Chip Heath, co-author of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, talks about what makes certain ideas 'naturally sticky.'Chip Heath is a Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. His research examines why certain ideas - ranging from urban legends to folk medical cures, from Chicken Soup for the Soul stories to business strategy myths - survive and prosper in the social marketplace of ideas. These 'naturally sticky' ideas spread without external help in the form of marketing dollars, PR assistance, or the attention of leaders.
A few years back Chip designed a course, now a popular elective at Stanford, that asked whether it would be possible to use the principles of naturally sticky ideas to design messages that would be more effective. That course, How to Make Ideas Stick, has now been taught to hundreds of students including managers, teachers, doctors, journalists, venture capitalists, product designers, and film producers.