I just finished re-reading “Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” by Chip and Dan Heath. Months ago I read a copy of it from the library. I gave it a 10! It was excellent. So I bought myself my own copy so that I could mark it all up and try to apply it to ministry, both in sermons and the mission of the church.
If you are in marketing or a communicator such as a teacher, pastor, etc., you have to read this book. It takes Gladwell’s “Sticky chapter” from The Tipping Point and expounds on it rather effectively.
Here are a few things I learned:
The broad question, then, is how do you design an idea that sticks? (10)
So it comes down to 6 principles of Sticky Ideas:
1) Simplicity: Strip an idea down to its core. The Golden Rule is the ultimate model of simplicity: a one-sentence statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning to follow it.
2) Unexpectedness: How do I get and keep people’s attention? We need to violate people’s expectations. We need to be counterintuitive. Surprise, without gimmicks. Mysteries. For our idea to endure, we must generate interest and curiousity by systematically “opening gaps” in their knowledge, and then filling those gaps. To make our communication more effective, we need to shift our thinking from “What information do I need to convey?” to “What questions do I want my audience to ask?”
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. Think parables! How do we stay in this thinking? By not being “an expert” but communicating as if to “novices.” We go “abstract” and not “concrete” when we “know too much” about the topic and assume everyone else does too.
4) Credibility: 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.
6) Stories: How do we get people to act on our ideas? We tell stories. A credible idea makes people believe. An emotional idea makes people care. The right stories make people act. That’s why “Jared’s story” from Subway is so effective, so sticky.
To summarize, here’s our checklist for creating a successful idea: a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story (18). (Or SUCCESs)
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