Our February’s book review really wasn’t all we had hoped it would be. In short, Made to Stick was less than sticky – an incredibly slow read at times filled to the brim with repetitive case studies. I literally couldn’t read more than ten pages at a time without reading myself to sleep — dreading the inevitable question my coworkers would ask, “how far along are you?” Fortunately, my answer to this question just ended up being a sigh of relief for others.

Although a bit slow, “Made to Stick” gives concrete examples and works to show us how to make our own ideas just as stick-worthy.

In an effort to make this post brief and to the point, I am simply including the six principles of sticky ideas.

• Simplicity. Or in the words of my college professors, “keep it simple stupid.” If you say three things, you say nothing at all. Start with ONE talking point, once you have some attention, you can then move onto the explanation or even next talking point.

• Unexpectedness. In order to get people’s attention, we need to generate interest and curiosity; we create knowledge gaps and then fill them.

• Concreteness. We are visual beings. Give us something visual to stimulate our minds which in turn will make it easier for us to remember.

• Credibility. We need to create ways for people to test our ideas and give them a chance to come to their own conclusion.

• Emotions. Sticky ideas create a feeling, whether it be disgust, excitement, grief etc.

• Stories. We get people to act on our ideas by telling stories, giving them something to relate to or understand.

March Book of the Month: The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

-Ali