Simple is the first principle of making something sticky. It is also the title of chapter 1 of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. There are three areas in this chapter I would like to spend more time with.
- The formula core + compactness = simple
- Curse of knowledge
- Metaphors and analogies
As you read the chapter you will see that all three are intertwined; however, each of the three is useful to consider in isolation.
Simple is the first requirement of sticky. The authors define the term simple as the combination of core and compactness. Over the years, one of the hardest parts of helping people, teams companies is to get them to recognize the bottom line of their endeavors. I can’t tell you how many times I heard executives make grand statements that they want their organization to be CMMI Level X or Agile. In most cases, they were using their announced goal as a proxy or metaphor for something else. By avoiding recognizing or sharing the core they took away the ability of those around to know how to behave. And as importantly to know how to make decisions to support the core.
My first job out of university was with a women’s clothing manufacturer. The manufacturer was light years ahead of their competitors. They were vertically integrated from manufacturing to delivery to stores across the United States and Canada. They embraced computers to do marketing rather than just accounting (this was just after the last ice age). I asked my wife what the core mission of the firm was and she said “to be the leader in the junior coordinate industry.” She ran the art department. Sounds great but we also made private label clothing, swimsuits, jeans, bodywear, ran a trucking company, plants to cut and sew clothes, and at one point a polyester knitting plant. How all that fit into our nebulous mission was difficult to discern. Every major department near the end saw its mission as being the core and the firm literally tore itself into shreds. On reflection, our real core was selling garments to stores. Stated that way it is far more compact and stickier. If we had been able to understand that a lot of poor behavior could have been avoided.
The curse of knowledge occurs when a person assumes that the people they are talking to know as much as they do or know enough of the context. I have noted that I took a sales training class, The Sandler System. It was enlightening. The class pointed out two outcomes of the curse of knowledge. The first is mystification by overburdening a conversation with technical jargon or in-jokes. I have fallen prey to this problem, maybe more than I know, but I think I have reined it in. When I am doing it, I justify myself by thinking that it makes me feel like an expert. In reality, people check out and think of me as something other than an expert. The second is the need to tell those around you everything you know. Questions elicit a five-minute data dump. Simple needs to extend past conceptualizing missions and include how we interact.
Metaphors are powerful tools to convey information in a compact package. The block of wood the designer of the Palm Pilot carried around to send the message to those he interacted with conveyed the compactness of the form factor (link to Palm Pilot). The block of wood was a visual metaphor. The problem with metaphors is that unless everyone understands the meaning problems will ensue. I have spent a fair amount of time studying clean language, an approach to removing the mystification that metaphors can cause from important conversations. Metaphors are a double-edged sword: use them with care.
Note: I have avoided using most of the companies that the Heath’s references in this chapter. Many of the firms, like Palm, don’t exist and will not resonate as well with younger readers. Like a joke, if you have to send people to Wikipedia the example loses its punch. It is not simple anymore.
Buy a copy of the book 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
