What do "Where's the beef?" and "It's the economy, stupid!" have in common? They have both passed Chip and Dan Heath's test for ideas that stick. The two brothers credit Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, with giving them the concept of stickiness.
If you're like me, you've generated a lot of ideas that haven't gone beyond your best friend's, "Hey that's a great idea!" Yet other persons with "less great" ideas get published, splashed all over the news and celebrated in major galleries. Have you ever fretted about this injustice? If so, then, I recommend that you read Made to Stick, Why Some Ideas Survive and Other Die.
The Heath formula for a "sticky" idea is SUCCESs: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories. I hope my summary below intrigues you to read the book.
Simple means getting to the campact core of the idea. Similar to the militray term, Commander's Intent, it means determining the single most important thing. An example from Southwest Airline: We are THE low-fare airline.
Unexpected means using the surprise factor to get people's attention. It requires creating a mystery to hold their attention. Nora Ephron tells about her first journalism class. The instructor gave them all sorts of information about a conference teachers would be attending and then had the students write "the lead" for the story. After he'd seen their drafts, he said, "The lead is: There will be no school next Thursday." Ephron says that she suddenly realized journalism wasn't about information; it was about getting underneath the facts to their importance. And for the rest of the year, every assignment had a secret - a hidden point the students had to figure out to produce a good story.
Concrete means using people and specifics that help others understand and remember your idea. James Grant, a former director of UNICEF, always carried a packet that contained one teaspoon of salt and eight teaspoons of sugar. When added to a liter of water, these ingredients constitute Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT). As he met with ministers of developing countries, he would pull out his packet and say, "Do you know that this costs less than a cup of tea and it can save hundreds of thousands of children's lives in your country?" Very few people would forget this encounter with ORT.
Credible means helping people believe in the idea. This can be through offering authority (or antiauthority) and/or passing the Frank Sinatra test: "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere." During a mandatory orientation session for basketball rookies, several players went to the hotel bar on the first night. They were pleased that some female fans paid them a lot of attention and made plans to meet up with them later. The next day these female fans were in the front of the classroom. Each introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Donna and I'm HIV positive." "Hi, I'm Sheila and I'm HIV positive." Suddenly all the talk about AIDS was concrete. And the antiauthority of Donna and Sheila made it credible. The rookies became believers in safe sex.
Emotional means making people care about your idea. Mother Teresa said that if she looked at the mass of human suffering, she felt paralyzed; but, if she looked at one person, she was moved to act. Anyone who has ever made a charitable donation knows that the story of one woman whose life was improved by receiving a cow or chicken has caused them to feel generous while tales of mass genocide in Darfur have left them immobilized. We care about the individual because we can identify with him or her. We may also get people to care about our idea by associating it with persons with whom they identify.
Stories mean moving people to act. Jared was a 425 pound college student who lost over 200 pounds by eating Subway sandwiches. Does that get your attention? Does that pique interest in your local Subway shop? It seems that when we hear a story we simulate it in our own life. Anyone who has ever done visualizations about success in a particular area of life, will be fascinated by the research done on event simulations. I'll give away the punch line: Visualizing how a problem arose, going over in detail the incidents that occurred step by step and the actions you took, what you said, the environment, who was there, etc. is more effective than visualizing the outcome you want and the feelings you will have when you achieve it.
May you have many sticky ideas!
