Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

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It's a hit!

Everyone should use the tools described in this book, particularly diplomats and international development workers. We so often lose our audience ... (show more)

Everyone should use the tools described in this book, particularly diplomats and international development workers. We so often lose our audience by using vague, abstract terms and long sentences. We need stories, concrete facts, and simple core ideas. I was pleased to see that the authors wrote this book using the techniques they describe in it. It was a quick and memorable read.

Our world is filled with ideas, and unfortunately people have far too little time to understand and digest them. Also unfortunately, those who have ideas all too often cannot communicate them effectively because they clutter their communication with superfluous ideas, or they speak in abstraction without illustrating why the idea matters. I have to read a lot of reports in my work, and I would love it if people would occasionally cut through the bull and buzzwords and tell me what they're really trying to say. This book distills some great communication techniques into simple, memorable rules. (show less)

 

 

by Facebook User

No, it's a flop!

Not a bad book for developing 20-30 minute short term presentations, but if you were doing more long term, some of these principles fall a little ... (show more)

Not a bad book for developing 20-30 minute short term presentations, but if you were doing more long term, some of these principles fall a little short. For instance, if you were teaching someone how to change the oil in a vehicle, these principles would make for a great presentation...but if you were teaching them how to rebuild an engine you would need a different approach. Add to this that in my opinion that the authors did not follow their own framework for developing a message as communicated by this book. A case in point is that this book teaches 6 principle presentation and the first of which is "simplicity", but this book uses 300 pages to present 6 principles that could have been done in under 200. (show less)

 

 

by Grant Davis

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  Excellent book about idea propagation and survival. It's outline follows the acronym "SUCCES". 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
  * Credibility — give an idea believability
  * Emotion — help people see the importance of an idea
  * Stories — empower pe... (show more)

  Excellent book about idea propagation and survival. It's outline follows the acronym "SUCCES". 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
  * Credibility — give an idea believability
  * Emotion — help people see the importance of an idea
  * Stories — empower people to use an idea through narrative

  Author Chip Heath is a professor of organizational behavior at Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. The other author, Dan Heath, a former researcher at Harvard, is a consultant and developer of textbooks. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook User on Mar 03, 2009 at 08:06AM

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  Excellent Book! It's everything I want in a book about ideas and idea propagation. Well written, lots of examples, drills down into the details of what makes an idea viral! Also, the book contains many positive narratives of regular folks who were able to amplify their ideas using clever messaging.

   

  by Facebook User on Dec 27, 2007 at 05:48AM

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