After the conclusion of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, there are three brief sections with practical tips for making ideas memorable. The dust cover states, “With Added Material (now even stickier)”. The added material provides more food for thought for using Made to Stick. There are three sections.
Section One, Talking Strategy, makes a very damning assertion. Organizations take customer communication far more seriously than internal/employee communication. The authors argue that people within an organization don’t grasp the omit strategy. The lack of institutional knowledge means that strategy does not guide behavior. The problem remains the same when we shift focus to digital or agile transformation. I’ve seen strategies that you need a high level of education to understand. The words don’t stick with you, mean different things, and don’t inspire action. This type of strategy may be explicit but isn’t something anyone will tattoo on their chest. At best most strategies (at all levels) are vacant statements, you get a quick hand wave and then disappear.
A team exercise:
- Grab a whiteboard and share what you think is the strategy for the company, department, and team.
- Don’t look them up before describing them.
- If recalling the strategy is difficult or impossible, discuss whether the will have any influence over behavior or decision-making.
Most of the readers of the Software Process and Measurement Blog take part in leading change. Teams and organizations put in a lot of effort to find ways to deliver more value. It takes a lot of knowledge to plan and execute any type of change initiative. When it comes time to sell and communicate the plan, Made to Stick’s most consistent villain, the curse of knowledge, enters the picture.
It is easy to communicate as if you were the audience. When you hear certain words, you can imagine clear pictures. However, the coder in the third chair on the left side of the conference room doesn’t understand what they mean. The words you are using are how you talk about the change, they are the words you needed to create and build the idea, not communicate the idea. This is just one of the forms that the curse of knowledge takes but is common when selling change. Remember, you and your team are NOT the audience. The authors use a common strategy phrase to illustrate the point. We have all heard the phrase “unlocking customer value”. What does that mean? If you can’t see your backlog work and know what to do first then communication has failed.
Applying the six attributes of sticky ideas helps to break through to something more actionable. Begin by asking what behaviors you want. Simplify the message so that it uses a common language. When discussing user stories we often make the distinction between domain (the language of the code) and business language. Talking code to a customer is like sitting on a subway train in Beijing if you only speak English. The authors used an example of a well-stated strategy for a local banking chain, “We don’t want to be first, but sure as hell don’t wanna be third.” The strategy is simple and concrete, supports decision-making, and guides behavior. The bank is never the first to bring a product to market but rather copies and innovates its way to success. With a strategy that drives behavior, stories can be gathered that engage the teller and the listener emotionally creating a virtuous cycle.
Part Two, Teaching That Sticks resonated deeply with me. Jeremy Willets and I are in the throes of publishing a book on work intake, due out from JRoss Publishing in late 2023. In support of the book, we are creating a teaching guide, revamping the workshop, and building a cohort approach to training and consulting. Training that sticks is timely. Without delving into the details, a few of the highlights that struck me included.
Find the core of the message. Then communicate the core by anchoring the ideas in things that people already know and remember. Like judo, you are using the effort expended to magnify your efforts.
As we noted when re-reading the chapter covering Unexpected, knowledge gaps generate curiosity. Curiosity generates energy for resolving the gap. In training, don’t assume that the student already knows there is a knowledge gap as the trainer it is your job to expose the gap.
Most presentations and training materials will use all statistics they can find. Statistics are credible. Put yourself in the shoes of the person seeing the stats for the first time. If the student can’t relate they do not build credibility. Craft a story in and around the statistics that is relatable. The authors use the example of expressing the odds of winning the lottery. You are more likely to get struck by lightning than to win the lottery. How many people do you know that get hit by lightning?
The lottery-lightening example transforms data from something analytical or theoretical to something that hits students in the gut. The example in the text was a safety trainer that dissolves an eyeball in acid to evoke emotions. As a trainer, it is easy to connect with your own words without connecting to your student’s emotions: Design in emotion.
One important lesson from this section is that speaking without thinking is natural for experts. Students don’t speak expertise; think and translate.
Part Three, Unsticking an Idea, challenges the notion that once a sticky idea is out there, it’s hard to change. This is the shortest of the three sections. Using deflections, stickier stories, and concrete metaphors are useful tactics. Regardless, unsticking an idea is at best hard.
Buy a copy of the book and then catch up on the 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
Week 7: Emotional – https://bit.ly/3QCAQbx
Week 8: Stories – https://bit.ly/3sbk2yp
Week 9: Epilogue – https://bit.ly/3P3jnIh
