Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? Made to Stick tackles these vexing questions head-on.

Hardcover, 304pp

Ransom House Publishing, January 2007

ISBN-13: 9781400064281

Barnes & Noble online price: $17.46

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SYNOPSIS

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.”

In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory” and creating “curiosity gaps.”

In this indispensable guide, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds — from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony — draw their power from the same six traits.

Made to Stick is a book that will transform the way you communicate ideas. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures) — the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of “the Mother Teresa Effect”; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas — and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Unabashedly inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling The Tipping Point, the brothers Heath — Chip, a professor at Stanford’s business school, and Dan, a teacher and textbook publisher — offer an entertaining, practical guide to effective communication.

Drawing extensively on psychosocial studies on memory, emotion and motivation, their study is couched in terms of “stickiness” that is, the art of making ideas unforgettable. They start by relating the gruesome urban legend about a man who succumbs to a barroom flirtation only to wake up in a tub of ice, victim of an organ-harvesting ring. What makes such stories memorable and ensures their spread around the globe?

The authors credit six key principles: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories. (The initial letters spell out “success”. . . well, almost.) They illustrate these principles with a host of stories, some familiar (Kennedy’s stirring call to “land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth” within a decade) and others very funny (Nora Ephron’s anecdote of how her high school journalism teacher used a simple, embarrassing trick to teach her how not to “bury the lead”). Throughout the book, sidebars show how bland messages can be made intriguing. Fun to read and solidly researched, this book deserves a wide readership. (Jan. 16) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information

LIBRARY JOURNAL
Chip Heath (organizational behavior, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University; Rumor Mills) and brother Dan (consultant, Duke Corporate Education; cofounder, Thinkwell) team up on a tacky topic. They borrow the “stickiness” metaphor from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, which examined the social forces causing ideas to make the leap (“tip”) from small to large groups.

The Heaths focus on the traits that contribute to an idea’s ability to catch on, or “stick.” Urban legends — like the one about the traveling businessman who is drugged and wakes up minus a kidney — are prime examples of such stickiness. While totally untrue, these tales make for great retelling, and we seem primed to fall for them. Using engaging examples from around the world, the authors illustrate the six principles of stickiness: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions and Stories.

Their fun-to-read book will appeal to communicators in every field who want their messages to be more effective. Highly recommended for public and academic library business or psychology collections. Carol J. Elsen, Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information