I just read the pre-publication version of this book for the
second time, and just like the first time, my reaction was “This is one of the
most important business books ever written.” What
Sticks is written by a Chip Heath
and Dan Heath,
who are brothers, and will be published by Random House early next year. Chip is a professor at the
“What Sticks” is just as useful and just as evidence-based as great books including Robert Cialdini’s Influence, Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, and Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics. I love how the Heath brothers dissect false stories and myths, (like “you only use 10% of your brain”) to show what kinds ideas spread and persist, and what kinds don’t. The book focuses squarely on using this research to help you design your own messages that will stick and affect what people actually do.
One of my favorites is their analysis of the success of the
“Don’t Mess with
And it isn’t just that the Heath brothers tell such great stories, they show how you – as a manager, a marketer, an organizational change agent, or a politician – can craft new messages, and evaluate and alter your current messages to have the greatest impact. What Sticks is an example of evidence-based management at its finest, as it draws on the best knowledge that behavioral scientists have generated and then goes the difficult extra step of showing all of us how to apply it.
This book deserves to be on
the best-seller list all next year and, as an added bonus, Chip Heath is my
candidate for the next Malcolm Gladwell. Of course, the future is impossible to
predict, but you really owe to yourself to buy the book and to hear Chip talk
about it.
Blink is also my favorite.
Resume templates: http://www.resumetemplate.org/
Posted by: Account Deleted | September 07, 2010 at 11:05 PM
The video lecture on the same topic is very interesting and liked it very much..
Posted by: Anna @ Resume Templates | July 09, 2010 at 11:18 PM
Just found a video lecture by him on the same topic @ googleVideo if anyone is interested.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8287470526814162856&q=Chip+Heath
Posted by: haig | June 26, 2006 at 11:57 PM
Some time ago I heard Chip Heath speak and got to read a few early chapters of "What Sticks." Like the stories they describe, their description of the mechanics behind the messages we remember is itself a "sticky story" that I'm still repeating almost two years later.
Of course I immediately ordered the book just now! Thanks for the pointer.
Posted by: Scott Underwood | June 22, 2006 at 07:02 AM