"Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that "stick" and explain sure-fire methods for making ideas stickier, such as violating schema's, 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 "organ theft ring" hoax to a coach's lessons on sportsmanship to a product vision statement from Sony--draw their power from the same six traits." More...

Chip and Dan explore these six traits as a template that can be repeated. Inspired by the revelations in The Tipping Point, the two authors determined to expand on the second aspect of an epidemic, the stickiness factor. Their conclusions reveal six traits of a sticky message:

1. Ideas should be communicated in a simple and direct way.
2. There should be an unexpected element to the message.
3. The idea should be credible (or made to appear credible)
4. You should provide context for the idea, "how does this apply to me?"
5. There should be some sort of emotional draw. Make it personal.
6. Use stories to sell the idea, engage people and allow them to relate to your idea.

If you were paying attention to the words in bold, you should see that they spell SUCCES. Made to stick dives deep into each of these six traits of stickiness and provides ample explanation and homework type tutorials to allow you to grasp the material.

I have already been putting the material to use and can tell you that it works. A few weeks ago I was tasked to give a pitch to sixty or so people, across several teams, to get them to come together on a project. People are still commenting on the presentation. The theme was, "Let's do this for Harry," a mythical person I invented to be the consumer of our product. People from all areas of the program are finishing meetings with, "Let's be ready for Harry!"

It may be cheesy, but it stuck. They have a single place to focus as a team. A single goal, not just an individual goal. The message was simple, "Harry is ready to buy our product." It was unexpected, they thought they were getting another lecture on teamwork. It provided context as to who would be using our product. It was emotional in that the teams created a bond to the customer and the team members began to care about how Harry perceives us. It may not have hit every element, but it had enough of them to work.