Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

The SUCCESs. Not the word that counts its literal meaning, but that invisible, intangible theory where we are able to express, deliver, and stick ideas to others. In this revealing book, you will be introduced to the six ingredients designed specifically to make ideas sticky, and let me deliver what I caught from this eye-opening book. Others may experience over time they develop habits that slowly erode their mind's sensitivity. The inevitable pain and disappointment of moments such as delivering your ideas at a business meeting or a conference have caused you to set up walls around your mind. Much of this is understandable. But, there's no way around the truth: your mind is out of tune with confidence it was created to maintain. As we live in community, communication is the way for us to feel the unity. The book is even greater because the authors, Chip and Dan Heath, apply their SUCCESs theory onto practical situation to help readers understand more clearly. Without the SUCCESs rule, some kinds of communications might ease our conscience temporarily but would do nothing to expose the deeper secrets we carry and deliver. And, it might be the secrets that keep our minds in turmoil. Worse, this kind of communication could actually fuel destructive behavior rather than curb it. The rules the authors explain in this book might seem the things you would feel that you already know. But, these are the things you could easily ignore. The book is a great reference to keep you on succeeding the efficient deliverability of your ideas. Chapter summary Chapter1: Simple When you needed to deliver your message in a brief and compact way, how would you prepare to deliver it to your audiences or readers? Simplicity is the key and first step to make a message sticky to others. Making it simple does not mean that you need to bring out your most important idea. It is critical to find the core. According to the authors, "finding the core isn't synonymous with communicating the core." But, that simplicity must come with its value. Like the metaphor of a company for the employees to be encouraged, your message needs to be simple and important to make your message remain not just in your mind but others as well. Chapter2: Unexpected "We can't demand attention. We must attract it" says the authors in the book. In order to grab people's attention, your message may be attractive with unexpectedness. Breaking a pattern could be one way. For example, the old emergency siren was too monotonic to stimulate our sensory systems and therefore failing to attract our attention. As the siren gets systematically and audibly improved, people hear much brighter and more stimulating sound and therefore being aware of some situation. In order to catch people's attention, you need to break the ordinary patterns. According to the book, "Our brain is designed to keenly aware of changes." The more you learn knowledge, the greater the knowledge gap you would get. Because we sometimes tend to perceive that we know everything, it's hard to glue the gap. However, curiosity comes from the knowledge gaps, so these knowledge gaps can be interesting. Chapter3: Concrete Humans can hallucinate and imagine what we've experienced in visual, audible, or any other sensory pathways. When we use all our sensory systems to visualize ideas or messages, then the ideas get much more concrete. As an example the authors provide in this chapter, "a bathtub full of ice" in the Kidney Theft legend is an example of abstract moral truths that makes it concrete. Chapter4: Credible When you are a scientist, you believe more in the things that are scientifically proven or that are referred to many other studies or to the words or the theories that the well-known scientist has established. That much, credibility makes or deceives people believe your ideas. Both authorities and antiauthorities work. We present results, charts, statistics, pictures and other data to make people believe. "But concrete details don't just lend credibility to the authorities who provide them; they lend credibility to the idea itself." Chapter5: Emotional What's in it for you? It is a good example of the power of association. Sometimes, we need to grab people's emotion. It does not mean tear jerking, dramatic, or romantic. It means that your idea must pull out people's care and attachment to it. However, we don't always have to create this emotional attachment. "In fact, many ideas use a sort of piggybacking strategy, associating themselves with emotions that already exist (Made to Stick)." People can make decisions based on two models: the consequence model and the identity model. The consequence model can be rational self-interest, while the identity model is that people identify such situations like what type of situation is this? Chapter6: Stories Have you seen and heard the story of the college student from the Subway campaign? He's the guy who lost hundreds of pounds eating Subway sandwiches. The story inspires people and even connects to people's real life. Like the book, Made to Stick, also presents a lot of stories to deliver and to help readers understand in each chapter, stories allow people to understand how your idea can affect or change their mind. Close the book and think for a moment before you start reading. How are things with your mind? Chances are, you've never stopped to consider your mind. Why should you? There are interviews to prepare for, meetings to blow others' mind with your amazing ideas, and moments you need to bring up emotional attachment with your family or your friends. If you are all caught up with these things and ask yourself this, "how are things?" "How have I dealt with those situations?" Before you go reading, you first need to dispel a commonly held myth about communication. You need to understand your old habits would die hard. And, like any habit that goes unchecked, over time they come to keep disturbing you to make your ideas sticky. Try to use the clinic part in each chapter. It will enhance your understandings, and you will improve your skills to make your ideas survive. If you really want to understand much deeper, as you read the book, look up some informative articles about the anatomy and physiology of the brain. It will help you. According to the book, your ideas must simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and stories. Try to apply these rules into your next presentation. I was not a good organized speaker. When I adjusted my mind with these rules to prepare my presentation recently, an amazing thing happened. I am the leader of the young adult ministry of a small local church. At almost every meeting, I needed to make the members understand what and why we need to awaken ourselves and other people; they barely paid attention to what I was saying. Even they seemed understanding, but once they returned to their home or to their life, they forgot what I emphasized. However, with the rules I learned from the book, the members started showing their interests in what I say and paying good attention to it. It works! Part of our confusion in delivering ideas stems from a misapplication of the rules we think we already know for persuasions. The notion that all confusions can be reduced down to a single underlying problem may strike you as a case of oversimplification. However, with the book, Made to Stick, you will track and be ready for your next presentation. When I was looking for a neuroscience book, Made to Stick was one of the recommended books related to neuroscience. The book is easy to follow, and it is really made to stick! If you are looking for a scientifically texted neuroscience book, this is not the book for you. However, this book will stir up your curiosity about neuroscience as a fundamental connector to higher neural knowledge. Simply, highly I recommend.

Made to Stick Chip & Dan Heath Made to Stick teaches you how to make ideas simple enough for everyone to understand. The brothers used their backgrounds to figure out how to make ideas stick, Dan with a love of education and Chip a professor at Standford University has spent around 10 years asking why bad Ideas stick. Together, the brothers have put together six principles to make ideas stick. Simplicity- “How do we find the essential core of our ideas?” This does not mean to shorten your idea until it is nothing, but to make it where you and everyone else understand it. Unexpectedness- “How do we get our audience to pay attention to our ideas?” We need to increase people's alertness, causing them to focus their attention on the idea. The idea will be nothing unless we spark their interest. Concreteness- “How do we make our ideas clear?” We must speak in ways that make the average human understand, images so they can imagine and language that make them understand enough to remember. Credible- “How do we make people believe our ideas?” Credibility for ideas might not be statistical evidence but from evidence that we build for ourselves. Emotions- “How do we get people to care about our ideas?” The human brain is wired to feel things about people, not about their ideas. Stories- “How do we get people to act on our ideas?” Telling stories to people acts as training on a job or a simulation which prepares them to respond more effectively. These 6 principles are known as SUCCESs and are the key to the book and gives meaning to the lessons and ideas used in this book. I believe if you are going into the business field, you should take the time to sit down and read this book. You could be the smartest person in the room and have a brilliant idea, but if you can’t get the other people in the room to believe in you or your idea, then it will go nowhere. If you were to understand the aspects of the book and how to make your idea better, then you would say the idea in a way to make the others at the table believe in it and want to pursue it with you. After taking the time to read this book I did have a change of perspective for certain problems and ideas. It made me think life is not as complicated as we make it out to be and if I try to just simplify it then everything will be okay. The book itself was a good read. I would say that some parts of the book got repetitive, but that did not last long. Overall, it was a well-worded book that made you want to keep reading even if you think you should stop.

This is the best book about communications I've read since I discovered Stephen Denning's work on telling business stories. I highly recommend Made to Stick to all those who want to get their messages across in business more effectively. Imagine if people remembered what you had to say and acted on it. Wouldn't that be great? What if people not only remembered and acted, but told hundreds of others who also acted and told? Now you're really getting somewhere! Brothers Chip (an educational consultant and publisher) and Dan (a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Business School) Heath combine to develop Malcolm Gladwell's point about "stickiness" in The Tipping Point. To help you understand what they have in mind, the book opens with the hoary urban tale of the man who ends up in a bathtub packed with ice missing his kidney after accepting a drink from a beautiful woman. That story, while untrue, has virtually universal awareness. Many other untrue stories do, too, especially those about what someone found in a fast food meal. The brothers Heath put memorable and quickly forgotten information side-by-side to make the case for six factors (in combination) making the difference between what's memorable and what isn't. The six factors are: 1. Simplicity (any idea over one is too many) 2. Unexpectedness (a surprise grabs our attention) 3. Concreteness (the more dimensions of details the more hooks our minds use to create a memory) 4. Credibility (even untrue stories don't stick unless there's a hint of truth, such as beware of what's too good to be true in the urban legend that opens the book) 5. Incite Emotions in Listeners (we remember emotional experiences much more than anything else; we care more about individuals than groups; and we care about things that reflect our identities) 6. Combine Messages in Stories (information is more memorable and meaningful in a story form . . . like the urban legend that opens the book) Before commenting on the book further, I have a confession to make. This book has special meaning for me. I was one of the first people to employ and popularize the term "Maximize Shareholder Value" by making that the title of my consulting firm's annual report (Mitchell and Company) over 25 years ago when we began our practice in stock-price improvement. That term has become almost ubiquitous in CEO and CFO suites, but hasn't gone very far beyond the discussions of corporate leaders, investment bankers and institutional investors and analysts. The authors use that term in the book as an example of a communication that hasn't stuck broadly. And they are right. Having watched that term over the years go into all kinds of unexpected places and be quoted by people who had no idea how to do it long ago convinced me of the wisdom of telling people what to do . . . not just what the objective is. The authors make this point beautifully in citing Southwest Airline's goal of being "THE low-fare airline." If something conflicts with being a good low-fare airline at Southwest, it's obvious to everybody not to do it. You'll probably find that some of the examples and lessons strike you right in the middle of the forehead, too. That's good. That's how we learn. I went back to a new manuscript I'm writing now and wrote a whole new beginning to better reflect the lessons in Made to Stick. I've also recommended the book already to about a dozen of my graduate business students. So clearly Made to Stick is sticking with me. If you find yourself skipping rapidly through the book, be sure to slow down and pay attention on pages 247-249 where the authors take common communications problems and recommend what to do about them (such as how to get people to pay attention to your message). That's the most valuable part of the book. It integrates the individual points very effectively and succinctly. I also liked the reference guide on pages 252-257 that outlines the book's contents. You won't need to take notes with this reference guide in place. So why should you pay attention? The authors demonstrate with an exercise that people who know and use these principles are more successful in communicating through advertisements than those who are talented in making advertisements but don't know these principles. Without more such experiments, it's hard to know how broad the principle is . . . but I'm willing to assume that they have a point here. No book is perfect: How could this one have been even better? Unlike Stephen Denning's wonderful books on storytelling, this book is more about the principles than how to apply the principles. I hope the authors will come back with many how-to books and workbooks. I would also like to commend the book's cover designer for doing such a good job of simulating a piece of duct tape on the dust jacket. That feature adds to the stickiness of this book.

"Made to Stick" is a useful book which explores how to make ideas more 'sticky' -- easier to accept and remember for people. The authors provide boatloads of examples of different messages and explain why some of these work and why some of these don't work and also give examples how you could change the message format (to say the same thing!) which would make it easier for people to remember. The book is well structured according to the author's message template for making sticky messages. The SUCCES acronym is this template used throughout the rest of the book. The next six chapters contain one of the elements of the message template. After that is an epilogue which summaries the book and makes some closing remarks. The last part contains a small article which was added after the first release of Made to Stick. The six chapters are for each of the elements of the SUCCES acronym: 1) Simple -- the point of the message needs to be simple and not buried deeply inside the message. 2) Unexpected -- When something unexpected happens in the message, a sudden change or so, then it will be easier to remember the message. 3) Concrete -- ideas ought to concrete with examples as most people are concrete thinkers and won't remember abstract ideas. 4) Credible -- the source of the idea and additional details can give an idea more credibility and making it easier to remember and accept. 5) Emotional -- trying to get an emotional reaction out of people based on a message makes it easier for people to remember. We want to be rational but we are emotional. 6) Stories -- Often good ideas and messages come in stories (with lots of concreteness and color). Formulating messages in stories will increase it's stickiness. Each of the above chapters contains dozens of stories, examples of good and bad messages, and tips on how to improve them. Also each chapter contains a clinic in which they take a message and, using the theme of the chapter, they give two different variants of the same message and explain why one is better than the other. All in all, I enjoyed reading Made to Stick. It was well written and I'll remember a lot of stories from the book as they were pretty... sticky. That said, while reading the book, there was no major Aha! moment, but instead if seemed to add words and concepts to things that I had already experienced. That also made it easy to accept what was written in Made to Stick. The book didn't dramatically change the way I create messages/ideas, but it did gave me a new thinking tool to use. I was going between 3 stars (does what it should do) and 4 stars (good and recommended). I decided to stick with 4 stars. Pretty good, especially for people who give training, are in marketing or in other ways need to make easy to remember -- sticky -- messages.

Brothers Chip and Dan Heath in their New York Time’s best-selling book, “Made to Stick,” explore the stickiness of an idea. Those of us who spend time in the start-up world marvel at why one idea gains traction and other, seemingly better ideas, fall to wayside. The Heath brothers provide insights on this phenomenon and provide help for those bent on creating ideas that are “sticky.” “Sticky” ideas are understandable, memorable, and effective in changing thought or behavior. The six underlying SUCCESs principles for making things “stick” are: • Simplicity – Simple=core+compact. Find and share your core idea; make it simple and profound. “It’s the economy, stupid” (Clinton campaign, 1992) is a great example. The inverted pyramid approach which is used in journalism is a good tool to get your headline. • Unexpectedness - We need to violate people’s expectations to get them to pay attention. Break existing patterns to get people’s attention. Southwest flight attendants use humor (there are two doors on either side if you need to jump!) to hold attention when giving the pre-flight safety announcement. Humans adapt incredibly quickly to patterns. Consistent sensory stimulation makes us tune out. • Concreteness – You must help people understand and remember. Don’t use abstractions. Make your core idea concrete. Use common knowledge to make your idea stick. Our greatest villain is the Curse of Knowledge or when we assume everyone knows what we know or shares our unique perspective. We have to see it from the “others” point of view. We forget what other people do not know and slip into “abstractspeak.” Boeing’s criteria for a new plane was not “the best passenger plane in the world” but one that can seat 131 passengers and land on Runway 2-22 at LaGuardia. No ambiguity here. • Credibility – Help people believe by making sure your idea carries its own credentials. Pass the “Sinatra Test.” Examples offered include “Where’s the Beef?” and Reagan’s “Are you better off today?” Both were credible and resonated as they were based on common shared knowledge. • Emotional– Make people care by using the power of association, appealing to self-interest, or identity. “People donate to Rokia more than a wide swath of Africa”; “Honoring the Game” versus the use of the word ‘sportsmanship’; “I’m in charge of morale” as stated by a US military cook in Iraq. We must make people feel something to get them to care. We are wired to feel things, not abstractions. • Stories – Stories get people to act on our ideas. Stories act as a kind of mental flight simulator, preparing us to respond more quickly and effectively. Stories are told and retold because they contain wisdom. The Healths provide what they view are the three basic story plots – the Challenge Plot, The Connection Plot, and the Creativity Plot. Stories can almost single-handedly defeat “The Curse of Knowledge.” I have been involved in a ministry for people in career-transition for over fifteen years. We consistently advise those in-transitions to create stories to highlight their skills and experience when interviewing. It is well understood that interviewers will mostly remember your comportment and more importantly, your stories. A chapter is devoted to each principle with the authors providing context for clarity and understanding, examples, and tools to guide the development of a “sticky” idea. The Curse of Knowledge is what escapes most when trying to pitch an idea. It is the natural psychological tendency that consistently gets in the way of our ability to successfully create “sticky ideas” using these principles. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know. This knowledge has “cursed” us and makes it difficult to share our knowledge with others. It is because we cannot readily re-create our listeners state of mind. When a CEO discusses “unlocking shareholder value,” there is a tune playing in his head that the employees can’t hear. On the other hand, President John F. Kennedy knew that opaque, abstract missions don’t captivate and inspire people so he concretely challenged the country with “landing on the moon by the end of the decade.” Throughout the book, the authors present “Idea Clinics” which illustrate how an idea can be made stickier. Example: ”Do smokers really need to understand the workings of the lungs in order to appreciate the dangers of smoking?” The book itself is “sticky’ filled with stories of normal people facing normal problems who did an amazing thing simply by applying these principles, even if they were not aware that they were doing this. They distinguish themselves by crafting ideas that made a difference. Do your ideas gain traction and “Stick” or are they cast aside for less important ideas? “Made to Stick” was written for you.

Some time ago, actually a very long time ago, our ancient ancestors sat around a fire burning brightly within the cool confines of a mountain cave. The walls, decorated with painted hand prints and animals told the story of the small tribe. There was silence for a moment, juxtaposed against the recent great debate over what to do. Many disagreed, saying it was a bad idea, against the ancient ways even. No one had ever done it. It should not be attempted. Finally, a chance was taken. The meat, a large, tender piece of fresh mastodon, was thrown over the flame and the way we ate was forever changed; barbecue had been invented. That's a highly unlikely story, but might make for a great presentation for a new restaurant, commercial, or advertising campaign. In fact, if you read this review, the only thing that might stick is the image of some roasting piece of meat. You might even smell the fat cooking and sizzling over the flames... and so, ideas, especially those which we can visualize, stick. Of course, this is just one element presented in the book, and a far better job is done explaining exactly why ideas stick (and others don't). But is this book for you? In short yes, it's good for everyone. However, I'd say three key groups of people can get the greatest benefit from this book: writers, marketers, and teachers. I've left leaders [business mainly - though any kind really] out of this because I think anyone that subscribes to the simple paradigms established in this book put the three categories above before leadership, or at the very least, know they are essential for good leadership. Ultimately, Made to Stick is a book about communication. More specifically, a book about communicating ideas, and doing so effectively. While by most accounts it comes across as common sense (all easily followed principals do), there is still loads of advice presented with practical application. Of course, most people will pick this up in likely expectation of changing their organization, or finally being heard. The examples in the book lend themselves to this quite well. However, the reality is often, even with the most noble of intentions, one person won't affect change, even with ideas that stick. Why? As the book puts it, the curse of knowledge, or really the curse of knowledge past (my take on the book's established villain). So what is one to do? I say start in places where you do have influence, or as least some semblance of that. The ideas are quite practical within our homes, small groups, and even friendships. That is, those areas where we have [some] current, control over our message. If you are so blessed to have this in your current place of work (the three groups mentioned previously are most apt to implement the philosophies in my opinion), I think you will find quick wins that will seed, later, much grander victories.

The Heath brothers have written what I believe is a modern management masterpiece. I how them and so I have to confess I am biased, but at the same time, I know lots of other authors, and rarely review their books. Why do I think this is one of the most important management books you can own? 1. The ideas are evidence-based. Note that Chip Heath is a world class social psychologist. In fact, his dissertation adviser was Amos Tversky, who would have won a Nobel Prize had he lived (this is not speculation, his co-author Daniel Kahneman won the prize in 2003 for their joint work.) As such, theor recommendations are all grounded in some of the most rigorous and well-grounded principles in the behavioral science literature. In a world where anyone can be a management expert -- including Tony Soprano -- it is essential to have ideas that are valid, yet rare. 2. The book is completely readable and understandable. It bewilders me when people complain that a management book is too approachable -- especially one that his ideas that are so sound. And the reason there are so many stories to go along with the evidence is that -- as the best evidence shows -- people remember stories, not statistics. 3. The final and most important thing about this book is that the ideas are more quickly and readily applied than any management book I know. When I just quickly go through the principles with managers or Stanford students, they move to application with impressive speed. Things like, if it isn't simple, you will lose your audience. Things like, no matter how rigorous your evidence, people need to hear stories that underpin the data. Sound obvious? Then why do so few people do it, and why, then, when they hear the Heath's arguments, do they then start doing it? We have also had Chip come into our classes at the Stanford Institute of Design on creating infectious action. These are applied classes where MBA and Engineering students are asked to create ideas that spread and stick: I have seen them apply the ideas immediately to doing things like spreading the Firefox browser and helping people just out of college start saving money earlier. As I said, I admit my bias openly, as I know Chip and like him and have talked to Dan on the phone. But at the same time I know and like lots of academics and management experts, but most of their ideas are either hard to apply or aren't based on sound research -- or I can't understand what they are saying. I expect that this book, in addition to the impressive initial bang, will be become a standard text in marketing, organizational behavior, advertising, and a host of other college classes.

Heath brothers wrote an interesting book to read and the information they provide has a great value to readers, which specifically can help people with significant message to pass on to their target audience or readers. Since the first day I bought the book till the time I read it, I always wondered the meaning of the duct tape that is wrapped on the cover of the book. After I read it, I found out that it conveys a message that is simple, unexpected, concrete, credible & emotional story. I believe that the six elements of the book, SUCCES, are necessary key points for anybody who is willing to use them for effectiveness of their messages. Speaking of the kidney heist story, Heath brothers discusses, "Good ideas often have a hard time succeeding in the world. Yet the ridiculous Kidney Heist tale keeps circulating, with no resources whatsoever to support it." It was very creative example to discuss and combine the six elements with the story and come-up with an interesting fiction that makes you eager to find out the end of it. The bottom line is that it is not the usefulness of the information that attracts the listners, but it is the way we addressed it. In response to the unexpectedness, the heaths mentioned, "To make a message stick, you have got to push it beyond common sense to uncommon sense." you can get people's awareness by ignoring their point of view, and come up with an idea that can surprise them. For example, when President John F. Kennedy gave a speech to the congress about the satellite launch his statement was stickier because of the way he put it out. The speech was unexpected and call for full team participation to reach a common goal, which was to become the international leader in space. "Before the decade is out, achieving the goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." Sounds like inviting the people of the United States for strategic innovation with in the time frame than to specific sectors. Finally, the authors discuss the elements of why some ideas survive and others die. It helps us on how we should convey our message using some techniques to be effective rather than broadcast with out considering the attention of our audience.

Me encantó, desde la introducción hasta el final, realmente te atrapa

No one from the country bought this book. I did it. Don't hesitate to buy. It's an original book. I felt real tape feeling when I touched on the front. Go for it.

بائع غير آمين...

The pages are loose and are falling out the first time I open the book

All good