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Why is it easier to recall some ideas and not others? Teachers spend hours teaching students about mitosis, only for it to be forgotten. 

Likewise, managers introduce new strategies only to find that employees are using old strategies because they forgot the new strategies. 

In many cases we are only as effective as our communication.

This books helps you to shape your idea into one that can stick. It uses a pneumonic, SUCCES = Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and Stories.  

What Sticks

The goal of this book is to help you make ideas stick.

Are ideas born interesting (nature) or made interesting (nurture)? Well this is a nurture book.

No one knows why, but in 1997 as New Orleans geared up for its annual Mardi Gras festivities, a rumour began spreading via word-of-mouth, fax, and forwarded email, to the effect that a crime ring in New Orleans was carrying out plans to drug tourists, surgically remove healthy kidneys from their bodies, and sell the organs on the black market.

The viral message, which often had the headline "Travelers Beware," sparked an avalanche of phone calls to the police, prompting the New Orleans Police Department to publish an official statement to calm public fears. Investigators found no substantiating evidence.

The story had sounded familiar. Before New Orleans, this supposedly happened in Houston; before Houston, Las Vegas — where an unsuspecting tourist was drugged in his hotel room by a prostitute and woke up the next morning, supposedly, in a bathtub full of ice, minus a kidney. 

This is an urban legend, an often lurid story that is based on hearsay and widely circulated as true. Urban legends have interesting ideas, whereas, the financial strategy of a non-profit organization, is an uninteresting idea.

We struggle to communicate our ideas. For example, a biology teacher spends hours discussing mitosis. Good ideas are hard to communicate, yet the urban legend of kidney thieves circulates without any resources. No advertising budget was required to spread this idea.

 It is possible to spread a true idea, just like the false idea of the kidney thieves, but how do we nurture our ideas so that they’ll succeed in the world?

On Stickiness

What does it mean to make your idea stick? It means making your idea understood, remembered, having a lasting impact and changing your audience’s opinions or behaviour.

6 Principles of Sticky Ideas

There’s no formula for sticky ideas. But there are some common traits.

1) Simplicity – how do you find sticky ideas? Proverbs are the ideal one sentence that people can study for a lifetime. You have to strip down an idea to its core.

2) Unexpectedness – For example, a bag of popcorn is unhealthier than eating a whole day’s worth of fatty foods. This headline grabs people’s attention and makes people curious.

3)  Concreteness – you must add sensory information. Naturally sticky ideas have concrete images. For example – Bathtubs filled with ice, used in kidney harvesting. A razor blade found in apples during Halloween to harm kids. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. These are all very concrete ideas.

4) Credibility – how do we make people believe your ideas? You have to make people test out your ideas for themselves. “A try before you buy” philosophy approach for ideas. For example, during a presidential debate, Ronald Reagan said, “Before you vote, ask yourself if you are better off today than you were four years ago.”

5) Emotions – how do we get people to care about your ideas? You have to make them feel something. Tap into people’s emotions.

6) Stories – how do we get people to act on your ideas?  You have to tell stories. Hearing stories acts like a mental flight simulator. We mentally rehearse the situation in our minds as a story is being told to us. And this leads to an idea being sticky.

To make it easy to remember, remember this acronym SUCCES. S: Simplicity, U: Unexpectedness, C: Concreteness, C: Credibility, E: Emotions and S: Stories. 

Systematic Creativity

The basic premise of this book is that anyone can learn how to create sticky ideas. There are six creative templates when creating an ad. So, anyone can follow these templates and create a great ad. Creativity can be taught. 

A sticky idea is more likely to make a difference, to change people’s ideas and behaviours. All you need to do is understand the six principles of sticky ideas.

Simple

Be simple. Find the core of the idea. This means stripping an idea down to its core essence. There are two steps in making an idea sticky: 1) Find the core, and 2) Translate the core using the 6 Principles discussed above.

For example, the core idea of Southwest Airlines is - We are the low-fare airline. So, for instance if a marketing person wanted to add chicken Caesar salad on their flights, instead of peanuts, the CEO would say, our core idea is that “We are the low-fare airline,” and so obviously the chicken caesar salad would not be used because it would cost the airline money, and the air fares would increase. This core idea has guided the company to financial success over the years. Simple does not mean dumbing down. It’s about elegance and prioritization, not dumbing down.

Unexpectedness

The first problem of communication is getting people’s attention. We can’t demand it. We must attract it.

Our brains are designed to recognize changes. Smart product designers are well aware of this. If you want to get someone’s attention, you must change a product. For example, Apple comes out with a new product every year. This is how they get people’s attention. 

You must break a pattern to get a person’s attention. For example, you get used to the sound of the air conditioner, and when someone puts it off, they break your pattern, so you pay attention. 

You must surprise people to get their attention. Check out this hilarious ad, it’s not quite what you expect. 

Concrete

Concrete images allow messages to persist. 

An abstract idea is hard to understand, however concreteness avoids this problem. Language is often abstract, but life is not.

Concrete is memorable. For example, a kidney heist is memorable, because a kidney was stolen. Self-esteem being stolen is less memorable, because self-esteem is abstract, it’s not concrete. 

Credible             

People believe an idea because it comes from an authority figure, for example, a parent, a teacher, a religious figure, or some other authority figure.

Authorities are a reliable source of credibility. Steven Hawkins, was an expert at physics. This made him credible. Also, celebrities are credible. When Oprah Winfrey says she likes a book, millions of people go out and buy that exact book, because she has credibility. 

There are also, anti-authorities. For example, Pam Laffin was a smoker that had a failed lung transplant. She was used for an anti-smoking ad. She had credibility, because she was a smoker and that damaged her body, so people could really trust her when she spoke about anti-smoking. 

The honesty and trustworthiness of people (weather authority or anti-authority) leads to credibility.

Emotion

When it comes to our hearts, one individual trumps the masses. For example, a charity that focuses on underprivileged people in Africa should focus on one person, and tell their story, instead of focusing on a whole population. People can empathize with one person but not a whole population. It’s easy to invest your emotions in one person, it’s a whole lot harder to invest your emotions in a whole mass of people. People donate to individuals, not populations.

Feelings Inspire People to Act

Watch this anti-smoking ad. How does it make you feel?

You probably got angry. Perhaps, this ad even inspired you to quit smoking. That’s the power of emotions.

Stories

The right stories make people act. 

There’s no such thing as a passive audience. When we hear stories we simulate them in our minds.

Why Does Mental Simulation Work?

It helps us manage our emotions. For example, you can overcome fear by visualizing the process of overcoming a problem. You can visualize yourself overcoming the fear of snakes, for instance. 

Mental simulation provides appropriate solutions to future problems. Mental simulation is not as good as real practicing, but it’s the next best thing.

There are 3 basic stories plots: Challenge, Connection and Creativity.

The Challenge Plot

The David vs Goliath story is a challenge plot. An underdog overcomes his larger opponent. This plot is inspiring. It makes us want to work harder. 

The Connection Plot

These are stories about people that build a connection. For example, the story of Romeo and Juliet, or the Titanic movie. This plot is about our relationship with other people.

The Creativity Plot

This is where someone has a huge mental breakthrough, and achieves success in an innovative manner. This can be the MacGyver story, inspiring people to use their mind to achieve their goals. 

Making an Idea Stick: The Communication Framework

For an idea to stick, it’s got to make the audience:

1)  Pay attention

2) Understand and remember it

3) Believe

4) Care

5) Be able to act on it

The SUCCES acronym is a substitute for the communication framework. The SUCCES acronym (or checklist) handles any communication problems you may have.

Conclusion

Any of us, with great insight can make an idea stick. We just have to apply the SUCCES acronym. S: Simplicity, U: Unexpectedness, C: Concreteness, C: Credibility, E: Emotions and S: Stories.

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