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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die QUOTES

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die QUOTES

1 " Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

2 " Anger prepares us to fight and fear prepares us to flee. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

3 " The first problem of communication is getting people's attention. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

4 " People tend to overuse any idea or concept that delivers an emotional kick. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

5 " An old advertising maxim says you've got to spell out the benefit of the benefit. In other words, people don't buy quarter-inch drill bits. They buy quarter-inch holes so they can hang their children's pictures. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

6 " The most basic way to get someone's attention is this: Break a pattern. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

7 " A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

8 " If I already intuitively "get" what you're trying to tell me, why should I obsess about remembering it? The danger, of course, is that what sounds like common sense often isn't.... It's your job, as a communicator, to expose the parts of your message that are uncommon sense.
(p.72) "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

9 " To make our communications more effective, we need to shift our thinking from "What information do I need to convey?" to "What questions do I want my audience to ask? "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

10 " Sportsmanship" had been stretched too far. Like "relativity," it had migrated far afield from its original meaning. It used to refer to the kind of behavior that Lance Armstrong showed Jan Ullrich. But over time the term was stretched to include unimpressive, nonchivalrous behavior, like losing without whining too much or making it through an entire game without assaulting a referee. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

11 " Stephen Covey, in his book The 8th Habit, decribes a poll of 23,000 employees drawn from a number of companies and industries. He reports the poll's findings:

* 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



Then, Covey superimposes a very human metaphor over the statistics. He says, "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. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

12 " The Curse of Knowledge: when we are given knowledge, it is impossible to imagine what it's like to LACK that knowledge. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

13 " The most basic way to make people care is to form an association between something they don’t yet care about and something they do care about. We "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

14 " When you say three things, you say nothing. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

15 " People are tempted to tell you everything, with perfect accuracy, right up front, when they should be giving you just enough info to be useful, then a little more, then a little more. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

16 " When people know the desired destination, they’re free to improvise, as needed, in arriving there. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

17 " So, a good process for making your ideas stickier is: (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. Then, once their guessing machines have failed, help them refine their machines. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

18 " work to make the core message itself more interesting. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

19 " Mystery is created not from an unexpected moment but from an unexpected journey. We know where we’re headed—we want to solve the mystery—but we’re not sure how we’ll get there. "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

20 " The story’s power, then, is twofold: It provides simulation (knowledge about how to act) and inspiration (motivation to act). "

― Chip Heath , Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die