Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” A designer of simple ideas should aspire to the same goal: knowing how much can be wrung out of an idea before it begins to lose its essence.
Dan Heath • Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
What does “Saddleback Sam” accomplish for church leaders? Sam forces them to view their decisions through a different lens. Say someone proposes a telemarketing campaign to local community members. It sounds as if it has great potential to reach new people. But the leaders know from their research that Sam hates telemarketers, so the idea is
... See moreDan Heath • Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Here’s the twist, though: When people are asked which is the best positioning for other people (not them), they rank No. 1 most fulfilling, followed by No. 2. That is, we are motivated by self-esteem, but others are motivated by down payments. This single insight explains almost everything about the way incentives are structured in most large
... See moreDan Heath • Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Using testable credentials allows people to try out an idea for themselves.
Dan Heath • Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
We’re the engineers who keep flipping back to our drawings, not noticing that the assemblers just want us to follow them down to the factory floor.
Dan Heath • Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
great script is designed so that every scene is a Turning Point. “Each Turning Point hooks curiosity. The audience wonders, What will happen next? and How will it turn out? The answer to this will not arrive until the Climax of the last act, and so the audience, held by curiosity, stays put.” McKee notes that the How will it turn
Dan Heath • Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
To make our communications more effective, we need to shift our thinking from “What information do I need to convey?” to “What questions do I want my audience to ask?”
Dan Heath • Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
People are tempted to tell you everything, with perfect accuracy, right up front, when they should be giving you just enough info to be useful, then a little more, then a little more.
Dan Heath • Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
If you want to spread your ideas to other people, you should work within the confines of the rules that have allowed other ideas to succeed over time. You want to invent new ideas, not new rules.