Made to Stick [Book]

by Chip & Dan Heath

I rate this book on how to create messages that stick, influence how people act and are retold as slightly above average as far as easy reading business books go. The material does not much suffer much from aging. The findings are reasonable albeit somewhat unsurprising. Even has a nice quick reference in the back.

Their main point is to overcome the Curse of Knowledge: it is extremely hard to forget everything you learned yourself about your specialty, put yourself in your listeners' or readers' shoes and create messages that work for them and their background knowledge.

According to the authors and studies they cite, good messages share some common attributes:

1. Simple. Good messages keep to the main point, like finding the headline for a newspaper article. What is the single most important thing? If you have 5 different messages, you have none. Express it succinctly. Images and Analogies to things the listener knows work well to get the idea across. Examples: Movie concept pitches, Commander's Intent, SW Airlines as "THE low-fare areline".

2. Unexpected. An element of surprise helps to capture attention. Asking questions to pique curiosity, delay answers to keep interest. Unexpected and audacious objectives. Examples:  pocketable radio, putting a man on the moon. There will be no school next Thursday. 

3. Concrete. It is hard to picture or remember abstractions or statistics. Again, images help, examples and prototypes help. Many hooks help (Velro theory of memory). Experiencing things helps. Map things to ones experienced at human scale. Compare fables, proverbs. BB bullets to show nuclear proliferation, blue vs brown eyes "the wave" experiement. White things vs white things in your fridge. Rookie orientation on AIDS. Visualize what it would be like.

4. Credible. Details help. Authorities help. Anti-Authorities, i.e. normal people just like the listeners help. The Sinatra test (one proof point that is all you need "If you can make it there you make it anywhere"). Testable credentials -- i.e. let the audience try it themselves / answer it for themselves.

5. Emotional. If you don't get moved by the message, you will likely forget it quickly. Use individuals, not groups (1 death is a tragedy, 10,000 is a statistic); use emotional stories that work for the audience's identity/self-image (rebellion for youth, toughness for rednecks); appeal to self-interest "What's in it for me?", but do not just appeal to Maslow's Basement.  Examples: "They laughed when I sat down at the piano ... but when I started to play!" mail order ads, Don't mess with Texas. 

6. Stories. We are wired to remember stories, not data. Keep your eyes and ears open for stories you can use. Typical plots: challenge - stepping up against near impossible odds, connection - family, friendship etc., creativity - surprising solutions to overcome challenges. Stories also often are emotional, visual/concrete, have details to make them credible, or unexpected twists. Examples: heart monitor, Jared and the subway diet

All of which combines to a cringe-inducing SUCCES acronym.