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Made to Stick Summary
About Made to Stick Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The instant classic about why some ideas thrive, why others die, and how to make your ideas stick.
“Anyone interested in influencing others—to buy, to vote, to learn, to diet, to give to charity or to start a revolution—can learn from this book.”—The Washington Post
Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus news stories circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas—entrepreneurs, teachers, politicians, and journalists—struggle to make them “stick.”
In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the human scale principle, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating curiosity gaps. Along the way, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds—from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony—draw their power from the same six traits.
Made to Stick will transform the way you communicate. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures): the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of the Mother Teresa Effect; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice.
Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas—and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.
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The Curse of Knowledge: when we are given knowledge, it is impossible to imagine what it's like to lack that knowledge.
CHIP HEATH
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Six qualities that make an idea stick
There are two steps in making your ideas sticky: Step 1 is to find the core. Step 2 is to translate the core using the SUCCESs checklist.
- S - simplicity. It is uncomplicated.
- U - unexpectedness. It's surprising.
- C - concreteness. It's easily understood.
- C - credibility. It's factual.
- E - emotional. Making people care.
- S - story. It is wrapped in a story.
Compare the CEO phrase, "let's maximize shareholder value", to JFK's idea, "Put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade." The idea is simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and a story.
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Make an idea sticky with simplicity
To make an idea sticky, keep it simple. The idea should be stripped down to its core, where there is nothing left to take away. Use fewer bullet points. Use easy words. Reduce the ideas. The more we reduce the information, the more the idea will stick.
An example of using the core: Southwest uses "We are the low-cost airline." Every decision involves meeting this concrete yet simple goal.
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3 ways to make your ideas better, by simplifying them.
Your Idea Should Be Simple
If you want your idea to stick, to make an impact, to foster change, you should make it simple and digestible.
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Dont Burry The Lead
The lead is the journalist term of the core of your idea, if you want you idea to last, put the lead first, and there get into more detail.
Be careful of putting Your core idea last and ask yourself, after the first slide/ First minute of the pitch, will the person listening to you understand the main thing you try to say?
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Proverbs Are Super-Sticky
Proverbs like “its better to have 1 bird in your hand than two on the tree” stick. They do so because they demonstrate a simple principle with simple image We can recognize.
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An unexpected idea makes for a sticky idea
Booh!
Sticky ideas are unexpected! But how can you describe your idea in a surprising way? Let's see:
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Break the Expectation
GET THEM OUT OF THE AUTOPILOT
Here we have a simple family eating dinner, compare how sticky is this idea "simple family eating a healthy dinner" to "simple family eating dinner made out of cockroaches, which turned up to be extremely healthy"
When you see this image, you immediately assume the food is made out of regular ingredients, by telling you it is made out of cockroaches, you were surprised and your mind stopped acting on autopilot and that made the cockroach dinner much more sticky.
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Plant Questions
At the beginning of your article or lecture, plant interesting questions, by that, you make people much more interested in your presentation because they want to resolve the question you planted.
If the answer to the question you planted will be unexpected and reasonable, creating an "aha" moment, your idea will stay in peoples' minds.
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