Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath & Dan Heath. New York, 2007. 280 pages. Reviewed by Leslie M. Williams.
The ability to nurture your ideas, so you can successfully deliver them to the world, takes practice and fundamental information. We must understand how to communicate to others, so our ideas resonate with them so much that they forever thing of them. Furthermore, once we understand how the human brain works, and how inattentive humans can be, we have to take into consideration that communicating our ideas involves much more than sharing our thoughts. As I go further into my graduate studies in the area of communication, it is becoming clear to me that having a great idea is good, but knowing how to get your ideas to stick with others is an art. My hope is to change careers, and work in the area of public relations, where I will communicate company’s ideas and goals to employees and possibly stakeholders. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die tells us why some ideas stick and others do not, and this information is useful for my career.
Chip Heath’s expertise is in business strategy and organization, and he teaches organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Dan Heath served as a researcher at Harvard Business School. Made to Stick is the Heath brother’s first book, where they use their business know-how to give readers insight on how to make their ideas stick.
The Heath brothers collaborated and delivered a masterfully written book on “making it stick” as they showed us how ideas are created and shared with others successfully. The Heath brothers give us insight on how to make our ideas stick by giving us examples of ideas that did not stick and ideas that did stick with audiences in the past. Stickiness according to the Heath brothers, is the result of communicating an idea that people listen to and care about. As we read through the stories and urban legends, we see examples of how to convince others that what you are saying is interesting enough to make others listen. The goal is to nurture our ideas and have our ideas successfully impact the world (4). The Heath brothers start their book with the “Kidney Heist” tale that involves a gang of people going around harvesting organs from people by first luring them to accept a drink from an attractive person, whose mission is to drug them to steal their organ(s). The person later wakes up in a cold tub of ice water with a note in plain sight telling them what to do, so they can survive. Of course the story is interestingly terrifying, but it gets our attention. We can imagine how fearful we would be if our kidneys were cut out from our bodies and we were left in a tub filled with cold ice water facing death, if we do not follow the instructions left on the hand written note. Many lessons can be learned from this tale, but the fact that the story sticks with people is what readers can learn from to become effective communicators. These tales and similar stories have “figured out a way to communicate the idea so that people would listen and care. And the idea stuck” (7). Heath and Heath go beyond giving us advice on how to deliver a great conversation, they tells us how to make our communications effective and unforgettable.
The Heath brothers share six principles of sticky ideas that will help us deliver those “sticky” messages. Simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories were the same principles that were evident in each successful sticky story that the Heath brothers encountered, so they shared those principles with us in their book. Our ideas must be so simple and profound that individuals spend a lifetime learning to follow them (15). Unexpectedness grabs our listener’s attention because our stories “generate interest and curiosity”. Listeners become interest in our stories when our ideas stick and “open gaps” in their knowledge (83). The heath brothers tells us that to make our ideas clear, the information that we pass onto our listeners must be concrete, so they can imagine what we are saying. For example, Heath & Heath refer back to the Kidney Heist story to tell us how the “ice-filled bathtub” sticks with humans because “our brains are wired to remember concrete data” (16). When I think of the idea of having my kidneys cut out unbeknownst to me, and then awaken after being drugged to find myself in an “ice-filled bathtub”, my attention is drawn because I can visualize and sense the shock of the freezing ice water and the note that informs me of what has happened to me. Totally shocking. The scene is quite terrifying. In addition, concrete language “helps people, especially novices, understand new concepts. To be certain that your audience will understand your ideas Heath & Heath argues us that “concreteness is the only safe language” (103). We want to use language that is sure to be understood and memorable. There is nothing to misunderstand about an “ice-filled bathtub” and not being able to move until you contact medical help. That sticks for sure.
The last three principles of sticky ideas brings together the effectiveness of making our ideas stick. If ideas are not credible and grab at our audiences emotions, it will be difficult to gain listeners attention; therefore, our ability to present a simple unexpected concrete message would not exist. Along with the six principles of sticky ideas the Heath brothers discuss how messages should make predictions, so that the message is valuable. If you have an invaluable message, you will lose your audience (55). Heath & Heath emphasis that in order for our communications to be effective, we need to shift our thinking from what to convey to our audience to what will our audience ask about the ideas that we have conveyed ( 88). We should think of ideas that get our audience so curious that they want to learn more.
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, served as a blueprint for me to follow when thinking of addressing a small or large audience. Instead of focusing on just delivering my message, I now have insight on how to deliver messages that resonate with people. Making people interested in a message is not an easy task but with a few guidelines from the Heath brothers, delivering ideas and messages has been made simpler. Towards the end of the book, Heath and Heath have an easy reference guide “Making Ideas Stick: The Easy Reference Guide” with the six principles highlighted for easy access and review for sharing ideas with your audience. In addition, what stuck out to me the most about the reference guide was that the Heath brothers chose to show readers how success helps people to “pay attention, understand and remember, believe and agree, care, and act, which all go hand in hand with the six principles. The reference highlights serve as bullet points to remember and follow when thinking of how to make your ideas stick (256). The Heath brother’s book is a great starting point to creating ideas that stick.
Heath & Heath teaches us to deliver clear, concise, interesting, and sticky ideas that will help us succeed in luring audiences into believing your message and supporting your ideas. Making ideas meaningful to others, will serve as a catalyst to getting your audiences to hear and feel emotionally attached to what you are saying. I now also have a better understanding of how to make my ideas stick. Moreover, I have learned how to create ideas that will resonate with others by thinking of the Heath brother’s six principles of sticky ideas.
To conclude, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, served as more than a guide to making my ideas stick, but also allowed me to rethink of those ideas that I heard from others that stuck with me, and why. In addition, Heath & Heath gave me many examples through their stories that taught me why some ideas will not work without considering some key factors. The goal is to make your ideas sticky, so your ideas stick with everyone that hears your stories.
Leslie’s Creative Corner 