made to stick

yesterday i wrote about this awesome book called Made to Stick HERE.
below are my extremely summarized notes on the made to stick model that i am working hard to implement in every possible avenue.

a great paradigm/framework for communicating and creating sticky ideas.
Simple

Unexpected

Concrete

Credible

Emotional

Stories

1            Simplicity – find the essential core of the idea. [the bottom line]

I need to be a MASTER OF EXCLUSION. Because if I present 10 ideas they won’t remember any.

I must RELENTLESSLY PRIORITIZE!

Proverbs are the ideal [like Rick Warren & Andy Stanley] Example = the Golden Rule – a statement so profound that you can spend a lifetime trying to follow it.

2            Unexpectedness – this is how we get peeps to PAY ATTENTION! We violate their expectations. Be counter-intuitive.

Use surprise = an emotion whose function is to increase alertness and cause focus!

Generate interest and curiosity. & open gaps in their knowledge.

3            Concreteness – [CLEAR]. Explain in terms of human actions & sensory info.

(Most mission statements are ambiguous to the point of being meaningless.)

sticky ideas = full of concrete images because our brains are wired to remember concrete data.

“Speaking concretely is the only way to ensure that our idea will mean the same thing to everyone in our audience.”

[even down to the nitty gritty of “he was eating a green sour apple airhead” instead of “he was eating candy”]

4            CREDIBILITY – make peeps believe. Ideas carry their own credentials.

Help peeps test our ideas for themselves = “try before you buy” [like andy with sex talk & Reagan with 2^nd election]

(stats are usually no good. We connect better with 1 person’s story than a stat)

5            EMOTIONS – make peeps FEEL something. Gotta do this!

[“Stories not Stats” = my sticky phrase] peeps “are more likely to make a charitable gift to a single needy individual than to an entire impoverished region.”

6            STORIES – telling stories gets people to ACT on our ideas.

Stories help us really do it in real life

*So, tell a simple, unexpected, concrete, credentialed, emotional, story!