The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip and Dan Heath

This chapter centers on the efforts of a hospital organization to take their quality of care from the bottom to the top. The key was having all staff connect with each other and with the patients with a focus on how their jobs are meaningful. Creating a great patient experience also requires creating a great employee experience, which seems to apply to students and teachers. Synchronized moments are key and they require that people be in the same room, not at the other end of a memo. Sharing struggles also bonds people as they pursue a common goal. While your passion is important, research shows that your purpose is more important.

This chapter starts with a story of how a school improved a great deal by simply sending teachers out for home visits prior to the school year. They didn’t take handouts or any paper lists of questions. They just talked and got to know the parents, the kids, and what parents’ visions were for what they wanted their kids to accomplish. The key point is that if you can create the right kind of moment, relationships can change in an instant. By treating every parent and student in a personal way, you can provide the kind of understanding, validation, and caring that will take your relationships to the next level. The chapter ends with a plan for getting dysfunctional teams together.

The big take away is the once you realize how important moments can be, it’s easy to spot opportunities to shape them. In the short term, we prioritize fixing things over making moments. Over time, this backfires. Rather stay alert to the promise that moments hold. This chapter also includes some examples from their readers. Now it’s time to recall moments from your life.

Chip Heath is a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Dan Heath is a senior fellow at Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE). They are the authors of the bestseller Made to Stick and Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work