Made to Stick

Made to Stick
Hardcover edition
Author	Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Psychology
Publisher	Random House
Publication date	January 2, 2007
Media type	Hardcover
Pages	304
ISBN	1-4000-6428-7
OCLC	68786839
Dewey Decimal	302/.13 22
LC Class	HM1033 .H43 2007
Followed by	Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die is a book by brothers Chip and Dan Heath published by Random House on January 2, 2007.^[1] The book continues the idea of "stickiness" popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point, seeking to explain what makes an idea or concept memorable or interesting. A similar style to Gladwell's is used, with a number of stories and case studies followed by principles. The stories range from urban legends, such as the "Kidney Heist" in the introduction; to business stories, as with the story of Southwest Airlines, "the low price airline"; to inspirational, personal stories such as that of Floyd Lee, a passionate mess hall manager. Each chapter includes a section entitled "Clinic", in which the principles of the chapter are applied to a specific case study or idea to demonstrate the principle's application.

Overview

The book's outline follows the acronym "SUCCES" (with the last s omitted). Each letter refers to a characteristic that can help make an idea "sticky":

• Simple — find the core of any idea
• Unexpected — grab people's attention by surprising them
• Concrete — make sure an idea can be grasped and remembered later
• Credible — give an idea believability
• Emotional — help people see the importance of an idea
• Stories — empower people to use an idea through narrative

The book then goes to mention examples like: Simple: SouthWest Airlines, whose motto is "THE low fare airline".^[2] If a steward proposed serving Salad Chicken in the Texas-Vegas route, thinking about the motto helps decided that this is not a good idea. Other example: Proverbs, which encapsulate wisdom in short sentences.

Authors

Chip Heath is a professor of organizational behavior at Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Dan Heath, a former researcher at Harvard, is a consultant and developer of innovative textbooks. They also write a regular feature for Fast Company magazine.^[3]

See also

• Meme
• Viral Marketing
• The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, which popularized the concept of "stickiness."
• A Whole New Mind, by Daniel H. Pink, has emotive storytelling as a central theme in the "conceptual age."

References

External links

• Made To Stick training
• Made To Stick website
• blog on madetostick.com