Social Machinery

Why sometimes is so difficult to make our ideas to stay?

For anyone working in a competitive environment, with fierce competition, making ideas to stick is a critical success factor for their business or careers. But how can you achieve that Wow Factor. What makes an idea remarkable? How people can increase their likehood of success?

Educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath did a great job in their book “Made to stick : why some ideas survive and others die” by revealing the anatomy of ideas that stick and explaining simple ways to make ideas stickier.

Take a look to the six principles for making your ideas to stick!

S.U.C.C.E.S.S.- Making your ideas to stay

1. Simple. I you want your idea to stick make it simple! People have to be able to understand it, digest it, and relate it to things they already know. Simple ideas are short and sweet you need to sell by using ten words. Try to always create an elevator pitch of 2 minutes that even your 6 years old daughter can understand.

2. Unexpected. Even do you need a simple way to explain your idea, a key element is to have an unexpected punch line. This is an old secret behind great comedy and movies.  Keep everyone on their feet and give them something they’d never expect.

3. Concrete. Try always to help people to visualize your idea. Making your idea more increase the chances of people to understand your concept that is coming from the abstract world. Using concrete use cases or pictures is a good idea. Humans need to create a mental picture to digest concepts or ideas.

4. Credible. Prove your ideas. Any good and provoking idea will be challenge. So an important aspect is to build credibility around it. For this purpose you can use expert testimony, show statistics or other credible sources information to sustain your concept.

5. Emotional. Create an emotional link with your audience. Ideas change the world, period. You need to inspire, motivate and move people to take action with your idea. Always think about the ultimate purpose that you idea can bring to the world; the big picture. How your idea can change people’s life.

6. Storytelling. Story-telling is one of the most important aspects of selling your idea. Since the beginning of humankind; stories, legends and urban stories have been our most powerful way to transfer knowledge. Stories bring together all this principles; heroes, villains, triumphs and tragedies. Story-telling links the simplicity, the unexpected, the concrete, the credible and the emotional link. Just think how easy is to remember the stories that our parents used to read during our childhood. Turning your ideas into stories will bring the unforgettable factor.

7. Spreadable. Why rumors spread like wildfire within offices cubicles? Because there is a Wow factor in the story. Because gives something for people to talk about. An also because is fun. One of the key elements about a good idea is that it could spread fast. Give people a reason to talk about your idea and make it easy for them to talk about it . After all, good marketing starts and continues with a good  conversation.

How to apply this?

A good way to start is to take these principles for making your idea to stay and work around on one of them each day. Whatever you’ve got to convey, present, write, or say to others, try to apply these 6 basic rules. I’m pretty sure you will see results.