Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck
Chip & Dan Heath
Why does fake news stick while the truth goes missing? Why do disproved urban legends persist? How do you keep letting newspapers and clickbait sites lure you in with their headlines? And why do you remember complicated stories but not complicated facts? Over ten years of study, Chip and Dan Heath have discovered how we latch on to information hooks.
Packed full of case histories and incredible anecdotes, it shows: – how an Australian scientist convinced the world he’d discovered the cause of stomach ulcers by drinking a glass filled with bacteria – how a gifted sports reporter got people to watch a football match by showing them the outside of the stadium – how pitches like ‘Jaws on a spaceship’ (Alien) and ‘Die Hard on a bus’ (Speed) convince movie execs to invest gigantic sums even when they know nothing else about the project.
As entertaining as it is informative, this is a timely exploration of a fascinating human behaviour. At the same time, by demonstrating strategies like the ‘Velcro Theory of Memory’ and ‘curiosity gaps’, it offers superbly practical insights. Made to Stick uses cutting-edge insight to help you ensure that what you say is understood, remembered and, most importantly, acted upon.
Review
In Made to Stick, the Heath brothers decode why some ideas thrive while others fade, a lesson that’s transformed how I pitch and position our services. Their SUCCESs framework (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories) became our cheat sheet for cutting through noise in client conversations.
One game-changer: replacing generic value propositions with “concrete” analogies. Instead of saying “We optimise workflows,” we now say “We give your team 3 hours back every week, like finding an extra Friday afternoon.” The book’s “curiosity gap” principle also reshaped our outreach, we lead with surprising industry stats (“83% of firms like yours miss this tax incentive”) rather than generic introductions.
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