How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be sets out a blueprint for achieving personal and professional goals, written by Professor Katy Milkman, host of the Choiceology podcast. Designed for individuals as well as those who manage, teach or coach others, it focuses on the practical challenge of making change stick.

An award-winning Wharton Professor and engineer by training, Milkman approaches behaviour change as a problem to be solved. She examines the obstacles that can derail progress and argues that lasting change depends less on setting increasingly ambitious targets or simply trying to build good habits, and more on choosing the right strategy.

Synopsis

Milkman identifies seven human impulses, described as common “problems”, that can sabotage attempts to make positive change in work and life. Rather than encouraging readers to fight these impulses, she explains how to harness them and turn them into forces that support new behaviours.

Drawing on her original research, a range of case studies and practical tools, she presents an approach intended to help put these ideas into action and move from current circumstances towards desired goals.