Made to Stick:Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

How can you improve the chances that your idea will make a lasting impact on people’s minds and change their behavior? In this summary, the authors reveal sure-fire methods to sell ideas, products, and strategies by strongly influencing the ways people think, retain information, and act.  You’ll learn the anatomy of ideas that stick as well as how to make your ideas stickier.

Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas -- businesspeople, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others -- often have to struggle to make their ideas “stick.”

Why do some ideas thrive, while others die? And how can you improve the chances that your idea will make a lasting impact on people’s minds and change their behavior? In Made to Stick, Chip Heath and Dan Heath tackle these questions head-on.

Chip Heath is a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Dan Heath is a consultant at Duke Corporate Education and a founder of Thinkwell, a new-media textbook company.

Our summary of Made to Stick reveals sure-fire methods to sell ideas, products, and strategies by strongly influencing the ways people think, retain information, and act. You’ll learn the anatomy of ideas that stick as well as how to make your ideas stickier, such as using the “Velcro theory of memory,” developing the “Commander’s Intent” approach, and creating “curiosity gaps.”