How to Change

The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Katy Milkman

Publisher: Portfolio, 2021, 249 pages

ISBN: 978-0-593-33259-7

Keywords: Change Management

Last modified: Dec. 16, 2022, 4:17 a.m.

Forgetfulness. Procrastination. Impulsivity. These are all-too-common problems keep us from achieving our most important goals, time and time again.

In a career dedicated to understanding what helps people change, leading behavior scientist Katy Milkman has learned that you'll never get rid of these barriers. They're human nature. Instead, you need to outsmart them and make them work for you. And to outsmart your demons, you need the right strategy.

Change, Milkman discovered, comes most readily when you understand what's standing between you and success, and tailor your solution to that roadblock.

Drawing on Milkman's original, award-winning research and engaging stories of individual and organizational success. How to Change breaks down the problems that keep us from achieving our goals — the challenge of getting started, impunity, forgetting, low confidence, and many others — and presents innovative, tested approaches to overcoming what holds us back.

Whether you're struggling to kick-start change for yourself or are a manager, a coach, or a teacher aiming to help others change for the better. How to Change offers an invaluable, science-based blueprint for getting from where you are to where you want to be.

  • Tackling the Obstacles to Change
    1. Getting Started
    2. Impulsivity
    3. Procrastination
    4. Forgetfulness
    5. Laziness
    6. Confidence
    7. Conformity
  • Finale
    1. Changing for Good