Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Vickie Hicks, the College of Business’ Corporate Relations Specialist, was initially drawn to this book by the cover art. The piece of duct tape looked so real she had to pick it up to see if it was. Once she picked it up, she couldn’t put it down. The book is based on the concept that everyone sells ideas to someone else throughout their career, whether it’s a new procedure, product or even a new job. With a vast amount of research, the Heath brothers have fine-tuned the critical elements of making an idea “sticky.” With humor and some unexpected research you can learn the “sticky” elements of simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories.
This book is a quick read and perfect to spread out in little batches, as the chapters stand well on their own. One word of caution: Readers will likely be so impressed with the Health brothers’ writing style and research they will want to read their follow-up books, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard and the newly released Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work.