Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die – Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Nailing the right message isn’t always an easy task — especially when the channels available grow by the day — and those that work in a communication by committee culture know best practices often get thrown out the window.
While “Stick” provides a few good insights into how to craft a message with easy recall and that drives action, some of the examples felt trite compared to other, similar books — or maybe there’s only a handful of original business books out there?
The edition I read was from 2007, so many of the sections felt dated, largely because there is no reference to social media and its influence on communication. If there is a more recent edition available, I hope the Heath brothers explored the impact these platforms have had on audience engagement, feedback and brand building.
The general theory and principles of the book can be applied to many aspects of life and almost any industry:
Simplicity — proverbs and urban legends as best practice for “stickiness”
Unexpectedness — make people curious
Concreteness — appeal to the senses and human experience
Credibility — strong ideas should carry their own credentials
Emotions — find out what makes your audience tick
Stories — they help build a more complete mental catalog for recall
As with most business books, there are a few interesting examples — in this case about the national launch of NCAA football games on ABC — and many that didn’t age well…Jared Fogel and Subway, yikes!
I’d also argue that two of the best practices they espouse don’t have the clout they once did.
First, emphasizing the importance of simplicity in a 300-page book about one topic is rich. Especially since we’ve found most of these narratives are now better told in memorable, catchy, and simple ways, like podcasts, TedTalks or YouTube clips.
Second, the past two years have shown us that credibility is not as paramount to motivate others as it once was. Given the attacks on science and medicine, but the rise of cult of personality, how do you make an idea stick now?
While this often felt like a relic, I could’ve used this book to my advantage in 2014 when I was the communications lead at a research-based organization. I was trying to employ many of the best practices noted – specifically simplicity and stories – to make our abstract ideas reach an audience beyond academia.
Since I lacked a doctorate, like many of my peers, I was often overruled and eventually lost the will to fight for what was needed, and I left the job after 13-months. It would have been easy to hand our director this book and say “here, this is why” because the credentials the Heath brothers have may speak to some people more than others.
While I own a copy, I did read this completely in audio format. Charles Kahlenberg gives the exact narration you’d expect from dry subject matter. Honestly, this is probably best as a physical read, but I still wouldn’t recommend that either.
Rating (story): 2.5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 2/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: November 7 - 11, 2021
Multi-tasking: Encouraged.
