The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind
Author: Jonah Berger
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Note: Content warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers’ minds and leaders want to change organizations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way?
This book takes a different approach. Successful change agents know it’s not about pushing harder, or providing more information, it’s about being a catalyst. Catalysts remove roadblocks and reduce the barriers to change. Instead of asking, “How could I change someone’s mind?” they ask a different question: “Why haven’t they changed already? What’s stopping them?”
The Catalyst identifies the key barriers to change and how to mitigate them. You’ll learn how catalysts change minds in the toughest of situations: how hostage negotiators get people to come out with their hands up and how marketers get new products to catch on, how leaders transform organizational culture and how activists ignite social movements, how substance abuse counselors get addicts to realize they have a problem, and how political canvassers change deeply rooted political beliefs.
This book is designed for anyone who wants to catalyze change. It provides a powerful way of thinking and a range of techniques that can lead to extraordinary results. Whether you’re trying to change one person, transform an organization, or shift the way an entire industry does business, this book will teach you how to become a catalyst.
TL;DR Review
The Catalyst is a helpful, well-researched book about lowering the barriers of resistance in people’s minds. There were some really good nuggets in there that I will probably use quite often.
For you if: You like big idea nonfiction and work in marketing, non-profit work, politics, or another industry where you are trying to persuade.
Full Review
I was drawn to The Catalyst mostly because Jonah Berger wrote it. I really liked his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On and found it useful, so I was happy to read his latest. Much like Contagious, I found this book to be helpful and useful. It’s also a quick read.
The Catalyst talks about why the human brain has a tendency to dig its heels in, cling to what it already knows, and resist change. Then it breaks down five techniques to help lower those barriers to help people feel more open and comfortable with the idea of changing their minds. Berger uses engaging stories and examples and cites a ton of research to bring it all to life.
Sometimes when I read big idea nonfiction, I’m not sure if the author is telling me something that I implicitly already knew, or they are just good at writing so that their conclusions feel natural and believable. I think it’s a bit of both, especially with this book. I conceptually understood a lot of his points before, I think, but he’s packaged them in a way that turns those things into tools.
In my day job, I write longform marketing content for a financial services start-up, so we are always trying to change behavior (to help people live their best lives!). I have already found myself thinking about pieces of this book in my day-to-day.
CONTENT Warnings
Within his examples:
Hateful language directed at religious groups (e.g., Islamophobia, antisemitism)
Transphobia and trans misogyny
Homophobia and heterosexism
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