Business Services Industry

How to make your idea stick: it takes more than knowledge to craft a memorable message

Information Outlook, Nov, 2006

Even after my brother and I did all this research and wrote a book about making ideas stick, we aren't naturals at this. When we want to make a message stick, we find ourselves again and again going back to our checklist of six principles. Have we found the "uncommon sense" in our message? Are we being concrete enough? Is there a story that we can tell?

We go through each one of the six, and at first it feels boring and dumb to be using a checklist. But for people who are uncomfortable with checklists, just remember that before every flight you take, your pilot walks into the cockpit of that 747 airplane and starts going down a very elaborate checklist to make sure that he or she doesn't forget anything critical.

Now, are pilots professionals? Yes. Are they experienced? You bet. They have thousands of hours of flight time. But the checklist helps remind them to consider all the things they need to consider.

So the conclusion for the information profession is this: For the important messages in your life, take some time to think about how to make them stick. And don't be afraid to use the checklist.

Published by Random House, the new book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, is scheduled for publication on January 16, 2007.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

SLA Leadership Summit

January 24-27, 2007

Reno, Nevada

In addition to Chip Heath's keynote, "Made to Stick: The Six Hooks of Successful Ideas," Ken Haycock, director of the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University, will speak on "Leadership and You: Tackling the Dragon."

For details and to register, please see www.sla.org/2007LeadershipSummit.>