What makes a story stick? Why are proverbs passed on through generations in mostly their original form after centuries and centuries of use? Are ideas born interesting or made interesting? Chip and Dan Heath discuss these compelling questions in their book Made to Stick. With an acknowledged nod to Malcolm Gladwell’s term ‘stickiness,’ the Heath brothers deconstruct what makes an idea sticky, and detail the ways we can make our ideas more so. This post marks the beginning of a three part series analyzing Made to Stick and acknowledging the key lessons we can learn as presenters from the book. Today we will discuss two of the six components of a sticky idea according to the Heath brothers: simple and unexpected.
Core and Compact
First and foremost, an idea must be boiled down to its simplest form in order to truly stick with an audience. It must be highly concrete and highly succinct because “the more we reduce the amount of information in an idea, the stickier it will be.” And the easiest way to keep an idea as simple as possible, the Heath brothers write, is by finding the core of the idea. They cite Southwest Airlines as exemplary in this endeavor. They are a budget airline above all else; all decisions the company makes are filtered through that concrete, unwavering ideal. And that core idea is sticky with travelers: people know Southwest is the go-to budget airline.
In order to find the core of an idea, the authors recommend writing something like a journalistic lead, which contains the most important information, information that should begin the story. Prioritization can be difficult, but it’s essential to find the core of an idea. Details may change from situation to situation, but the core always remains the same, and thus all decisions are made according to that core idea.
As presenters, we are constantly looking for ways to make ideas stickier with our audiences, and finding the core of our ideas is a great way to do just that. If you are sure about the core of your presentation and you tell it the simplest way possible, everything else will fall into place as a result.
Use Schema to Simplify
“To make a profound idea compact, you’ve got to pack a lot of meaning into a little bit of messaging,” the authors write. “And how do you do that? You use flags. You tap the existing memory terrain of your audience. You use what’s already there.” And what’s already there, the collection of generic properties of a concept is called a schema. We can tap into our predisposed schemas to simplify explanations and make comparisons. This is especially useful in presentations because we can use them to connect with audiences and make cumbersome information easier to understand.
Metaphors, analogies and comparisons work so effectively because of our preexisting schemas. If we tell our audience that a clementine is a small orange, they will immediately understand what a clementine is because they already knew what an orange is. This is a critical aspect in crafting a concise, easy to understand presentation. Appeal to these already well-established schemas. “Generative metaphors and proverbs both derive their power from a clever substitution,” the authors write. “They substitute something easy to think about for something difficult.”
Violate Schema to Surprise
In most circumstances, getting people’s attention is difficult, and it’s only half the battle: keeping their attention can be even more difficult. The Heath brothers say that the best way to get people’s attention and keep it is to violate schema. By challenging preconceived, well-established schema, you are at once surprising the audience and encouraging them to ask questions, thereby keeping their attention.
The authors suggest that after you find the core of your message, figure out what is counterintuitive about that message and then communication that in a way that challenges your audience’s schema. Create a mystery for the audience; think of a way to fashion an ‘Aha!’ moment. Indeed, “common sense is the enemy of sticky messages,” so find a way to make your message as unexpected as possible.
They write interestingly about gap theory, the idea that “curiosity happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge.” This is a powerful tool for presenters, as we can induce curiosity in our audience by identifying gaps in their knowledge and then showing them how we are going to fill those gaps. “We need to open gaps before we close them,” they write. “Our tendency is to tell people the facts. First, though, they must realize that they need these facts.”
This is good advice for presenters. Begin by giving the audience enough context so they care about your topic, and then subtly identify gaps in their knowledge about that subject. Pique their curiosity by telling them what they don’t know, and then fill in those gaps with your amazing presentation.
