Davis & Company's blog: Resolution: 110 books in 2010 #1: Made to Stick

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January 05, 2010

Resolution: 110 books in 2010 #1: Made to Stick

Ah, early January. Time to forget what we didn’t accomplish last year, and focus on what we resolve to do during 365 days ahead.

My resolution is to continue my rapid (and sometimes rabid) reading program. But I’ve set aside my old goal of 50 books in 50 days. (A book a day? What was I on, drugs?) Instead, I am starting fresh, with a goal of reading 110 books this year.

That shouldn’t be too hard, right? About two books a week? Piece of cake, for a recovering English major like me.

To get started, I went back and re-read a favorite, Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. I was inspired to do so for two reasons: 1. To see if the book I loved so much on first reading held up. 2. The Heaths have a new book, Switch, coming out in February, and I want to see how the two books compare. (I have the galley and will be reviewing later this month)

My verdict? Made to Stick is even better than I remembered it. In fact, it’s fabulous—an absolute must for anyone who communicates. Made to Stick will not only help you communicate in a clearer and more compelling way, it also provides evidence for counseling those who prefer communication that is dense, detailed or complex.

The premise is simple. As Dan and Chip explain: “We wrote this book to help you make your ideas stick. By ‘stick,’ we mean that your ideas are understood and remembered, and have a lasting impact—they change your audience’s opinions or behaviors.”

How can you do so? By following Made to Stick’s six principles. These principles may not seem completely new. But the brilliance in Made to Stick is that the Heaths not explain how the principles work (and why), they also provide detailed advice about how to implement them.

You should buy this book right away—or, if you already own it, you should pull it off the shelf and start re-reading. But if that’s not going to happen, as a public service, I offer the following excerpt that captures the essence of Made to Stick. (But really: Read the book. If you only read 10 books in 2010, make sure this is one.)

Made to Stick at a glance

1. Simplicity. “How do we find the essential core of our ideas? To strip an idea down to its core, we must be . . . relentlessly prioritize . . . Proverbs are the ideal. We must create ideas that are both simple and profound.”

2. Unexpectedness. “How do we get our audience to pay attention to our ideas, and how do we maintain their interest when we need time to get the ideas across? . . . We can use surprise—an emotion whose function is to increase alertness and cause focus—to grab people’s attention. But surprise doesn’t last. For our idea to endure, we must generate interest and curiosity.”

3. Concreteness. “How do we make our ideas clear? We must explain our ideas in terms of human actions, in terms of sensory information. Naturally sticky ideas are full of concrete images . . . because our brains are wired to remembered concrete data. In proverbs, abstract truths are often encoded in concrete language: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” ”

4. Credibility. “How do we make people believe our ideas? Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials. We need ways to help people test our ideas for themselves—a “try before you buy” philosophy for the world of ideas.”

5. Emotions. “How do we get people to care about our ideas? We make them feel something. Research shows that people are more likely to make a charitable gift to a single needy individual than to an entire impoverished region. We are wired to feel things for people, not for abstractions.”

6. Stories. “How do we get people to act on our ideas? We tell stories. Firefighters naturally swap stories after every fire, and by doing so they multiply their experiences; after years of hearing stories, they have a richer, more complete catalog of critical situations they might confront during a fire and the appropriate response to those situations.”

Posted by Alison Davis at January 5, 2010 01:10 PM

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