Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

by Chip Heath

Have people grapple with specific examples or cases rather than concepts. Problems getting people to believe you or agree SYMPTOM: “They’re not buying it.” SOLUTION: Find the telling details for your message—the equivalent of the dancing seventy-three-year-old man, or the textile factory so environmentally friendly that it actually cleans the water pouring through it. Use fewer authorities and more antiauthorities. SYMPTOM: “They quibble with everything I say” or “I spend all my time arguing with them about this.” SOLUTION: Quiet the audience’s mental skeptics by using a springboard story, switching them into creative mode. Move away from statistics and facts toward meaningful examples. Use an anecdote that passes the Sinatra Test. Problems getting people to care SYMPTOM: “They are so apathetic” or “No one seems fired up about this.” SOLUTION: Remember the Mother Teresa effect—people care more about individuals than they do about abstractions. Tell them an inspiring Challenge plot or Creativity plot story. Tap into their sense of their own identities, like the “Don’t Mess with Texas” ads, which suggested that not littering was the Texan thing to do. SYMPTOM: “The things that used to get people excited just aren’t doing it anymore.” SOLUTION: Get out of Maslow’s basement and try appealing to more profound types of self-interest. Problems getting people to act SYMPTOM: “Everyone nods their heads and then nothing happens.” SOLUTION: Inspire them with a Challenge plot story (J...