Made to Stick Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

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Brief Summary

In the book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip & Dan Heath, the authors reveal how we can make ideas 'sticky' using the 'SUCCESS' formula. Sticky ideas tell a story and are simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, and emotional.

About the Author

Chip Heath graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering. He later earned a PhD in psychology from Stanford University. He currently works as a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he taught courses on organizational behavior, negotiation, international strategy, and social entrepreneurship. His book, co-written with his brother, Dan Heath, Made to Stick, was named “Best Business Book of the Year” and was on the BusinessWeek bestseller list for 24 months and has been translated to at least 25 languages.

Dan Heath is a bestselling American author, speaker, and professor at Duke University. He is the co-author of Made to Stick. He works as a columnist for Fast Company magazine, and since 2018, started hosting a podcast Choiceology about behavioral economics.

Topics

Communication Skills Marketing & Sales

Made to Stick Book Summary Preview

"When an expert asks, 'Will people understand my idea?,' her answer will be Yes, because she herself understands." ‐ Chip & Dan Heath

The curse of knowledge makes us believe that other people share our interests and care about our ideas as much as we do. It makes it hard for us to share our message with others.

Ideas that are sticky:

Keep it simple. What is one thing that you want the audience to remember? When campaigning in 1992, Bill Clinton had trouble staying on point and wanted to address every issue at a time. James Carville helped him focus by writing the message, "It's the economy stupid" on the whiteboard. Keeping it simple makes ideas more natural to convey.
Say unexpected things. "Tell them something that is uncommon sense," says Chip and Heath.
Keep it concrete. When Trader Joe's explains their target customer, they don't say "upscale budget-conscious customer," they say "unemployed college professor." Use concrete language that everyone understands without jargon: "The beauty of concrete language—language that is specific and sensory—is that everyone understands your message in a similar way." – Chip & Dan Heath
Keep it credible. Using extreme anecdotes with vivid detail helps. For example, when the directors of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange company tried to convince a workshop for people that their core value is diversity, people were skeptical. An artistic director responded by saying that "the longest‐term member of our company is a seventy‐three‐year‐old man named Thomas Dwyer…" This detail—seventy‐three‐year‐old Thomas Dwyer—silenced the skepticism in the room." ‐ Chip & Dan Heath
Keep it emotional. In a study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, researchers found that people were more likely to donate money when told that the money would help a starving seven-year old girl in Africa. They were less likely to donate when told that the money would help about 3 million starving children in Africa. A personal story about yourself, someone you now, or someone you read about gets the audience in their shoes and helps them feel the same struggle and success. "If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will." ‐ Mother Teresa
Tell a story. "Telling stories with visible goals and barriers shifts the audience into a problem‐solving mode.... (we) empathize with the main characters and start cheering them on when they confront their problems: "Look out behind you!" "Tell him off now!" "Don't open that door!" ‐ Chip & Dan Heath.

Engaging stories keep the audience wondering, "What's going to happen next?" and "How is this going to end?"