making ideas schtick

I lifted this holus-bolus from one of my favourite blogs called onmovements. So serious hat tip to the dudes there. But I thought it was well worth noting…

 

How do leaders avoid the Curse of Knowledge–that inability of experts to communicate their great ideas clearly? They can’t unlearn what they know. According to Chip and Dan Heath (see: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and 0thers Die), there are only two ways to beat the Curse of Knowledge reliably. The first is not to learn anything. (Obviously, unacceptable.) The second is to take your ideas and make them stick (The preferred way.)

Ideas are “sticky” the Heath brothers argue, when the ideas are communicated in ways that are “understandable, memorable, and effective in changing thought and behavior.”

The six principles of “stickiness” are (with some examples from William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King, Jr.):

1. Simple: The idea is stripped to its core without turning it into a silly sound bite.

Martin Luther King’s oft repeated words of “I have a dream” helped crystallize the core of his idea of a nation where “justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a might stream.” I had forgotten that the “I have a dream” line was often used by MLK. He returned to it often. It’s simple image allowed him to encapsulate the vision of the Civil Rights Movement as a noble dream, not yet realized, but one in which the “moral arc of the universe was bending.” (I love that line.)

2. Unexpected: The idea captures people’s attention and holds it. Leaders–unfettered by the Curse of Knowledge–say things that aren’t necessarily natural or intuitive or rooted in “common sense.”

One of the great strengths of Martin Luther King’s leadership of the Civil Rights Movement was his commitment to nonviolence. Over and over again, he reminded the black community–a community rightly angered by injustice–that the road to freedom was nonviolence. Many disagreed with him and argued for “physical action.” He stood firm on what might have been an unexpected and unnatural strategy. Hear his words:

We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul force. There is still a voice crying out through the vista of time, saying: “Love you enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.” Then, and only then, can you matriculate into the university of eternal life. That same voice cries out in terms lifted to cosmic proportions: “He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword.” And history is replete with the bleached bones of nations that failed to follow this command. We must follow nonviolence and love.

With such an unexpected strategy, MLK subpoenaed the conscience of our nation and kept the movement from excesses while maintaining a “strong nonviolent militancy.”

3. Concrete: The idea is communicated in concrete language–language about people and actions and things that can be discovered via the senses. Concrete language helps everyone understands it in a similar way.

4. Credible: The idea is believable, supported by convincing details, ready examples and accessible statistics.

5. Emotional: The idea is communicated in a way that you get people to care about it–emotionally and viscerally. Sticky ideas connect to people’s “better” self-interests, are related to their identity as people, and are associated with things they care about.

Slaveshipposter1 Here’s an example of how William Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle made the abolition of slavery “concrete, credible, and emotional.”

Take a look at this photo, but don’t click on it–not yet anyway.

What do you see? The plans for a ship and its cargo.

Now, click on it. What do you see?

This is the infamous British slave ship, Brookes. It was regulated by British law to carry 454 African slaves across the Middle Passage from Africa to the British West Indies and their sugar farms. In reality, the Brookes carried as many as 609 slaves on most voyages. As a result of political pressure by the Clapham Circle (William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, Henry Thornton, Hannah More, etc.–all committed Christ-followers), the British government had sought–half-heartedly–to regulate the trade by limiting the number of Africans a ship could carry. As part of their strategy to abolish the slave trade and eventually slavery, the Chapham circle published this officially approved drawing so the British public could see what was actually happening. By making the slave trade concrete, concrete and emotional to the British public, there arouse an outcry in England and many of the “uncommitted and unaware” rose to support the efforts of the Chapham circle.

6. Stories: The idea that is “storied” gets people to remember and to act. Leaders–unfettered by the Curse of Knowledge–tell stories. They know that you can reconstruct the moral from the story, but you
can’t reconstruct the story from the moral.

Martin Luther King speeches were “embedded” with story–Rosa Park’s refusal to move to the black section of the bus, Krawme Nkrumah’s non-violent revolution in Ghana, the Birmingham church bombing, the Selma March, the Sealtest Dairy injustice. He no doubt felt–as movement leaders dot that “If there are no stories that symbolize a vision or strategy well, that is a warning flag about the strategy—it may not be sufficiently clear or actionable to manifest itself in the actions of specific individuals. Otherwise, there’d be stories.”

Wilberforce and his circle often used story to forward the cause of abolition. The story of the “legal” drowning of 132 Africans, thrown overboard from the infamous slave ship Zong, helped spark the movement in England. Lord Mansfield, the judge in the case, released the perpetrators, saying it was “just as if horses were killed.” His comments unintentionally “adding” to the power of the story.

Movement leaders use language that sticks, language that is Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories.

BTW, we are having our Dangerous Stories II Summit this weekend.  I won’t be around until about Wed next week.   I will try and check in from time to time.

March 8, 2007 | Filed Under ideas, innovation, missional church |  

Comments

8 Responses to “making ideas schtick”

  1. brad on March 8th, 2007 4:36 pm

    Interesting that ’sticky ideas’ have all the key elements of crossing ‘learning style boundaries.’ If you follow these guidelines, you basically cover most major modes of learning: concrete and abstract, factual-conceptual-relational-imaginative. Make sure people see images, say things aloud, and move-hold-or-manipulate relevant objects while learning, and the memorability is complete. Learning style differences seem to be distributed across all cultures, so sticky ideas are critical to contextualization. Well done!

  2. Peggy on March 8th, 2007 6:41 pm

    Yes, thanks for this, Alan. And for the thoughtful application, too, Brad.

    Creation is full of examples of “sticky” models!

    We just need to consistently have all six elements functioning in communication…just like we must have all six elements functioning to bring forth Apostolic Genius.

    Alan, we’re looking forward to hearing some great stories next week! :)

  3. Jerry on March 8th, 2007 11:57 pm

    There’s some incredibly great stuff in the business book world that I think crosses over.

    “Ideas that stick” is one of them.

    Check out “The Starfish and the Spider” to for some new organization concepts.

  4. Chris on March 9th, 2007 1:45 pm

    Say hi to everybody for me!

  5. JAMES PETTICREW on March 9th, 2007 6:50 pm

    this reminds me of some stuff in THE TIPPING POINT book, I’ll need to go and dig it out

  6. Bill Huffhine on March 10th, 2007 8:31 am

    Hi Alan!

    I just did a review of your book, The Forgotten Ways on my blog. Great book…and I’m only in chapter 2!

    Blesings!
    bill

  7. Matt Stone on March 10th, 2007 9:44 pm

    I was similarly reminded of ‘The Tipping Point’

  8. James Nored on March 13th, 2007 4:54 pm

    Alan,

    I thumbed through Made to Stick at Barnes and Noble a couple months back. I thought it had good application to starting missional movements. In fact, all of the viral marketing ideas translate pretty well.

    On that line, I am finishing up Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer. Based on extensive research, it states that churches that are growing evangelistically are very simple. They have a purpose statement that is short, memorable, and is written in process terms (not some vague, unmeasurable thing). Every ministry is ruthlessly examined to see if it fits into this process. If not, it is eliminated.

    We talked last year about research on your hypotheses. This is a work that I think very much confirms your hypothesis that simplicity is key to missional movements (i.e. Jesus is Lord for discipleship).

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