Made To Stick in person

Chip Heath spoke at the MDRT's Top of the Table meeting this past weekend, and it was great to hear him, see him and talk with him as well. Following are some of the highlights of his presentation about Made To Stick. (Oh, if you don't know the name he's the co-author with brother Dan Heath of that great book that we've reviewed here last spring.)

An interview with Chip will follow shortly, but in the meantime, here are some highlights from Chip "live:"

• Make the stories that sell your ideas portable. Tell them simply so that other people can tell them as well, and then you will leverage your influence.
• The great duct tape on the cover of the book was resisted by the publishers. "Too difficult," they said, and they preferred using Post-it notes on the cover - which of course don't stick. (Which is WHY we use them in the Decker Creating Process by the way - you can move them around.) Duct Tape is sticky, and of course Chip and Dan won the argument.
• Reminder of the SUCCES principles ("Repeating good ideas is worth repeating.")

                Simple
                Unexpected
                Concrete
                Credible
                Emotional
                Stories

• Chip said the most important of these is Simple. Keep it simple, get to the basic premise. (Corresponds directly to our concept of always having a "Point Of View" in any message.)
• Most important after that, I think, is Stories. And stories that contain the other parts of the SUCCES principles are the most powerful.
• And I loved "The Curse Of Knowledge," around which Chip told several stories. What stops most business presenters is they know too much, and

1. assume their audience understands as much as they do about their subject, and
2. that they have to present all they know.

• And Chip had interesting PowerPoints as support - they were spare, using little text and only ideas, but something I hadn't seen before that worked: All text was in white on black background, in courier news type. Made it seem journalistic and authentic. Effective.

Well, I can't really do service to a great presentation in print, and it wasn't videotaped. Best to see Chip when you can, or read, and re-read the book "Made To Stick." It will help make you a storyteller.