Made to Stick
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Introduction
Six Principles:
SUCCESs
Simplicity
Unexpectedness
Concreteness
Credibility
Emotions
Stories
The Villain: The
Curse of Knowledge
Once we know something, it is difficult to imagine what it
was like not to know it.
To overcome it, take your ideas and transform them.
Creativity: best when work within the confines of the rules
Chapter 1: Simple
1.
Finding the core
of the idea – the most critical essence. Weed out the superfluous and
tangential elements
2.
Lead
Sentence in news story – the inverted pyramid is great for readers no
matter what their attention span – tells the most important information right
off the bat.
3.
Involves forced
prioritization
4.
Decision
Paralysis – how to prioritize goals that are ‘critical’ and ahead
‘beneficial’.
“Sure thing principle” – make decisions based on evaluating outcomes. But humans still tend to make decisions in
uncertainty environment.
5.
After knowing the core, how do you share and
achieve the message?
analogy
forced prioritization
Clear, tangible language – concrete
which allows others to follow and improvise
Simple
= core + compact
6.
Compactness is crucial – less is more!
7.
Expects become more and more fascinated by the
nuance and complexity
8.
Proverbs – simple sentence with big nugget of
wisdom that is useful in many situations. The Golden Rule – ideas that are
compact enough to be sticky and meaningful enough to make a difference
9.
Technology and product design face “Feature creep” – the tendency things
incrementally become more complex they no longer do their original
function. Reminder to fight temptations
10.
Raw data vs concepts. Posting little flags at
the terrain of our memory. Thus you need to make a profound idea compact into a
little bit of messaging. Tap existing
memory of your audience to help them remember.
11.
If simple ideas are staged and layered
correctly, they can very quickly become complex. Ex. Building on previous knowledge,
information
12.
The use of schema sometimes involve a slower
route to the real truth. Ex. Electrons orbit the nucleus as planetary does, but
actually move in probability clouds… 1) accuracy first, at the expense of
accessibility… or 2) accessibility first at the expense of accuracy
13.
If a message can’t be used to make predictions
or decisions, it is without value, no matter how accurate or comprehensive it
is
14. Accuracy to the point of uselessness is a
symptom of the Curse of Knowledge
15.
Analogy.
High Concept Pitches. Good metaphors are generative, that generate new perceptions,
explanations, and inventions.
16.
Analogy and Proverbs both substitute something
easy to think about to something for difficult.
Chapter 2: Unexpected
1.
First problem in communication is to get attention of your audience
2.
The simplest way is to BREAK a pattern
3.
Surprise
gets our attention. Interest keeps our
attention.
4.
“planned
unexpectedness”
5.
Breaks or violates existing schema (a knowledge
of something)
6.
Surprise makes us want to find an answer…
seize the power of big surprise
7.
Avoid gimmickry.
Must provide adequate answer. After breaking a schema, fix it. Make sure you target an audience’s guessing
machines that related to core messages.
8.
1) identify the central message and 2) figure
out what is counterintuitive about the message ie what are the unexpected
implications of you core message and 3) communicate your message in a way that
breaks your audience’s guessing machines along the critical, counterintuitive
dimension and 4) redefine new meaning
9.
Common sense is the enemy of sticky messages
10.
Not just about regurgitating the facts, but figuring
out the POINT. It wasn’t enough to
know the who, what, when, where; you had to understand what it meant and why it mattered
11.
Keeping attention by mystery. Lead the audience to follow a mystery.
12.
Turning point in movies – prompts audience to
what to know the next thing. Curiosity is the intellectual need to answer
questions and close open patterns. Story plays posing questions, and opening
situations
13.
The Gap
Theory of Curiosity. We need to open gaps before close them. Before tell
them the facts. First tell them why they need the facts. The trick to convince
people they need to know the fact is to trick that there’s a specific knowledge
that they are missing.
- point out someone else knows something they don’t know
-
Present situation with unknown resolution
- predict an outcome
14.
To make communications more effective, shift
from “what information do I need to convey “to “what questions do I want my
audience to ask?”
15.
Battling Overconfidence – most people believe
that they know everything. When you point out that they don’t know, they will
want to fill in the knowledge gap
16.
Gaps
starts with knowledge. Some topics naturally highlight gaps in our
knowledge. If there isn’t pre-existing knowledge, then present the knowledge
the audience needed before posing the question. “here’s what you know, here’s
what’s missing.”
17.
Managerial theme: competition, quality, and
innovation. But Sony decided to go with an unexpected idea – pocket able radio.
Or JFK said we will walk on the moon. Both unexpected, and both create big knowledge
gaps, but not so big that seemed insurmountable.
Chapter 3: Concrete
1.
Example of fable…Fox and grape… often language
is very abstract and life is not abstract.
2.
Smaller, more concrete sub-goals
3.
Understanding concrete… has to be specific
people doing specific things.
4.
Concrete language help novices understand new
concepts
5.
Math- computing
in context. Or Conceptual Knowledge questions. Any reading would be beneficial to have an
EXAMPLE
6.
Concrete is memorable in the brain… things you
can imagine concretely
7.
Velcro
Theory of Memory – our memory doesn’t behave like a single filing cabinet
but more like a Velcro with more things connected to it
8.
The Path to Abstraction – the blueprint and the
machine. The physical examination by the engineer instead of going back to the
blueprint
9.
Memory is often easier to recall things within a
context. Ex. White things vs white things in fridge
10.
Kaplan and Go Computers (tablets) from the
filing folder
11.
Making
Ideas Concrete – Hamburger Helper – thinking ideas in the shoes of the
audience
12.
The greatest barrier is the forgetfulness… we
forget that other people don’t know what we know and that we slipped into
abstract speech
Chapter 4: Credible
1.
Ex of ulcer by Marshall and Warren identified a
bacteria responsible for it (H. pylori) but nobody believed them until he
drinks the bacteria himself
2.
Finding Credibility – authority, celebrities and aspirational figures, and friends and
family being more influential
3.
Antiauthority
– bad example of smoking also works well
4.
The power of details – “internal credibility” – with tangible and concrete
details makes it seem more real and believable
5.
Ex. Darth vader toothbrush to judge mom’s
responsibility – made judgement based on irrelevant but vivid details
6.
Statistics – tend to be eye-glazing. Example nuclear
war US and Russia – emotional sound of BB hitting the bucket. Statistics are
rarely meaningful in and of themselves. But they are almost always useful to
illustrate a relationship. More important to remember the relationship than
the number
7.
Contextualize
statistics to more human, and more everyday like. Ex. Accuracy of a
machine. Sun to earth with a pebble. Ex.
Soccer analogy for team players
8.
Statistics aren’t inherently helpful… it is the
scale and context that make them so
9.
Use statistics as INPUTS not outputs. Use them
to make up the mind. Not make up the mind and then look for numbers.
10.
Clinic – shark attacks very rare. Compared to
deer. The juxtaposition of the cute deer to scary shark elicits an emotional
response. When we use statistics, the
less we rely on numbers the better. Use the numbers to illustrate the underlying relationship.
11.
Sinatra
Test – “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere”. That one example of possibility is enough to
establish credibility. I.e. I have tried
this and it works. The rest just falls into place
12.
Testable
Credentials – Wendy’s beef vs Snapple. Clinic Demonstrating an example on
the audience. Or lead the audience to realize they are wrong. So they would
like to know the answer. EX. The ulcer
13.
NBA vs NFL. Fooled yourself vs someone fooled
someone else.
14.
External validation and statistics aren’t always
the best. A few vivid details maybe more persuasive than a barrage of
statistics.
Chapter 5: Emotional
1.
Mother Teresa – “If I look at the mass, I will
never act. If I look at one, I will.” – Donations based on statistics or a
single story or both. Statistics shifts
people into more analytical frame of mind. Which less likely to think
emotionally. The mere act of calculation reduced people’s charity. The Analytical Hat.
2.
Belief counts for a lot. But for people to take action, they need to care.
3.
Emotional feelings inspire people to act
4.
Anti-smoking ads. Body bags vs “think don’t
smoke”. The think don’t smoke doesn’t work as well cuz it tapped the analytical
hat. Body bags commercial is a bit more anti-authority resentment – rebel
against the tobacco man by not smoking
5.
Semantic
Stretch - How do we make people care
about our messages. Often there’s emotions associated with the message
already. Einstein’s theory of relativity
– how the laws of physics are identical in every frame of reference and they
are more orderly than though. Used to elicit a aura of emotional resonance –
profundity and awe. When overused, the
power of the term and underlying concepts become diluted and not as
special. This overuse is semantic
stretch.
6.
Most
basic way is to form an association between something they don’t care about and
something they do care about
7.
Fighting
Semantic Stretch – If we want to make people care, we’ve got to tap into
the things they care about - ASSOCIATIONS
8.
Appealing
to Self-Interest – invokes self-interest. Headlines that induce promising
huge benefits for trivial costs. Emphasize benefits instead of features. Spell
out the benefit of benefit
9.
“WIIFY” –
whats in it for you should be a central aspect of every speech
10.
The power of imagination – the act of imagining
makes it so – ex. Cable TV allows people to visualize the benefits for
themselves
11.
Maslow’s list of needs – physical, security,
belonging, esteem, learning, aesthetic, self-actualization, transcendence. The appeal to higher levels sometimes can
appeal to people. Ex. Dining Hall in Iraq not just serving food but providing
morale
12.
Group
Interest is also important – ex. Firefighters and popcorn poppers, Don’t
mess with Texas and political voting. What’s in it for my group of people
13.
Be aware of Curse of Knowledge – duo piano and
hospital care.
14.
How can we get people care about our ideas? – we
get them to take off their analytical hats. Create empathy for individuals. We
show our ideas through associations. Appear to self-interest but also their
identities (who they want to be).
Chapter 6: Stories
1.
The Power of Stories – provides two reasons – 1
stimulation (knowledge on how to act) and 2 inspiration (motivation to act).
This generates action
2.
Previous examples that credible idea make people believe,
emotional idea make people care, and stories make people act.
3.
Build in drama – part entertainment part
instruction
4.
Un-passive audience – create a kind of
geographical simulation of the stories we hear.
a.
Event simulation – retrace, step by step, the
events that led to their problem, reviewing causation
b.
Outcome simulation – Picture how relief you feel
after
5.
EVENT simulation did better on almost every
dimension of the tests.
6.
Why does mental simulation work? We cannot
imagine events or sequences without evoking the same modules or previous
memories that are in physical activity
7.
Mental simulation help us manage emotions –
standard treatment for phobias – and helps with problem solving, anticipate
appropriate responses to future situations, and build skills
8.
Mental practice produced about 2/3 of benefits
of actual physical practice
