After a week off, we’re picking back up this month’s Book Review on Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. If you’re just joining us, make sure to check out the first introduction post and you can buy it here. They share “why some ideas survive and others die”. The template or outline that we’re using here is the same one that we use in our premium YouLead content for the 2 book reviews we share there each month.

The Secret Sauce (that makes this book good)
• Wide Audience—The ideas in this book appeal to not only to your typical business leaders with something to sell or present, but also to parents looking for ways to make important lessons last and storytellers with a message of truth up on a stage every Sunday.

• Distilled Down—The authors have years of research and experience to share, but they wisely narrow it all down to just 6 key principles and even create an acronym to help these key traits stick in our minds so we can try to apply them. (For a sneak preview of what they are, check out the philosophy section below.)

• Real Life—Reading this list of principles, no matter how much we resonate with them usually isn’t enough to really affect how we think and act. But the great thing about these authors is that they’ve collected not only information, but stories. They take time to show and not just tell us, how this has played out in the past and even currently with clear examples of real-life success stories and even failures for us to learn and be inspired by.

Thinking Orange (how it overlaps with our core philosophy)
When we talk about our Message—what we have to say to kids, parents and teenagers—we spend hours crafting just the right words and thinking about the best environment to tell the whole story so it has the best chance to impact and influence the next generation.

In the book Think Orange, there’s a whole section on things to consider when you’re planning your message. Reggie Joiner encourages communicators to consider:
• Say Less—Simplify so you’re communicating only the biggest concept. P.138
• Say What Matters—Prioritize based on relevance or applicability to your audience. P. 140
• Say It Clearer– Craft a phrase that’s memorable so the main idea isn’t easily forgotten. P. 142
• Don’t Say It– Create an experience instead so the message is processed holistically. P. 144
• Say It Louder– Leverage every possible way and environment to reinforce this concept. P. 147

Look at how this overlaps with the SUCCES principles in Made to Stick:
• Simplicity– strip an idea to its’ core
• Unexpectedness—capture people’s attention and hold it
• Concreteness– help people understand and remember
• Credibility– get people to believe you and your ideas
• Emotional—get people to care about your idea in the first place
• Stories—and finally, get people to act on your idea

Can you think of an organization or leader that’s really good at making their ideas stick and getting people to act on them? What’s their secret?