Book Review: Made to Stick

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

by Chip Heath and Dan Heath 
Narrated by: Charles Kahlenberg
Publisher: Random House Audio
Total Length: 8 Hours, 37 Minutes
Date Published: September 17, 2007


Any book that starts off with a variant of the kidney thieves heist automatically gets a +1 rating in my evaluation process.  Another +1 for having duct tape on the front cover and you know this is going to be a great book.  

Made to Stick was incredibly fun to listen to.  The authors decided to explore a topic mentioned by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point to see whether you could measure or influence how "sticky" an idea is.  The book is full of great examples of how to craft and alter the message you wish to convey so that it has a better chance of being remembered by others.  The book is laid out in chapters explaining each of the six criteria for the S.U.C.C.E.Ss of a sticky message:

• Simple 
• Unexpected 
• Concrete 
• Credible 
• Emotional 
• Stories
• s - and another 's' on the end for good measure.

As I started putting together some notes on each chapter for this blog post, I had a difficult time condensing the material covered by this book.  Each chapter is full of great information and superb examples for supporting their point of view.  Here are a few of the over arching concepts that I got the most out of.  Each of these are a massive body of knowledge unto themselves, but perhaps it will provoke you to do some additional research on these subjects, and read this book!

The Curse of Knowledge

As described in the Harvard Business Review article The Curse of Knowledge, most people make the mistake of assuming that other people are going to understand the message they are trying to convey.  The example of Tappers and Listeners makes it clear how easy it is for the meaning of a message to get lost in transmission.

Gap Theory

What makes a subject or situation "interesting"?  How do you get someone to pay attention to your message?  The answer, in short, curiosity.  In George Loewenstein's 1994 article, The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation (PDF), Loewenstein "interprets curiosity as a form of cognitively induced deprivation that arises from the perception of a gap in knowledge or understanding."

Priming

In the chapter on Emotion, Mental Priming is discussed as a way of not only getting people to pay attention to your message, but for them to care about your message in a way that causes them to take action.  These concepts about mental priming stood out to me as I read through Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell and Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely as well.  Based on the studies and examples cited in these books, it is obvious that Mental Priming is an extremely powerful tool.

Mental Simulation

The results of the Mental Simulation experiments and studies mentioned in Chapter 6 are astounding.  The studies show that "mental practice alone (sitting quietly, without moving, and picturing yourself performing a task successfully from start to finish) improves performance significantly. [...] Overall, mental practice alone produced about two thirds the benefits of actual physical practice."  With these types of results it is hard to ignore the value of being mentally prepared and engaged for a task.  "The more that training simulates the actions we must take in the world, the more effective it will be."
 

Deep Dive (Chapter Reviews Coming Sometime)

Chapter 1 - Simple
Chapter 2 - Unexpected
Chapter 3 - Concrete
Chapter 4 - Credible
Chapter 5 - Emotional
Chapter 6 - Stories