from the January 23, 2007 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0123/p15s02-bogn.html

Why some ideas stick and others don't

The 'stickiest' ideas – regardless of merit – have a
lot in common. This book explains what that is.

By Michael S. Hopkins

On April 29, 1999, an article appeared in the Indiana Daily
Student headlined "Indiana U. Senior Gains New Perspective on Life."
You'll recognize the story. It profiled a 425-pound college kid who
cut his weight in half by eating fast food. His name was Jared.

Part of the reason you know the story is that Subway – the place
Jared got his veggie and turkey subs every day – turned it into an
ad campaign that transformed Jared into an unlikely celebrity.
(Possibly you can still picture him in his "after" version,
stretching the 60-inch waist of his "before" pants between two
widespread hands.)

But the Subway campaign alone doesn't explain the nearly viral
phenomenon it triggered. There have been countless other ad
campaigns since Jared's debuted, and none of them imprinted an
unknown college student on the nation's memory the way Subway's did.
Nor did many of them so swiftly and lastingly get their message
across. ("Our food, though fast, is actually so healthy it can help
you lose weight.")

Why not? What was it about Jared's message that made it – and him
– stick?

Now, thanks to Made to Stick, we know. Coauthors (and
brothers) Chip and Dan Heath – a Stanford Business School professor
and an education entrepreneur respectively – spent a decade
disassembling and trying to understand the inner workings of
memorable, persuasive ideas, no matter what kind of packages they
came in.

They studied political speeches, urban legends, news reports,
management directives, and marketing messages like Subway's – not to
mention culture-crossing proverbs, the various fables of Aesop, and
the many soups of chicken (for the soul).

It didn't matter whether the ideas themselves were good or bad,
just that they'd "stuck." (Not only is the Great Wall of China not
the sole man-made structure visible from space; it isn't visible
from space at all. And still...)

What the Heaths discovered was that the stickiest ideas,
regardless of intrinsic merit, had a lot in common. Or, more
accurately, the ways they were presented had a lot in common.

How to spell success

Each of these ideas, as conveyed, could be described using one or
more of just these six à la carte attributes: simple, unexpected,
concrete, credible, emotional, and story-containing. Line up the
first letters of those characteristics, add a lower-case "s" (poetic
license), and you've got the handy acronym SUCCESs. (Well, whaddya
know...)

If that sounds like typical pop-lecture hokum (and it does, as
the authors admit), it's not. What the Heaths have produced,
complete with mnemonic handle, is a powerfully useful checklist for
understanding how connections can be wired between ideas and people
– between your ideas and the people you hope will be struck by
them.

Why expertise doesn't always appeal

In separate chapters for each of the six principal
characteristics, "Made to Stick" explores in depth exactly how, say,
concreteness provides more hooks for recall (the "Velcro theory of
memory") and why abstraction is often what unintentionally results
from expertise.

"This is the Curse of Knowledge," the Heaths write, describing
what they consider the single biggest reason so many messages fail
to stick. "Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what
it was like not to know it. [It] becomes difficult for us to share
our knowledge with others, because we can't readily re-create our
listeners' state of mind."

The expert "wants to talk about chess strategies, not about
bishops moving diagonally."

It's the showing, not the telling

"Made to Stick" summons plenty of brain science, social history,
and behavioral psychology to explain what makes an idea winning and
memorable – and the Heaths do the telling with beautiful
clarity.

But they've also learned their own most important lesson: They
know that with ideas it's not the telling but the showing that
counts, so they've filled their book with stories that illustrate
their theories.

"Made to Stick" deconstructs President Kennedy's moon mission
challenge, the act of a biologist who drank a jar of ulcer-causing
bacteria so he could persuade skeptics of his cure, and the way that
the profound simplicity of Southwest Airline's core purpose ("be the
low-cost airline") helps "employees wring decisions out of ambiguous
situations."

Much of what they say may seem obvious – and yet the simple
principles they propound are routinely ignored even by many who
consider themselves professional communicators.

The Heaths discuss, for instance, what they call "the gap theory"
of curiosity. This is the notion that a gap in knowledge is painful
– it's like having an itch that needs to be scratched. It's also the
reason that murder mysteries, crossword puzzles, sport contests, and
even Pokémon succeed in grabbing attention: An audience is
challenged to predict an outcome and then left wondering, "What
will happen?" and "Was I right?"

But to capitalize on this kind of natural situational interest,
the Heaths point out, "we need to first open gaps before we
close them. And yet, too often, the communicator's tendency
is "to tell people the facts. First, though, they must realize that
they need these facts."

Throughout "Made to Stick," the Heaths provide dozens of examples
of sticky messages – and plenty of samples of ingloriously
ineffective prose as well. They show how a badly articulated idea
can be reexpressed.

An old-school self-help book?

That utility is what separates "Made to Stick" from the books
it's indebted to – "The Tipping Point" and "Freakonomics" – books
that proved the pop- crossover appeal of social psychology.

"Made to Stick," too, wants to unveil how people behave.
Specifically, it wants to explicate what makes people care about the
ideas they encounter. But then, unlike its forebears, it goes
old-school. It emerges as a how-to book – very nearly a self-help
book, whether for organizations or individuals – just like thousands
before it, only far better. By mapping what makes others listen, it
shows you how to make yourself heard.

I'm betting "Made to Stick" won't find as many readers as have
its now-glamorous predecessors. But I'd also bet that the readers it
does find will end up more profoundly changed by it.

• Michael S. Hopkins is a contributing editor of Inc.
magazine.

Full HTML
version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and
related links

Home |

About
Us/Help |

Feedback |

Subscribe
|

Archive |

Print
Edition |

Site Map |

Special
Projects |

Corrections

Contact Us |

Privacy Policy
|

Rights &
Permissions |

Terms of
Service |

Advertise With
Us |

Today's
Article on Christian Science

www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2007 The Christian Science
Monitor. All rights reserved.