In the book, Made to Stick, Heath and Heath discuss strategy in the chapter that is titled Sticky Advice. Heath and Heath talk about an acronym, CHIFF, which stands for "Clever, High-quality, Innovative, Friendly, Fun." This concept informs decisions across the organization. The chapter gives the example of a board game company posing questions for the game. If the creator comes up with a question that lacks one of the standards of CHIFF, then the question will have to be worded differently or thrown out completely. This concept is a great way to measure standards for a company.
Also in this chapter, Heath and Heath introduce a few tips to help your strategy stick with people: be concrete, say something unexpected, and tell stories. These tips are good to remember because all of them working together can create a persuasive and memorable strategy. Personally, I think the best tip out of those three tips is telling stories. I know that when I am listening to someone speak and they tell a personal story I am more engaged because of the personal account they share and the story helps put a connection to the concept that they are explaining.
Ideas that stick are understandable, memorable, and effective in changing thought and behavior and this brings back the SUCCESs principle we talked about earlier. This just proves that the concepts we have learned connect to things we are continuing to learn. They build on each other.
I completely agree that companies, or really any of us as writers, can use the acronym CHIFF as a way to measure ourselves. We can work to achieve CHIFF if we are not there yet, and this give us a standard to work towards (as you mentioned). I focused more on the acronym SUCCESs when I wrote my response. I agree with you that my favorite tip was the one about "Stories". If you just lecture facts and information, people will fall asleep and it will all go in one ear and out the other. However, a story will stick. We remember stories better because they are personal and can connect us to the information.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of telling stories. Ancient people groups who did not understand how to perfect writing told stories constantly to pass along valuable information and lessons to others. It was how they related to one another in a way that best allowed the listener to access the conversation in the future. It remains a valuable asset in terms of being able to communicate a theme or idea in a way that sticks. While I personally believe the emotional element is more important, telling stories is consistently successful in producing recall.
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