As Chair of an HR Committee, Switchpoints is an easy read and very helpful to all
of us as Board members as we engage in strategic planning with our
organizations. It does a very good job of illustrating the importance of
paying attention to the corporate culture change that must take place  in
the planning period in order that an organization remain competitive and
shows in very practical terms how this drives shareholder value.

As a health and safety professional that has used behavioural sciences to improve health and safety performance in a high risk environment, I was fascinated by the results achieved by CN. The book substantiated my belief that the application of behavioural sciences to all aspects of an organization can result in increases in many areas.

A very well written summary of the kind of vision, strategy and practical approaches needed to change a company from good to great, as they say. The story alone of how to operate a railroad in the 21st century makes for a great read. Highly recommended.

Or was it the economy? No matter, go get this book (or maybe not if you are a consultant)

As a leadership consultant I now have an unfair advantage over the competition. I will simply hand the clients who are interested in change (read: become more competitive) a copy of SwitchPoints and wait for their call saying: " I get it...let's do it".

That's because they will actually understand much better how this stuff works and have an opportunity to observe best practices... in real time. Good flow as well.

The authors are able to articulate their thoughts in clear models and have an uncanny ability to anticipate and deal with a reader's emerging questions.

I found this to be better than John Kotter redux, no fluff here.

Solid, valid and reliable behavioral science lurks in the background without overwhelming you.

In fact the authors 'give' a lot and they do more than tantilize you, this is a real meal, a substantive learning event.

To me the ABC's seemed intuitively obvious. The challenge, and I expect the fun was the buy-in and implementation. The only other company where I have seen this done successfully was Koch Industries where the organization was immersed in Market Based Management (MBM). It takes a combination of focus, determination, and patience, assuming of course that the buyin has taken place.