Made to Stick
Purchase the book: $Made to Stick
The 6 principles of making a story stick are:
- Simplicity
- Unexpectedness
- Concreteness
- Credibility
- Emotions
- Stories
Simplicity is about getting to the core of your message. Stripping away all of the extra stuff that doesn't support your core message.
Unexpectedness is finding an angle that isn't "common sense". It's not the same message everyone else is telling. The framework of "I thought this one thing, but actually it's another" is an example of unexpectedness
Concreteness is about using specific details. For example: "A man drove a car down the street" is generic. "A tall man in a red baseball cap sped down main street in his school-bus yellow Massaratti".
Credibility has two sides: external credibility and internal credibility. External credibility are things like 10 years of experience, or a phd. Internal Credibility is about using specific details, speaking at Human Scale (when using statistics, speak at a scale that we can understand), and The Sinatra Test
Emotions is about appealing to empathy, but here they talk about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Most messages appeal to the base layer of the hierarchy, but it's more powerful to appeal to the top levels of the hierarchy. You can use Semantic Stretching, appealing to self interest, and focusing on an individual rather than a whole group.
Stories are always memorable when told well with proper structure. Remember to establish the existing world, the challenges, how the person overcame the challenges, and the outcome. There are 3 types of plots: The Challenge Plot (I did a thing with great adversity), The Creativity Plot (I had an epiphany that allowed me to do a thing), and the Connection Plot (We came together across a social gap to do a thing).
Sticky stories are understandable, memorable, and effective in changing thoughts or behaviors.