“By ‘stick,’ we mean that your ideas are understood and remembered, and have a lasting impact – they change your audience’s opinions or behaviors.” Chip Heath and Dan Heath

It has to make the audience: Pay attention Understand and remember it Agree/believe Care Be able to act on it

 The curse of knowledge Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it.  Getting lost in a sea of information

Partner up Tappers—you will tap out a song Listeners—you will try to guess the song

 How many of you thought you did a great job of tapping out the song?  How many of you correctly guessed the song? Perception 1 in 2 50% Reality 1 in %

The Curse of Knowledge  Experts understand things to the point of abstraction – conceptual knowledge  They tend to explain things that way  Novices don’t understand Not Concrete Not Simple Not Sticky ? “Maximizing Return on Equity” ?

Success

 Find the most important idea—the core  ONE idea  State it in the most compact way  Keep taking away what is not needed

 Consider: Kennedy - “Put a man on the moon & return him safely by the end of the decade” Or? “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team- centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives”

 A pomelo is the largest citrus fruit. The rind is very thick but soft and easy to peel away. The resulting fruit has a light yellow to coral pink flesh and can vary from juicy to slightly dry and from seductively spicy-sweet to tangy and tart. Tell your neighbor if you think pomelo would taste good mixed half and half with orange juice.  A pomelo is basically a supersized grapefruit with a very thick and soft rind.

Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a symposium in new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropoligist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California governor Edmund “Pat” Brown.

“There will be no school next Thursday”

 Share the Core Simple = “Core” + “Compact” Proverbs – Sound bites that are profound  Bird in the hand (Aesop – 570 b.c.)  Golden Rule  “Names, Names, Names” – Small town paper Visual proverbs: The Palm Pilot wood block Existing Schemas: The Pomelo Generative analogy: Disney’s “cast members.”

 Find the core Commander’s intent Relentless prioritization Southwest – “The low fare airline” Inverted Pyramid – most important at the top  Force prioritization – If you say 3 things, you don’t say anything  “It’s the economy, stupid”  Share the core Don’t bury the lead Core + compact Proverbs: sound bites that are profound Schemas

 Simple = Core + Compact  Using what’s already there  Use a generative analogy

sUccess

 Get Attention – Surprise  Hold Attention - Interest

Southwest flight safety announcement Break a pattern – Enclave Minivan (Ad Council) The Nordie who  wraps a package from Macy’s  warms a customer’s car  refunds money for tire chains not sold there Or? “Our mission is to provide the best customer service in the industry”

 Unrelated surprises just to catch attention— the surprise should be part of the simple, core message  Unforeseeable endings (it was all a dream)—endings should unite clues that one has been exposed to all along

 Create a GAP Gaps between what we know and what we want to know create curiosity. Open the gap by creating a mental itch.

1. Identify the central message you need to communicate — find the core 2. Figure out what is counterintuitive about the message — i.e., What are the unexpected implications of your core message? Why isn’t it already happening naturally? 3. Communicate your message in a way that breaks your audience’s guessing machines along the critical, counterintuitive dimension 4. Once their guessing machines have failed, help them refine their machines

suCcess

 Help people understand and remember Make abstraction concrete Provide a concrete context The more hooks in your idea, the better  Help people coordinate Find common ground at a shared level of understanding Make it real Create a turf where people can bring their knowledge to bear

 Write down as many things you can think of that are white in color.  Write down as many white things in your refrigerator as you can think of.

 Most people can list as many white things in their fridge, as they can list white things in general, despite the fact that our fridges do not normally encompass a large part of the universe.

 Help people understand and remember Write with the concreteness of a fable (Sour grapes) Provide a concrete context: Asian teachers’ approach to teaching math (subtraction) Put people into the story: Accounting class taught with a soap opera Use the Velcro theory of memory: The more hooks in your idea, the better

 Help people coordinate Drawings vs. Shop Floor: Find common ground at a shared level of understanding Goals in tangible terms  Our new plane (727) will fly 131 pax, MIA-LGA and land on Runway 4-22 (<5,000’) Vs: “The best passenger plane in the world”  The “Pocketable Radio” Create a common turf where people can bring their knowledge to bear  The maroon portfolio (tablet computing) Talk about people, not data

 Write with the concreteness of a fable  Make abstraction concrete  Put people into the story  Use the Velcro theory of memory

 Find common ground  Set common goals in tangible terms  Make it real  Create a turf where people can bring their knowledge to bear

 Simple is hard.  Unexpected takes effort and creativity.  Concrete is fairly easy, and incredibly effective.  The villain for Concrete is easily overcome. It’s forgetfulness. We forget to be concrete and tend to slip back into abstract-speak.

sucCess

 Help People Believe External Credibility—someone you trust believes it Internal Credibility—you can experience the truth for yourself

 Anti-authority vs. authority  Authority—someone with established credentials, the expert  Anti-authority—Pam Laffin the smoker

 Use convincing details  Make statistics accessible—human scale principle  Show that it’s true in one example that sets the standard  Have people test it themselves

Jurors and the nurse who spilled Mercurochrome on herself 73 year old dancer  Use details that are truthful and compelling  If possible, use details that symbolizes and support the core idea

 How to convince people that the nuclear weapons race was out of control? Hiroshima—1 bomb US nuclear sub—10 bombs Worldwide in 1985—5,000 bombs

Stephen Covey, in his book The 8th Habit, describes a poll of 23,000 employees drawn from a number of companies and industries.  Only 37 percent said they have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve and why.  Only one in five was enthusiastic about their team's and their organization's goals.  Only one in five said they had a clear "line of sight" between their tasks and their team's and organization's goals.  Only 15 percent felt that their organization fully enables them to execute key goals.  Only 20 percent fully trusted the organization they work for.

"If, say, a soccer team had these same scores,  Only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal is theirs.  Only 2 of the 11 would care.  Only 2 of the 11 would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do.  And all but 2 players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent."

 trust Safexpress for on-time, safe deliveries in India because they handled the release of the 5 th Harry Potter book and deliver examination papers

 Read the label yourself  A carefully constructed exercise  Try it now and see

succEss

 Make People Care  Use the Power of Association  Appeal to Identity  Appeal to Self-Interest on a High Level

 The Mother Teresa principle If I look at the one, I will act  People donate more to Rokia than to Africa 7-year old girl in Mali

Food shortages in Malawi are affecting more than 3 million children. In Zamibia, an estimated 3 million people face hunger. More than 11 million people in Ethiopia need immediate food assistance. Please help. Rokia is desperately poor and faces the threat of severe hunger or even starvation. Her life will be changed for the better as a result of your gift. $1.14 Donation $2.38 Donation

“ Honoring the game” but not “sportsmanship” because it’s become an overused cliché overuse of “unique” Teenagers stacking body bags outside a tobacco company—connecting with anti-authority feeling

 The “benefit of the benefit” that they can imagine themselves enjoying -- WIIFY Maslow’s higher needs

 What’s in it for me?  How are we ever going to use this? Imagine that a company offers its employees a $1,000 bonus if they meet certain targets. There are three ways of presenting the bonus to the employees: 1. Think of what the $1000 means—down payment on a new car, or home improvement you’ve been wanting. 2. Think of the increased security of having that $1000 in the bank for a rainy day. 3. Think of what the $1000 means—the company recognizes how important you are to its overall performance. It doesn’t spend money for nothing.

 Avoid Maslow’s basement  Making decisions based on reality  Don’t assume that others care at the same level that you do

Make People Care Mother Teresa Principle ( If I look at one, will act) Use Power of Association Unique isn’t unique anymore Sportsmanship – “honoring the game” Appeal to Identity What do people like me do in this situation Don’t mess with Texas: Texans don’t litter Appeal to Self- Interest Visualizing what it could do for you Iraq mess tent – I’m in charge of morale

succeSs

 Simulating problems to solve them—gives the map for action  Inspiring people to act—gives the energy for action  Spotting inspirational stories Look for challenge, connection, creativity

 Stories = Simulations  Visualizations work because they stimulate the same regions of the brain as if the person were actually doing the activity. Focus on process, not the outcome.

 Plots: Challenge, Connection, and Creativity David and Goliath The Good Samaritan The Drag Test—testing plastic and metal casing Page

 S imple – 1 idea vs. 10 in compact form  U nexpected – Grabs Attention  C oncrete – Visual, tactile  C redible – “Are you better off today?”  E motional – They feel something  S tories – Jared of Subway  A Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credentialed, Emotional Story

 Pay attention.  Understand and remember it.  Agree or Believe  Care  Be able to act on it.  Unexpected  Concrete  Credible  Emotional  Story MAKE THE AUDIENCE… SUCCESS CHECKLIST