reorganizing or restructuring priorities; it's about challenging, inspiring, and helping all of us to make the dramatic transformations necessary in any aspect of life—changes that are positive, attainable, and absolutely vital.

Get A Copy. Hardcover , pages. Published January 2nd by Harper Business first published December 26th More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

To ask other readers questions about Change or Die , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jan 18, Annette rated it really liked it Recommended to Annette by: Randy. Shelves: self-help. My husband took a LEAN class over the summer and his instructor recommended this book.

He really likes it a lot and he says he does use this information at work. I decided to read it actually I listened to the audio version because I find the study of change fascinating. The main point of the book is: most people will try to entice other people to change using the three F's: facts, force and fear.

These usually don't work at least not for the long term. He suggests that what does work are the t My husband took a LEAN class over the summer and his instructor recommended this book. He suggests that what does work are the three R's: relate, repeat, reframe. He uses a lot of examples, including heart patients, hardened criminals, alcoholics and businesses as well as a couple of personal stories. What I like most about his approach is his emphasis on hope.

You can't inspire yourself or anyone else to change if you focus on the negative results of what happens to you if you don't, it's so much better to focus on how wonderful your life will be when you do make the necessary changes. I think Mr. Deutschman does an excellent job of destroying the theory that change is impossible and that people who are entrenched in their bad habits can't change their behavior.

View 2 comments. This is a cleverly written but superficial long essay based on the premise that no one ever changes health behaviors, and so it's amazing that the author has found a few examples of successful behavior change programs. The main fallacy here is that people never change and no one knows how to get them to change.

What about cigarette smoking, car crashes, etc. We have seen enormous progress in these areas; millions of lives have been saved. How did that happen? With population-level, not individ This is a cleverly written but superficial long essay based on the premise that no one ever changes health behaviors, and so it's amazing that the author has found a few examples of successful behavior change programs.

With population-level, not individual-level interventions. Excluding this factual context seems dangerous to me. And, of course, there are different successful approaches to individual-level behavior change, and he leaves out some of those. What is valid in the book is that just shocking people with scary facts is often ineffective for behavior change. So if someone has been stuck using just that approach, then the book could be very valuable.

Something that struck me as fishy was that as a reporter for Fortune magazine, the author should know about the articles in Fortune showing that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation specifically avoided spending money on the types of things that he suggests they would spend money on like bed nets for mosquito control to prevent malaria and that their donations in the field of education for example were spectacular failures not amazing successes.

Nov 06, Cara rated it it was ok. This book brings up a couple of interesting questions. The one that is most interesting is this: why do people find it so hard to change their behaviors even when it's literally a matter of life and death? You'd think the possibility of DYING would be enough to get people to improve their diets or stop doing drugs or participating in dangerous activities, but it clearly isn't.

The author suggests that negative reinforcements are not as powerful as positive reinforcements, which may be true, but This book brings up a couple of interesting questions.

The author suggests that negative reinforcements are not as powerful as positive reinforcements, which may be true, but unfortunately he doesn't really delve deep enough into the issue to come to any satisfying conclusion. The whole book is pretty light, mostly anecdotal, and the concluding chapter where the author cites Andrew Weil and says that all psychoactive drugs, from antidepressants to LSD, operate entirely on the placebo effect pretty much ruins his credibility.

Oct 25, Sylia rated it liked it. The book, while interesting, wasn't very instructive. Deutschman outlines his three key points for change, and spends the entire book bringing in real-life examples of how they have been applied. He doesn't really go into too much detail about the psychology of change, or realistic examples of how one can change the smaller things in one's life.

For example, chapter on "Changing a Loved One" just summarized Bill Gates' relationship with his mother, and really failed to give any practical advice The book, while interesting, wasn't very instructive. For example, chapter on "Changing a Loved One" just summarized Bill Gates' relationship with his mother, and really failed to give any practical advice on applying it to your OWN life.

But as I said in the very first sentence, it was a pretty interesting read. I'm quite torn about this book. Not for it's content or its message, but rather I should give it a rating of 3 or 4, since it fits exactly into a 3. John Shelby Spong, the Episcopal Bishop of Newark before his retirement in , has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard and at more than other universities all over the world.

He writes a weekly column on the web that reaches thousands of people all over the world. To join his online audience, go to www. He lives with his wife, Christine, in New Jersey. What would you like to know about this product?

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Quite a few friends and colleagues have recommended this book to me over the last couple of years, in part because they know that meaningful change is difficult to achieve for so many people.

They are too much smoking, drinking, and eating; too much stress and not enough exercise. If potentially only one out of every ten people can change our behaviors, even in a crisis, then what hope do any of us really have?

Deutschman suggests that there is a way to effect meaningful, sustainable change but, as we have pointed out, most people groups, organizations, companies, etc.

The leader or community has to sell you on yourself and make you believe you have the ability to change. They have to sell you on themselves as your partners, mentors, role models, or sources of new knowledge. And they have to sell you on the specific methods or strategies that they employ.

It takes a lot of repetition over time before new patterns of behavior become automatic and seem natural — until you act the new way without even thinking about it. These are the three keys to change: relate, repeat, and reframe. New hope, new skills, and new thinking.