We Share Ideas

Made to StickWhy Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

by

Chip Heath & Dan Heath

We Share Ideas

chief

We Share Ideas

What Sticks?

• Kidney heist– A myth

• Halloween candy tampering– A myth

• Movie popcorn– Real commercial, press picked up, stuck

• Sticky = Understandable, memorable, and effective in changing thought or behavior

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The “Stickiness” Factor

• The right people

• The “Stickiness” Factor

• The right context

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Stickiness Principles

• Simple – 1 idea vs. 10

• Unexpected – Grabs Attention

• Concrete -- Visual

• Credible – “Are you better off today?”

• Emotional – They feel something

• Stories – Jared of Subway• A Simple, Unexpected, Concrete,

Credentialed, Emotional Story

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What Gets in the Way?

The Curse of Knowledge• Tappers & Listeners

– It’s hard to be a Tapper – you have a tune playing in your head (that they don’t hear)

• We can’t imagine others don’t “know”– Consider: “Unlocking Shareholder Value”

• Unexpected?• Concrete?• Emotional?• Story?

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What Gets in the Way?

The Curse of Knowledge• Experts understand things to the point

of abstraction – conceptual knowledge

• They tend to explain things that way

• Novices don’t understand– Not Concrete– Not Simple– Not Sticky

?“Maximizing

Return on Equity”?

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Sticky vs. Abstract

– Simple?– Unexpected?– Concrete?– Credible?– Emotional?– Story?

• Consider: Kennedy - “Put a man on the moon & return him safely by the end of the decade”

We Share Ideas

Sticky vs. Abstract

– Simple?– Unexpected?– Concrete?– Credible?– Emotional?– Story?

• Consider: Kennedy - “Put a man on the moon & return him safely by the end of the decade”

Or? “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives”

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#1 - Simple

• Find the Core– Southwest – “The low fare airline”– Inverted Pyramid – most important at the top

• Force prioritization – If you say 3 things, you don’t say anything

– “It’s the economy, stupid”

– Don’t bury the lead

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Where’s the Lead?

Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a symposium in new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropoligist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California governor Edmund “Pat” Brown.

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The Lead?

“There will be no school next Thursday”

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#1 - Simple

• Share the Core– Simple = “Core” + “Compact”– Proverbs – Sound bites that are profound

• Bird in the hand (Aesop – 570 b.c.)• Golden Rule• “Names, Names, Names” – Small town paper

– Visual proverbs: The Palm Pilot wood block– Existing Schemas: The Pomelo– A high concept pitch: “Alien” = “Jaws on a Space

Ship”

– Generative analogy: Disney’s “cast members.”

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#2 - Unexpected• Get attention: Surprise

– Southwest flight safety announcement– Break a pattern – Enclave Minivan (Ad Council)

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• “This is your brain on drugs”

– Break their guessing machine (on a core issue) – and then fix it

– Avoid gimmicky surprise – make it “postdictable”

– “The Nordie who…” • Wraps a package from Macy’s• Warms cars• Refunds tire chains

#2 - Unexpected• Get attention: Surprise

– Southwest flight safety announcement– Break a pattern – Enclave Minivan (Ad Council)

Or? “Our mission is to provide the best customer service in the industry”

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#2 - Unexpected

• Hold attention: Interest– Create a mystery: What are Saturn’s rings

made of? – The Gap Theory of Curiosity: Highlight a

knowledge gap• The news-teaser approach: “Which local restaurant

has slime in the ice machine?”

– Hold long-term interest: Sony’s“pocketable radio” and the“man on the moon.”

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#1 + #2

1. Identify the central message you need to communicate — find the core

2. Figure out what is counterintuitive about the message — i.e., What are the unexpected implications of your core message? Why isn’t it already happening naturally?

3. Communicate your message in a way that breaks your audience’s guessing machines along the critical, counterintuitive dimension

4. Once their guessing machines have failed, help them refine their machines

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#3 - Concrete

• Help people understand and remember – Write with the concreteness of a fable

(Sour grapes) – Provide a concrete context: Asian teachers’

approach to teaching math (subtraction)– Put people into the story: Accounting class

taught with a soap opera– Use the Velcro theory of memory: The more

hooks in your idea, the better

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#3 - Concrete

• Help people coordinate – Drawings vs. Shop Floor: Find common ground at a

shared level of understanding– Goals in tangible terms

• Our new plane (727) will fly 131 pax, MIA-LGA and land on Runway 4-22 (<5,000’)

• Vs: “The best passenger plane in the world”• The “Pocketable Radio”

– Create a common turf where people can bring their knowledge to bear

• The VC pitch and the maroon portfolio (tablet computing)

– Talk about people, not data: Hamburger Helper’s in-home visits

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#4 - Credible

• Help people believe – citing authority – Ulcers are caused by bacteria– Flesh-eating bananas

• External credibility– Authority and antiauthority - Pam Laffin, smoker

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#4 - Credible• Internal credibility

– Convincing details: The 73 year old dancer– Make statistics meaningful

• Nuclear warheads as BBs (5,000)

– The Human Scale principle – Covey Soccer Analogy• 4 of 11 know which goal is theirs – only 2 care

– Which is more dangerous – shark or deer? – The Sinatra Test: “If I can make it there, I’ll make it

anywhere” • We handled Harry Potter and your brother’s board exams”

– Testable credentials• “Are you better off today?” • “Where’s the beef?”

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#5 - Emotional

• Make people care– The Mother Teresa principle

• If I look at the one, I will act

– People donate more to Rokia than to Africa• 7-year old girl in Mali

– Appeal to self-interest• The “benefit of the benefit” that they can imagine

themselves enjoying -- WIIFY– Maslow’s higher needs

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Maslow’s “Heirarchy”

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Why Study Algebra?• Expert reasons

– Communicating in symbols, math models of our world, relationships between variable quantities, etc.

• Internet reasons– Need to graduate, future math requires it, admission to

college, creating a budget, etc.– Brother – sales rep for high-tech, now realizes Algebra

was important

• Dean Sherman, math teacher:– You’ll never need this– Weight lifting – knock over defender, carry groceries, lift

your grandchildren– Mental weight training – Develop logic to be a better

doctor, lawyer, architect, prison warden, parent, etc.

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#6 – Stories

• Get people to act

• Simulation – Tell people how to act & inspire them– Key Plots

• Challenge – to overcome obstacles• Connection – to get along or reconnect• Creativity – inspire a new way of thinking

– Springboard stories - see how an existing problem might change

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Stickiness Principles

• Simple – 1 idea vs. 10

• Unexpected – Grabs Attention

• Concrete -- Visual

• Credible – “Are you better off today?”

• Emotional – They feel something

• Stories – Jared of Subway• A Simple, Unexpected, Concrete,

Credentialed, Emotional Story

We Share Ideas

Made to StickWhy Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

by

Chip Heath & Dan Heath