Credibility is the fourth requirement for maximum stickiness (short of Gorilla Glue) discussed in Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Credibility is defined as the quality or power of inspiring belief or trust. Without credibility, the attributes of simplicity, unexpectedness, and concreteness crumble. Humans judge the credibility of almost everything from sources, and messages, to people. For example, the perceived honesty and trustworthiness of a person equates to credibility. The hard part is that everyone seems to have their own definitions of honesty and trustworthiness therefore credibility is often maliable.
There are several concepts that resonated with me while re-reading this chapter. The first in this chapter is that the authors show how sticky ideas are used to generate credibility for other ideas. Spin-meisters use something a group believes to promote the belief in something else. Urban myths and conspiracy theories offer great examples of crafting logical facilities. If A then B must be true. If you believe the government lies then a statement that the moon landing was fake gains credibility. Product claims are full of logical fallacies built on this idea.
Another takeaway from this chapter was the role detail plays in the perception of credibility. Stories that are vivid and contain details, even if those details are not relevant, are considered more credible. Details are seen as a proxy for knowledge which generates credibility. An understanding of this basic piece of human behavior provides all sorts of possibilities for positive and negative manipulation. Step back and listen to the stories told in meetings and presentations. Are the details being shared manufactured or do they truly reflect experience? How many anecdotes are provided in an attempt to generate credibility and authority?
Chapter 4 is an incredibly rich source of ideas for anyone involved in stewarding change in an organization. It also provides an explanation for a behavior that I loathed and loved. Having been a consultant and an employee I have observed that consultants are listened to more than internal personnel. While this is not an absolute, I would be hard-pressed to find a consultant that would not acknowledge this superpower. The difference in the credibility conferred on consultants is amazing. Arguably there are probably myriad specific reasons for greater credibility in specific contexts, but I still find a systemic credibility bias. I have seen organizations hire a specific consultant to add credibility to an internal initiative.
Each of the four attributes of stickiness that we considered in our re-read up to this point are important, useful, and manipulable. As the line from Spider-Man goes, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Note this might be a minor paraphrase as I did not check my comic book collection or ask Alexa. All of us need to be armed with critical thinking skills to interpret messages that seem credible even if they pass the Sinatra test (“If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere” – New York, New York).
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
Week 3: Simple – https://bit.ly/3PZLWaq
Week 4: Unexpected – https://bit.ly/43zfkaB
Week 5: Concrete – https://bit.ly/3qcn1Gg
