Authors: Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This book is a must read for any leader who wants to make sure that he gets the message across and it sticks. The book is filled with several great anecdotes that underscore the valuable lessons that are imparted.
The US Space program was put in high gear by a catchy vision from President Kennedy, who said "we must get a man to the moon and back in a decade”. This is much more powerful and sticky than saying we must invest in our space program and explore different planets in the solar system. Another nugget of information that I derived from this book is the way newspaper articles are written. I have been reading newspapers for the last four decades but never considered the complexity of editing all the stories so that they fit neatly on the pages of the paper. It turns out that there’s a way to simplify the editors job without losing the story. Newspaper articles are written with the important stuff first and the background material later. That serves two purposes: If you skim the article you get the gist very quickly; also the editor can trim the end of the story, without losing the important points.
Chip and Dan Heath emphasize the power of stories in not only delivering your message, but also making it stick. In the authors' words, "Stories have the amazing dual power to stimulate and inspire. And most of the time we don't even have to use much creativity to harness these powers - we just need to be ready to spot the good ones that life generates everyday"
The other valuable advice is to appeal to the emotional side of people. Mother Theresa said “If I look at the one I will act”. Alternatively, you can also appeal to their self-interest and answer the WIIFY ( what's in it for you) as part of your pitch.
There are several other great points in the book and I am listing them down here so I remember:
This book is a must read for any leader who wants to make sure that he gets the message across and it sticks. The book is filled with several great anecdotes that underscore the valuable lessons that are imparted.
The US Space program was put in high gear by a catchy vision from President Kennedy, who said "we must get a man to the moon and back in a decade”. This is much more powerful and sticky than saying we must invest in our space program and explore different planets in the solar system. Another nugget of information that I derived from this book is the way newspaper articles are written. I have been reading newspapers for the last four decades but never considered the complexity of editing all the stories so that they fit neatly on the pages of the paper. It turns out that there’s a way to simplify the editors job without losing the story. Newspaper articles are written with the important stuff first and the background material later. That serves two purposes: If you skim the article you get the gist very quickly; also the editor can trim the end of the story, without losing the important points.
Chip and Dan Heath emphasize the power of stories in not only delivering your message, but also making it stick. In the authors' words, "Stories have the amazing dual power to stimulate and inspire. And most of the time we don't even have to use much creativity to harness these powers - we just need to be ready to spot the good ones that life generates everyday"
The other valuable advice is to appeal to the emotional side of people. Mother Theresa said “If I look at the one I will act”. Alternatively, you can also appeal to their self-interest and answer the WIIFY ( what's in it for you) as part of your pitch.
There are several other great points in the book and I am listing them down here so I remember:
- The Curse of Knowledge; experiment of tappers and listeners.
- When you say 3 things you say nothing. When your remote has 50 buttons you can't change the channel.
- How to command attention: say something that breaks a pattern.
- To hold people's attention "a little bit of mystery goes a long way”.
- Simple messages that are core and compact are easier to remember
- It is much easier to make a concrete idea stick in people's minds. In the words of the authors, "Concrete language helps people, especially novices, understand new concepts. Abstraction is the luxury of the expert”.
In summary, this book is one that I would like to read again and again, until all the points stick!
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