In Chapter 4 of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Credible, statistics and analytics were approached to build credibility. In Chapter 5 we find that an analytical approach reduces people’s ability to be emotionally connected to an idea or concept. Without an emotional connection, they are far less apt to act. Calls to action that are emotionally engaging will generate action. There are several concepts that resonated with me during this read of Made to Stick.

The first was the “you” factor. The authors called the principle the Mother Theresa Effect. Paraphrasing, you don’t emotionally engage with the masses, you emotionally engage with individuals. Later in the chapter, there were several qualifications to this effect, but the central premise makes solid sense. It is easier to connect with an individual than it is with a large group. Why do you think every late-night television ad pleading for money for the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals or Save the Children features an individual rather than a crowd? They make it the person or animal rather than about the system. After listening to several sales and awareness presentations for agile transformations and measurement programs, I can see why they often failed miserably to generate emotional connections. The focus was on the big picture, not the individual. I used lots of we’s and they’d rather than you’s. Interesting, yes, but there wasn’t enough emotion created for them to care.

The second is that concepts can be associated with each other so that one pulls the other along. This idea is the equivalent of an emotional piggyback ride. The authors use the example of the Don’t Mess with Texas campaign that tied state pride to an anti-littering push. The campaign reduced the number of long-neck bottles and cans tossed out on the highways. The emotional idea carried the intellectual idea on its shoulders. In the 1980’s, the quality movement used this idea coupling the emotional concept of nationalism (US Jobs) to adopt quality and lean methods. As soon as the recession waned, the job market improved, and the call to emotion became overused the linkage broke.

Overuse is the third idea in this chapter that struck me. I will admit that my inbox is not the most unbiased sample. But when I read through it I get tired of the gratuitous use of agile words in email headlines. When we overuse terms they lose the power to evoke emotions and to cause action. If social media is an example of what happens when words lose emotional power then we should expect the volume and shrillness of agile calls to action to increase. Sort of like a star as it burns through its hydrogen supply and has to start to burn helium. This is the beginning of the end for any star. The impact of overuse at the macro level is interesting at an intellectual level, the impact of overuse inside an organization is of more tactical interest. A constant call to action evoking the same emotion will fade into the background like Muzak.

The final concept that hit me was the impact of group interest over individual interest. The authors link the discussion to politics where I see a powerful relationship. It explains why people vote against their individual economic best interests but for ideas that link them to the group they identify with. When I first read this section it interested me intellectually at a high level. The use of organizations using guilds and tribes (imitating the Spotify Model) has made this more important. Will individuals act in their guild or tribe’s best interest when it conflicts with their own best interest? I suspect that where the adoption of the Spotify Model is hand waving, the answer is no. Where the approach is robust group interest will prevail. As change leaders, it is as important to test group interest as calls to self-interest.

In the corporate space, the idea of using or even channeling emotion seems to be taboo. This self-imposed restriction makes developing sticky ideas much tougher. As a change agent, tie into emotions to help your organization grow, mature, and evolve. 

Buy a copy of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die and then catch up on the logistics of this re-read:

Week 1: Announcement and Logistics – https://bit.ly/46tn5Bz 

Week 2: Introduction – https://bit.ly/46CLmp1 

Week 3: Simple – https://bit.ly/3PZLWaq 

Week 4: Unexpected – https://bit.ly/43zfkaB 

Week 5: Concrete – https://bit.ly/3qcn1Gg 

Week 6: Credible – https://bit.ly/3Yo9aJo