Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 15,219 ratings · 1,085 reviews

Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas–business people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others–struggle to make their ideas “stick.”

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Hardcover, 336 pages

Published January 2nd 2007 by Random House (first published December 18th 2006)

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What Matters Now

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Apr 08, 2013 Lili Manolache rated it 5 of 5 stars

The book "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath Chow, is about how to make your ideas memorable; be it promoting a product / project, being a professional, forwarding a company's strategy or lessons to students. Everything revolves around the SUCCESS methodology. For an idea to stick, for it to be useful and lasting, it's got to make the audience:

Pay attention - Unexpected
Understand and remember it - Concrete
Agree/Believe - Credible
Care - Emotional
Be a...more

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Jan 22, 2009 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology, social-theory, science

I came upon this book in a convoluted fashion. It was nearly recommended to me in a round about sort of way by Richard, a GoodReads friend, when he pointed to a review of Blink by someone else on GoodReads who is some sort of expert in the field (although, I have to admit I’m still not totally sure which field that is). The expert felt Gladwell was a little too simplistic. I enjoyed Gladwell’s books very much and so was keen to see what made them seem too simplistic to someone ‘in the field’ and...more

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Feb 03, 2008 sundeep rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to sundeep by: kareem

from my blog, thesunrising.com

Summary: When marketing anything, keep these six concepts in mind if you want your message to shtick: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories; yes, my friends, that spells SUCCESs. If it sounds like too much work, these two concepts also work: Free, Sex (noooo, that’s not in the book…but it works I tell you!).

Recommended? Si. It’s a quick, fun read full of interesting anecdotes and examples that make the book’s message more *concrete* (a-hem). If...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Richard Stephenson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Recommend to anyone who'd like to get information across to people in a way that sticks!
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The search for getting information into people's heads... a tough one, I'll admit. I've run across some GREAT examples (some of which are presented in this book), but could never really put my finger on a clear plan of action for duplicating the successes of the examples.

Well hello Heath Brothers - thank you for helping me FINALLY reach this goal.

Being as engrossed as I am in trying to help others s...more

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Mar 30, 2008 Douglas Knupp rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone whi is in the business of communicating ideas in a way that they will be remembered

Shelves: communication, marketing, sales

MADE TO STICK – Chip and Dan Heath
SUCCES
Simple – Unexpected – Concrete – Contextual – Emotional – Stories

Step-by-directions, how to achieve stickiness

“Those are the six principles of successful ideas. To summarize, here’s our checklist for creating a successful idea: a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story. A clever observer will note that this sentence can be compacted into the acronym SUCCESs. This is sheer coincidence, of course. (Okay, we admit, SUCCESs is a little corny. W...more

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Aug 15, 2007 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you are a business person, teacher, or just someone trying to get your idea across, this is a great book to read!

Written by brothers Chip and Dan Heath, one a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford, the other an education consultant and former researcher at Harvard Business School. They look at the key aspects of what makes some ideas and stories stick in people's minds. They boil things down to 6 key principles of simplicity that make things stick in people's memories.

Some of the c...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Farnoosh Brock rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: business-spirit

A stretch for a 4 star but it was a reasonably good attempt at teaching us why some ideas stick. It just lacked the details and practical depth I was hoping to learn.

The Amazon reviews of this book ascribe the authors' inspiration to Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point", a book I enjoyed immensely with the journeys into the human psyche - memory, emotion, decision, and behavior. I was sorely disappointed that I did not find any such parallels in "Made to Stick". Nonetheless, I think the author...more A stretch for a 4 star but it was a reasonably good attempt at teaching us why some ideas stick. It just lacked the details and practical depth I was hoping to learn.

The Amazon reviews of this book ascribe the authors' inspiration to Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point", a book I enjoyed immensely with the journeys into the human psyche - memory, emotion, decision, and behavior. I was sorely disappointed that I did not find any such parallels in "Made to Stick". Nonetheless, I think the authors attempt and do succeed at writing a book that is beyond an average business book, as it shows us how to use stories and anecdotes and real life scenarios to make our ideas intriguing and lasting in the eyes of others.

The reading style is simple and characteristic of a good standard business book. The material is generally abstract, with relevant case studies and examples woven in. This will not be the most unforgettable business book or the most enjoyable one to read but it is also not a bad read. The chapters are organized remarkably well for the subject matter, and the authors carefully take us through the six major qualities of what they claim makes an idea stick:

Simplicity: Strip your Idea down to the very core.
Unexpectedness: Your Idea must be new; it must vary from preconceived notions of similar ideas.
Concreteness: Use practical stories and real world applications to explain your Idea.
Credibility: You as the owner of the idea must be or develop credibility as a person.
Emotion: Appeal to emotion as you articulate your idea. It often makes people act.
Stories: Telling the Idea in a story will captivate people.

While the book presents the six qualities through examples and case studies, it does not delve into ways to make your own ideas "stick" - From a historical and anecdotal perspective, it is well-researched and smartly written. From practicality standpoint, I would have liked to see examples of the authors taking average ideas, and turning them into intriguing ones using a clear approach. All in all, a quick and good read.
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Jan 29, 2009 Gayle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Chip and Dan Heath are really on to something here. Why can we all remember the somebody-stole-your-kidneys story, but not how mitosis works? The Heath brothers have pooled their expertises (organizational behavior and education consulting) to show us how to make our ideas "sticky"--that is, memorable. (I so could have used this--wait. I can still use this! Woo Hoo!)

The book is enormously worthwhile, and even has a reference guide in the back. But as an enticement, let me state the Six Principle...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Corina Anghel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Despre ce e cartea: despre cum să îți faci ideile memorabile, sticky, fie că vorbim de promovarea unui produs/proiect, transmiterea strategiei companiei sau a lecțiilor către elevii/studenții tăi.

Totul se învârte în jurul metodologiei SUCCES. După ce au studiat multe studii de caz și idei ce au prins Dan și Chip au ajuns la concluzia că pentru ca o idee să prindă ea trebuie să fie:

SIMPLĂ – cu cât ideea e mai complexă cu atât e mai greu de reținut. De aceea e important să prioritizezi și să aleg...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Kylewong rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 0. Introduction
SUCCES

1. Simple
find the core idea
if u give many points, people get none
pack a lot of meanings into a bit of information, e.g. NASA is stickier than N A S A

2. Unexpected
to be surprising, break ppl's guessing machines
journalism 101 - the meat is that theres no skl the next day
"big number problem" big statistics do not usually stick
keeping ppl's attention - unfold mysteries
the gap theory of curiosity + gaps start with knowledge
ppl are more interested in a topic when they are forced t...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Marcel de Leeuwe rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you have only time to read one book and you are in the field of learning: do yourself a favor and buy 'Made to Stick' from the Heath brothers. Even if it is not an e-Learning book you need the knowledge in this book to design better e-Learning. As an experienced instructional designer I thought I knew all the tricks to make my learning experiences lasting ones that will be remembered by my learners. NOT…in Made to stick I found many useful tips and practical guidelines how to create more memo...more If you have only time to read one book and you are in the field of learning: do yourself a favor and buy 'Made to Stick' from the Heath brothers. Even if it is not an e-Learning book you need the knowledge in this book to design better e-Learning. As an experienced instructional designer I thought I knew all the tricks to make my learning experiences lasting ones that will be remembered by my learners. NOT…in Made to stick I found many useful tips and practical guidelines how to create more memorable messages. Time for improvements, no matter if you are a professional copy writer or an instructional designer.

In the easy to read book, Chip and Dan Heath wrote about the reasons "why some ideas survive and others die". Dan and Chip researched famous stories, urban legends, great advertisements and successful political statements. They found out that such powerful messages all have certain aspects in common. They explained their vision and ideas very well and especially the parts with practical examples (with comparisons of well defined and poor defined versions of one idea) are very helpful for a better understanding. It makes it easy to transfer the insights and adapt them to your own working field.

A simple framework is used to explain the ingredients of a sticky idea:

1. Pay attention (come with something unexpected).
2. Understand and remember (be concrete).
3. Agree/believe (make it credible).
4. Care (use emotions to let people care about your idea).
5. Be able to act on it (use the Story format).

Before you start with these ingredients you start with Simple. Together it makes the acronym SUCCESs (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotions, Story).

With every ingredient they come up with different approaches. E.g. for making your idea credible you can use certain sources with authority ("professor X said…") but sometimes it is better to use antiauthority to get external credibility. E.g. you could get statements from people from the target group because they will accept advise from peers.

This book offers me more innovative insights than many books that specifically target on creating learning materials. Do you want your learning experiences sticky? Buy and read this book!(less)

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Jul 29, 2012 Evelyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Loved this book! Really well-written and enjoyable to read. The book takes an idea first coined in Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" called stickiness. The Heath brothers break down what makes something "sticky." To make an idea sticky, you have to:
- convey the core of the idea (the most important thing by which other important ideas can be accurately extrapolated), which also needs to be compact
- use the unexpected (to get people's attention) and utilize mystery to hold people's interest (...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars

*A book made to stick*

Move over duct tape, the stickiness factor of this book is off the charts. Or, maybe that should be securely stuck to the charts.

What makes Chip and Dan Heath's book so irresistibly sticky? The same factors behind the other winning ideas they deconstruct in their book: it beautifully conveys its message with Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional Stories. [Note: their use of this SUCCESS acronym results in the long-lasting stickiness of the core content of the bo...more *A book made to stick*

Move over duct tape, the stickiness factor of this book is off the charts. Or, maybe that should be securely stuck to the charts.

What makes Chip and Dan Heath's book so irresistibly sticky? The same factors behind the other winning ideas they deconstruct in their book: it beautifully conveys its message with Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional Stories. [Note: their use of this SUCCESS acronym results in the long-lasting stickiness of the core content of the book.]

The book is so hard to put down--it's as if it's literally sticking to your fingers! The brother-author team offers a cohesive combination of brilliance, creativity, humor, and clarity all rolled into one. Their incredible writing talents serve as the glue that allows the engaging, entertaining, and eye-opening content to stick to each page.

The fun-factor of the book is pretty sticky too. From the getgo, the intriguing teasers in the table of contents for each chapter spark attention (while utilizing the "gap theory of curiosity" ). For example, how could you not want to read more after being intrigued by this shorthand table of contents for Chapter 3?:
"Sour grapes. Landscapes as celebrities. Teaching subtraction with less abstraction. Soap-opera accounting. Velcro theory of memory. Brown eyes, blue eyes. Engineers vs. manufacturers. The Ferraris go to Disney World. White things. The leather computer. Clinic: Oral rehydration therapy. Hamburger Helper and Saddleback Sam."

Not only is reading the stories behind these teasers fun, but the ideas stick long after each chapter is read. It's fun to go back and re-read these teasers and be able to easily recall (and smile at) their corresponding stories. The true stickiness test passes when the content behind these teasers is just as memorable three weeks after reading the book as it was three minutes after. What better proof for stickiness do you need?

_Made to Stick_ is stickier than a roll of duct tape....and way more fun to unravel.(less)

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Mar 03, 2012 Andromeda M31 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Made to Stick read like a sort of hip text book, which I guess it is. It breaks down it's 6 concepts of what makes ideas stick into six chapters: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Story. And yes, I remembered them by the acronym SUCCESs. Several examples in each chapter highlight the core concept clearly, and often humorously. The concepts feel obvious, but as demonstrated in Made to Stick using several psychological experiments and failed marketing campaigns as proof, they...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Loy Machedo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Remember the subway advertisement? The guy who lost over 200 pounds eating only the vegetarian sub?

What about proverbs like “A bird in hand is worth two in a bush” or what comes to your mind when you hear the phrase “Sour Grapes”?

What about John F. Kennedy’s Man on the Moon vision?

Why is it we remember Urban legends like the Kentucky Fried Rat, Coco Cola dissolving tooth, Kidney thieves or the fact that you can see the Great Wall of China from space?

Welcome to a book that is the cross breed betw...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Eva rated it 3 of 5 stars

Copied-and-pasted:

Why do some ideas succeed while others fail? In their book, you’ll learn what they discovered – the six key qualities of an idea that is made to stick:

1. Simplicity – How do you strip an idea to its core without turning it into a silly sound bite? The answer is finding the core intent. Core messages help people avoid bad choices by reminding them of what’s important. Coming up with a short, compact phrase is easy. On the other hand, coming up with a profound compact phrase is i...more Copied-and-pasted:

Why do some ideas succeed while others fail? In their book, you’ll learn what they discovered – the six key qualities of an idea that is made to stick:

1. Simplicity – How do you strip an idea to its core without turning it into a silly sound bite? The answer is finding the core intent. Core messages help people avoid bad choices by reminding them of what’s important. Coming up with a short, compact phrase is easy. On the other hand, coming up with a profound compact phrase is incredibly difficult. In this chapter, Chip and Dan Heath will show you that the effort is worth it – that “finding the core,” and expressing it in the form of a compact idea, can be enduringly powerful.

2. Unexpected – How do you capture people’s attention...and hold it? The most basic way to get someone’s attention is to break a pattern – in other words to present the unexpected. This chapter focuses on two essential questions: “How do I get people’s attention?” And, just as crucially, “How do I keep it?” To understand the answers to these two questions, Chip and Dan Heath will teach you to understand two essential emotions – surprise and interest – that are commonly provoked by naturally sticky ideas. Surprise gets our attention and Interest keeps our attention.

3. Concrete – How do you help people understand your idea and remember it much later? Concrete language helps people understand new concepts. Concreteness is an indispensable component of sticky ideas. In this chapter, Chip and Dan Heath will show you how concreteness creates a shared “turf” on which people can collaborate. Finding a “universal language,” one that everyone speaks fluently is essential for making your ideas stick.

4. Credible – How do you get people to believe your idea? In this chapter you’ll learn that the most obvious sources of credibility – external validation and statistics – aren’t always the best. A few vivid details might be more persuasivethatabarrageofstatistics. Anantiauthoritymightworkbetterthan an authority. It’s the honesty and trustworthiness of your sources, not their status, which allows them to act as credible authorities.

5. Emotional – How do you get people to care about your ideas? Belief counts for a lot, but belief isn’t enough. For people to take action, they have to care. In this chapter, Chip and Dan Heath tackle the emotional component of stickiness. It’s not about pushing people’s emotional buttons, like some kind of movie tearjerker. Rather the goal of making messages “emotional” is to make people care. Feelings inspire people to act.

6. Stories – How do you get people to act on your idea? A credible idea makes people believe. An emotional idea makes people care. Stories have the amazing dual power to stimulate and to inspire. In this chapter you’ll see that the right stories make people act.(less)

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Apr 13, 2011 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars

As a writer and speaker, I love stories. I love to tell them, to write them, and I love to read them. I also like to read about stories, what makes them work, how they excite our imagination, how we use them to enrich our communications. Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive And Others Die is about all that and more.

Good salespeople, advertisers, marketers, PR professionals, even managers wanting to motivate their employees and entrepreneurs needing to excite their investors can make good use o...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Mark Ruzomberka rated it 4 of 5 stars

I listened to this Audio CD on a beat up old boom box while recovering from Lasik Eye Surgery because the light from my iPod was too strong to attempt downloading anything at the time. The Narrators voice was deep and easy to focus on it almost drown out some of the pain I was feeling. Almost... I did just have a laser shot into my eyes. This great narration aided me in my ability to concentrate on the book and make me forget all about how itchy my eyes were while lying in my dark room with the...more

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May 11, 2010 Tim rated it 3 of 5 stars

I secretly love advice books. Especially business advice books. This is probably mainly because I am not a businessman, have no real connection to the corporate world, and as a result, the whole culture seems foreign and exotic to me. Business advice books are my escapist literature. I had heard good things about Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick so I decided to check out a copy.

The book begins by asking why urban legends are so pervasive, so sticky, to use the terminology of the book. Maybe yo...more I secretly love advice books. Especially business advice books. This is probably mainly because I am not a businessman, have no real connection to the corporate world, and as a result, the whole culture seems foreign and exotic to me. Business advice books are my escapist literature. I had heard good things about Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick so I decided to check out a copy.

The book begins by asking why urban legends are so pervasive, so sticky, to use the terminology of the book. Maybe you've heard the one about a man who meets a strange woman in a bar, takes her up to his room, and the next thing he knows, he comes to in a bathtub of ice with a note from the woman telling him she's stolen his kidney so he'd better call 911. This story, and others like it, have been passed around by word of mouth and by email until they are fixtures of our culture. The Heath brothers argue that we could all take a lesson in communication from things like urban legends, and that we can make even the most mundane-seeming messages fascinating and memorable to other people.

Their argument is convincing largely because they practice what they preach--the book is filled with entertaining anecdotes (like a press conference that singlehandedly changed the way movie theaters make popcorn), insightful analysis, and an overall accessible tone, making a book on what could be a very dry subject (effective communication) into a bit of a page-turner.

Made to Stick is actually more broadly aimed than many business books, tailoring its arguments to businessmen, teachers, and anybody who needs to communicate effectively. The Heaths outline their findings with the acronym SUCCESs: effective communication requires a Simple message, an element of the Unexpected, Concrete details, Credibility, Emotion, and Stories. The detailed advice they give for each element of the acronym is practical and helpful; they make recommendations that I can actually see myself putting into practice. Overall, this book does an impressive job of taking complicated ideas and conveying them in a way that's both entertaining and useful.

http://everydayireadthebooks.blogspot...(less)

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Aug 22, 2009 Anya rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I have enough money to buy books again, I'm planning to build a marketing and communications library. It will consist of three books: "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell, "Influence" by Robert Cialdini, and this book, which is maybe the one of the three that knocked me on my butt most often as I was reading it.

The (adorable!) Heath brothers (check out their nerdy-preppy hottitude on the back cover!) are Chip, a Stanford business professor, and Dan, an education and new media consultant...more

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Aug 14, 2009 Natbas rated it 4 of 5 stars

There are two parts to ideas- the part where you tell something, and the part that sticks in their head: now, if you are telling someone something, it means you want to get the idea across- how do you do it?
This is where this book comes in.

I hope they don't have a copyright on this, but the authors summarize this nicely: SUCCESS

Your idea should be Simple, and it should have an element of the Unexpected, and it should be Concrete and Credible, it should relate to Emotions, and it works better if...more

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Aug 05, 2009 Randy rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Made to Stick" by Chip Heath & Dan Heath.

The book Made to Stick researched why some ideas are remembered, while others don't affect people the way they were intended. They created a formula for how to create ideas that are remembered and developed the SUCCESs acronym.

Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Stories

One of the most interesting components to me started on page 22, where it refers to an Israeli research team that created what they called six "templates" for creative and effec...more

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Apr 18, 2009 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Some business books are written to promote consulting gigs. This is one such book. You can usually tell when the summary chapter just takes the table of contents and re-arranges it a little. I picked this up because one of the authors is the founder of an innovative website used extensively by my kids---Thinkwell.com.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this book. The ideas are coherent, presented well, and made relatively easy to digest (following the their own enunciated principle of the "p...more

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May 18, 2013 Jorge rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: social-science

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath, Dan Heath

“Made to Stick" is an interesting book on how to make ideas stick. Taking a page from Gladwell’s insightful book, “The Tipping Point” The Heath brothers, Chip and Dan identify traits that make ideas stick and others not. Making good use of interesting research and an engaging writing style helps the main ideas of this book “stick” to you. There are few stellar examples but what's here is good. This intriguing 291-page...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Janelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wish everyone would read this book. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we could all communicate our ideas more effectively and have them remembered?

This book is easy to read, insightful and even humorous at times, which I wouldn't expect in a book of this nature. The process of making ideas stick is applicable to any field of work. The basis for this book is derived around SUCCESs that breaks down to Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credentialed, Emotional, and Story. Broken down even furth...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Jenn added it

Shelves: eastlake

Key Questions: How do you create the SUCCESS criteria for Groups? At EastLake they are the “catch all” for all the ministries and programs we don’t run!
1. Simple:
a. Find the “core” of your message
b. Write using the “lead” approach
c. Force prioritization – Don’t allow for uncertainty! (How do you do this when you offer choice?)
d. Groups – Feature Creep
e. Using schemes – think about non-church ones and use those!
2. Unexpected:
a. Value in sequencing information
b. Use curiosity to your advantage
3....more

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Mar 28, 2010 Mo Tipton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biz-money-econ

I'm only fifty or so pages into this book, but I had to share a certain passage before it gets lost in a sea of equally clever passages. In a section detailing how to communicate the core of an idea in a simple, memorable fashion, the Heath bros warn:

"Compactness alone isn't enough...Compact messages may be sticky, but that says nothing about their worth. We can imagine compact messages that are lies ("The earth is flat"), compact messages that are irrelevant ("Goats eat sprouts"), and compact m...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it

Chip and Dan Heath__a Stanford professor and an education entrepreneur, respectively__attempt to determine why one idea succeeds while another fails. What could have been a dry marketing textbook is, instead, a generally engaging narrative generously endowed with anecdotes and instructive sidebars. The Wall Street Journal expressed annoyance at the profusion of personal stories, while the Washington Post cited some problems with the overall framework. Overall, however, Made to Stick is a worthy

...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Kumar rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Made to Stick", a book by Dan and Chip Heath practices wonderfully what it preaches. This book talks about the what makes an idea stick with the people be it at a general reader/listener, audience in a speech or even colleagues in a meeting room. The core mantra that is discussed throughout the book is SUCCESs (S-Simple, U-unexpected, C-concrete, C-Credible and S-Story).

Defying the famous '3' of McKinsey, Dan and Chip Chip says "if you say three things, you say nothing". The book is a collectio...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Brittany rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Communications folks

Shelves: business, marketing, nonfiction

How I Came To Read This Book: The boyfriend is reading marketing books of all kinds lately, and asked me to request this from the library for him, only to be handed a copy on loan a day later. It still came through in the holds though, so he picked it up for me to give it a read.

The Plot: The book is broken up into six sections SUCCESs - Simplicity, Unexpected, Concrete, Credibility, Emotion, Stories - that demonstrated how we can make a concept 'sticky'. In other words, the strategies one can...more How I Came To Read This Book: The boyfriend is reading marketing books of all kinds lately, and asked me to request this from the library for him, only to be handed a copy on loan a day later. It still came through in the holds though, so he picked it up for me to give it a read.

The Plot: The book is broken up into six sections SUCCESs - Simplicity, Unexpected, Concrete, Credibility, Emotion, Stories - that demonstrated how we can make a concept 'sticky'. In other words, the strategies one can use to permeate someone's mindset, which as a marketer, is obviously a valuable tool. Each chapter consists of a bunch of stories (which the authors themselves acknowledge is inevitable - stories tend to encompass the other principles) that range from scientific studies to business strategies to marketing campaigns which demonstrate each principle in action, and give some general tips for how you can apply the same thinking or approach to your own activities.

The Good & The Bad: I really don't have much to say about this book, good or bad. I imagine a fair bit of it WILL stick with me, so if you're looking for a demonstration of the principles in action, know that the authors have done their job well. Generally speaking I didn't find it to be particularly profound - it was actually nice to see so much of what I preach and practice with my clients was covered in here - but the organization of it was very succinct and nicely laid out, which I sincerely appreciated. I could definitely see keeping a copy of this book on my desk to help generate some ideas for how to get people to care about stuff like energy efficiency or white bread (legitimate things I deal with on a daily basis).

I suppose on the downside, sometimes the book gets a little dense and sprawly. It takes each concept in many different directions without fully linking them up, and it hinges a *lot* on the stories it tells - although to be fair, if you're making an argument that stories will stick with you more than teachings, then I can't really blame them. The last chapter also felt a bit weird. It was an odd combination of being really obvious and overriding of everything else in the book, but also sort of rushed and fluffy. You knew it was inevitable based on the way the rest of the book was structured, so even though it was in some ways the most important chapter, it was also the least valuable. Generally speaking though, the book was very smart and conversational. I wish a lot of my clients read it actually, as opposed to myself, who already knew / grasped a great deal of the content.

The Bottom Line: An easy but dense read that's valuable for anyone in the communications industry.

Anything Memorable?: Nope.

60-Book Challenge?: Book #13 in 2012. (less)

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About Chip Heath

Chip Heath is the professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
He received his B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and his Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford.

He co-wrote a book titled Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard with his brother Dan Heath.

More about Chip Heath...

Books by Chip Heath

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

Made to Stick (Epilogue): Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

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“Stephen Covey, in his book The 8th Habit, decribes a poll of 23,000 employees drawn from a number of companies and industries. He reports the poll's findings:

* Only 37 percent said they have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve and why
* Only one in five was enthusiastic about their team's and their organization's goals
* Only one in five said they had a clear "line of sight" between their tasks and their team's and organization's goals
* Only 15 percent felt that their organization fully enables them to execute key goals
* Only 20 percent fully trusted the organization they work for

Then, Covey superimposes a very human metaphor over the statistics. He says, "If, say, a soccer team had these same scores, only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal is theirs. Only 2 of the 11 would care. Only 2 of the 11 would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do. And all but 2 players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent.” — 24 people liked it

“The most basic way to get someone's attention is this: Break a pattern.” — 20 people liked it

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

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