How To Get Unstuck with Dan Heath

Lost Debate

The Branch

News, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 607 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do you fix a system that’s stuck? Ravi sits down with New York Times bestselling author Dan Heath to unpack the lessons from his new book, Reset, a guide to help people and businesses break free from inertia, ditch old habits, and make meaningful progress. They explore case studies from the book, including a hospital that slashed delivery times from days to hours and a school that transformed discipline with a simple shift in student movement, and discuss how these examples reveal the power of small wins and the risks of blindly chasing efficiency. Ravi and Dan then turn to the biggest “reset” happening today: a controversial government overhaul. Is DOGE actually a push for government efficiency or is it a reckless unraveling of the administrative state? Drawing from successful corporate turnarounds, Dan explains what actually works, and why government overhauls so often fail. Finally, Dan and Ravi reflect on why, whether in business or our personal lives, real change isn’t about grand gestures, but about finding the right pressure points and making thoughtful, lasting adjustments. Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 321-200-0570 Learn more about Ravi's novel and upcoming events: GARBAGE TOWN --- Follow Ravi at @ravimgupta Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Notes from this episode are available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Lost Debate is available on the following platforms: • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LostDebate • Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vTERJNTc1ODE3Mzk3Nw • iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-lost-debate-88330217/ • Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/752ca262-2801-466d-9654-2024de72bd1f/the-lost-debate

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to The Lost Debata Show for Politically Ecclectics. I'm Robbie Gupta and today I talk to Dan Heath, who is a many-time author. And I'll talk in a second about that subject matter. But as a reminder, on Tuesday, the 25th, my novel comes out, Garbage Town, which is a coming-of-age thriller set in Staten Island, New York in the 90s. We will have a special
0:21.9	episode about it next week, but you could pre-order wherever you get your books. I'm also going to be traveling around a little bit. I've got an event on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on March 27th, Staten Island, March 30th, St. Louis, March 31st. You can check out in the show notes, a link where you can RSVP for any of those events.
0:38.5	And again, you could pre-order the book and hopefully leave a March 31st. You can check out in the show notes, a link where you can RSVP for any of those events.
0:38.4	And again, you could pre-order the book and hopefully leave a great review wherever you are,
0:43.3	whether it's Storygraph, Goodreads, Amazon, et cetera, once that release date comes.
0:48.0	But I'm excited to introduce you to Dan Heath, who along with his brother Chip, has written a bunch of books,
0:55.3	Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive, The Power of Moments.
0:58.6	The book we talk about today is called Reset, and we talk all about organizational and personal change.
1:04.6	Like, how do you step into a situation that is not working and make it into something beautiful,
1:12.5	something that works properly,
1:14.7	something with a sense of momentum and progress.
1:21.0	And so we talk about companies, people, schools, and then we talk about Doge at the end.
1:24.7	So for those of you are looking for a little bit of current events, we have that there.
1:26.8	So without further do, let's jump in.
1:31.7	Well, Dan, welcome to the podcast.
1:32.4	Thank you.
1:33.1	Happy to be here.
1:35.5	Well, I thoroughly enjoyed your book.
1:42.3	And I think a good place to start is this Northwestern Hospital package delivery room.
1:43.7	Tell us about this.
1:47.2	Yeah, so this was the receiving area in a hospital,
1:54.0	and the distinguishing trait that made it the first story in the book was that they had developed a pattern of taking three days on average to get packages delivered within the hospital. So their
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