Book Review - Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

I read this book on Ashwin's recommendation. Thanks Ashwin ! :)

There was a mild sense of deja vu when I read this book and that may have been because of all the literature read on - how to make good presentations / proposals / speeches / ads .... etc. [ Have you seen Steve Job's presentations ? :) Sadly I still lack in this area !!! ]. Principles like - KISS ( which is called "Simple" in this book ) , make an impact ( Unexpectedness ), a picture speaks a thousand words etc . Plus one cannot help remembering all the ads / stories / one-liners that have stuck to one's mind !! :))

Having said that the book puts tangible strategies into a simple usable formula , a kind of handy reference - that can be used like a ready reckoner to help make ideas 'stick' in the minds of the audience. Towards this at the end of every chapter a case study is taken and examined/analyzed against the formula -- and an effort is make to understand why one of idea 'sticks'. Nothing like an example to illustrate practicality.

The formula for stickiness - SUCCESs (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Story). The last 'S' is deliberately left out. Does this make the formula more 'sticky' ? :)

Some things I liked / learned from the book [ This is by no means exhaustive - I liked the book in its entirety ].

1. Curse of Knowledge - Many people who are communicating an idea know so much about a subject that they are unable to put themselves in the shoes of their audience who may know very little about that topic. [ Ever sat through the presentation of an expert and found most of it went over the head ? :) ]. This is the curse of knowledge - “Once we know something, it is hard to imagine what it was like not to know it.”

2. The story of prejudice - A teacher Jane Elliott in Iowa was trying to think of a way to explain to her class of third-graders about prejudice. This was after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. She wanted to convey the idea of why someone would hate enough to kill them.

So she first divided the class into brown-eyed children and blue-eyed children. Then brown-eyed children were told they were superior to blue-eyed children. They were allowed to sit in better seats in the class and given extra time at recess. Blue-eyed children were made to wear a collar so that their superior brown-eyed classmates could identify them anywhere and ignore or taunt them. . The brown-eyed children were vicious in their contempt and hate. The blue-eyed kids began to do poorly in subjects they had previously done well in.

One day later - the teacher reversed her statement - she told that blue-eyed children were superior to the brown-eyed children. Now the brown-eyed children faced the discrimination, poor grades , the physical collar and taunts. With the change the prejudice also turned around.

She ended the experiment on the 3rd day - telling them neither were superior. But the experiment made the idea of prejudice concrete ! Years later - her students still remembered the profound message that differences can generate excessive hate - enough to kill.

3. Business managers seem to believe that, once they've clicked through a PowerPoint presentation showcasing their conclusions, they've successfully communicated their ideas. What they've done is share data.

4. There is a curious disconnect between the amount of time we invest in training people how to arrive at the Answer and the amount of time we invest in training them how to Tell Others !

5. Stripping out information, in order to focus on the core, is not instinctual. There is a tendency to include every single fact as though the quantity of data amassed is more important.

6. Why stories work - If you make an argument, you're implicitly asking the audience to evaluate your argument - judge it, debate it, criticize it - and then argue back, at least in their minds. But with a story, you engage the audience - you are involving people with the idea, asking them to participate with you.

In the last pages - there is a reference guide which are like notes plus there is a section on common communication problems and what to do about them. Definitely useful.

All in all - a fast and easy read , interspersed with many examples and certainly a book that can picked up to improve in communication ( and be remembered ) - be it via presentations / speeches / ads / business proposals .....