Made to Stick Why 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 We Share Ideas The “Stickiness” Factor • The right people • The “Stickiness” Factor • The right context We Share Ideas 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 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? We Share Ideas 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 We Share Ideas ? “Maximizing Return on Equity” ? Sticky vs. Abstract • Consider: Kennedy - “Put a man on the moon & return him safely by the end of the decade” – Simple? – Unexpected? – Concrete? – Credible? – Emotional? – Story? We Share Ideas Sticky vs. Abstract • Consider: Kennedy - “Put a man on the moon & return him safely by the end of the decade” Or? – Simple? – Unexpected? – Concrete? – Credible? – Emotional? – Story? We Share Ideas “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives” #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 We Share Ideas 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. We Share Ideas The Lead? “There will be no school next Thursday” We Share Ideas #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.” We Share Ideas #2 - Unexpected • Get attention: Surprise – Southwest flight safety announcement – Break a pattern – Enclave Minivan (Ad Council) Click here for Video We Share Ideas #2 - Unexpected • Get attention: Surprise – Southwest flight safety announcement – Break a pattern – Enclave Minivan (Ad Council) • “This is your brain on drugs” – Break their guessing machine (on a core issue) – and then fix it – Avoid gimmicky surprise – make it “postdictable” Or? “Our mission is to – “The Nordie who…” • Wraps a package from Macy’s provide the best customer service • Warms cars in the industry” • Refunds tire chains We Share Ideas #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.” We Share Ideas #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 We Share Ideas #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 We Share Ideas #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 inhome visits We Share Ideas #4 - Credible • Help people believe – citing authority – Ulcers are caused by bacteria – Flesh-eating bananas • External credibility – Authority and antiauthority - Pam Laffin, smoker Click here for Video We Share Ideas #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?” We Share Ideas #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 We Share Ideas Maslow’s “Heirarchy” We Share Ideas 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 lawyer, architect, prison warden, parent, etc. We Sharedoctor, Ideas #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 We Share Ideas 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 Stick Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath We Share Ideas