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Are your ideas STICKY?
 Posted
11/10/2009 9:19:00 AM
“Having a good idea isn’t enough--we have to be able to make it stick for it to count” explains author Chip Heath to Meredith Vieira of NBC News’ TODAY.
Packaging your message in such a fashion that it resonates with your audience is an important skill that we all employ at some point or another. For instance, a teacher spends every day trying to make his or her educational message stick with a group of students; a retailer works tirelessly to make information about where to purchase his or her products stick with consumers; and a job applicant carefully prepares for an interview in an effort to make his or her message stick with a potential employer.
The bestselling book, Made to Stick: why some ideas survive and others die discusses practical ways to make your great idea memorable.
The co-authors of Made to Stick, brothers Dan and Chip Heath, identify six key principles at work in sticky ideas: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, and Stories...which they summarize in a more sticky form as SUCCESs, “a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story.”
The Heath brothers include many great examples of sticky ideas like that of flight attendant, Karen Wood, who added a little comic flair into the normal FAA edict (the safety announcement) that must be made before a passenger plane takes off:
“If I could have your attention for a few moments, we sure would love to point out these safety features. If you haven’t been in an automobile since 1965, the proper way to fasten your seatbelt is to slide the flat end into the buckle. To unfasten, lift up on the buckle and it will release.
And as the song goes, there might be fifty ways to leave your lover, but there are only six ways to leave this aircraft: two forward exit doors, two over-wing removable window exits, and two aft exit doors. The location of each exit is clearly marked with signs overhead, as well as red and white disco lights along the floor of the aisle.
Made you look!”
Karen Wood’s genius Genie-of-the-Lamp-like description of the safety announcement caught the passengers off guard and scattered applause broke out.
To compliment the concepts covered in the book Chip and Dan Heath have produced four free resources (MadetoStick.com/BookResources) to help you put the book’s ideas into practice in your life.
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Korinda Tetz
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Great article and great book! Just cracked in to it the other day.
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Posted By
Paul Letourneau
On
3/23/2010 11:07:54 AM
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