Book Overview
Core Premise
Why do urban legends spread faster than your carefully crafted strategy doc? This book reverse-engineers the DNA of sticky ideas—the ones that survive contact with reality and actually change behavior.
Authors’ Background
- Chip Heath: Stanford Professor of Organizational Behavior
- Dan Heath: Senior Fellow at Duke University
- Combined expertise in business, education, and idea dissemination
- Research spanning multiple disciplines
The SUCCESs Framework
graph TD
A[Sticky Idea] --> S[Simple]
A --> U[Unexpected]
A --> C1[Concrete]
A --> C2[Credible]
A --> E[Emotional]
A --> St[Stories]
S --> S1["Find the core<br/>(not the core five)"]
U --> U1["Break patterns<br/>Open curiosity gaps"]
C1 --> C1_1["Tangible language<br/>Clear mental images"]
C2 --> C2_1["Testable credentials<br/>Details convince"]
E --> E1["Connect to identity<br/>Make people care"]
St --> St1["Mental simulation<br/>Flight simulators"]
style A fill:#7c3aed,color:#fff,stroke:#5b21b6
style S fill:#06b6d4,color:#fff,stroke:#0891b2
style U fill:#06b6d4,color:#fff,stroke:#0891b2
style C1 fill:#06b6d4,color:#fff,stroke:#0891b2
style C2 fill:#06b6d4,color:#fff,stroke:#0891b2
style E fill:#06b6d4,color:#fff,stroke:#0891b2
style St fill:#06b6d4,color:#fff,stroke:#0891b2
The SUCCESs Framework at a Glance
Six principles work together to make ideas stick: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories. Each principle addresses a different barrier to communication—not all ideas need all six, but the stickiest ones typically combine several.
Framework Components
-
Simple
- Find the single core—not the core five things
- Strip to essentials (think Unix philosophy: do one thing well)
- Profound simplicity beats shallow complexity every time
-
Unexpected
- Break the pattern to grab attention
- Open curiosity gaps (questions the brain wants answered)
- Surprise maintains interest where predictability kills it
-
Concrete
- Make ideas tangible enough to touch
- Use sensory language (not abstractions)
- Clear mental images stick; vague concepts slide off
-
Credible
- Build belief without authority worship
- Use testable credentials (“try this yourself”)
- Statistics convince experts; details convince everyone else
-
Emotional
- Make people care (not just understand)
- Connect to identity and values, not just benefits
- Meaning drives action; logic drives spreadsheets
-
Stories
- Inspire action through mental simulation
- Show the path, not just the destination
- Stories are flight simulators for behavior
The Curse of Knowledge
The Biggest Barrier to Sticky Ideas
The Curse of Knowledge creates an empathy gap: once you understand something deeply, you lose the ability to imagine not understanding it. This is why experts write impenetrable documentation, teachers skip crucial steps, and strategies sound profound to executives but meaningless to everyone else.
Core Challenge
The Curse of Knowledge is the biggest killer of sticky ideas:
- Once you know something, you can’t unknow it
- Experts forget the beginner’s confusion (you remember the answer, not the struggle)
- What’s obvious to you is alien to others—but you can’t see it anymore
Manifestations
-
Communication Barriers
- Jargon as a status signal instead of clarity tool
- Assuming context that only exists in your head
- Skipping the “why” because it’s obvious to you
-
Teaching Challenges
- Starting at step 3 because steps 1-2 seem trivial now
- Speed-running explanations (curse of fluency)
- Missing the connective tissue between concepts
-
Business Impact
- Documentation written for people who already understand the system
- Strategies that sound profound but mean nothing concrete
- Training that teaches the what without the why or how
Key Case Studies
Successful Ideas
-
Urban Legends
- Kidney Heist (concrete danger beats abstract statistics)
- Halloween Candy (specificity makes it credible)
- Kentucky Fried Rat (disgust is sticky)
-
Business Examples
- Southwest Airlines (“We’re THE low-fare airline”—simple, testable)
- Subway’s Jared Campaign (concrete person, concrete results)
- Norton’s Anti-virus (simulation stories: “Here’s what could happen”)
-
Social Movements
- “Don’t Mess with Texas” (pride beats preaching)
- Truth Anti-smoking Campaign (credibility through corporate documents)
- Civil Rights demonstrations (visual, concrete, emotional)
Failed Ideas
-
Business Communication
- Mission statements (abstraction soup with no flavor)
- Corporate values (words on walls that nobody remembers)
- Strategy documents (100 slides saying nothing concrete)
-
Educational Materials
- Textbook passages (curse of knowledge in print form)
- Training manuals (steps without context or purpose)
- Instructions (written by people who already know how)
Practical Applications
Applying SUCCESs to Your Own Ideas
The framework works in practice: start with your core message (Simple), find what breaks the pattern (Unexpected), ground it in tangible examples (Concrete), give people a way to verify (Credible), connect to what they care about (Emotional), and show them the path through a story (Stories). Test by asking: can someone repeat this back and take action?
Communication Design
-
Message Planning
- Core message identification (one thing, not everything)
- Audience analysis (what do they already know vs. what do you assume)
- Channel selection (match medium to message type)
-
Delivery Methods
- Story structure (setup, conflict, resolution—works every time)
- Visual aids (show don’t tell when possible)
- Interactive elements (let people test the idea themselves)
-
Testing and Refinement
- Audience feedback (watch for glazed eyes and confused nods)
- Message clarity (can they repeat it back accurately?)
- Impact measurement (did behavior change or just agreement?)
Research Foundation
Methodology
- Analysis of urban legends (why lies spread faster than truth)
- Study of successful teaching methods (what actually transfers knowledge)
- Business case examination (rare examples of corporate clarity)
- Psychology research review (how brains actually work vs. how we wish they worked)
Key Studies
The Tapping Study - Curse of Knowledge in Action
Researchers asked people to tap out well-known songs (like “Happy Birthday”) on a table. Tappers predicted listeners would recognize 50% of songs. The actual success rate? 2.5%.
The tappers heard the full melody in their heads while tapping—they couldn’t imagine the listeners only heard disconnected taps. This 20x prediction gap is the Curse of Knowledge measured in real-time.
-
Tapping Study
- Demonstrates Curse of Knowledge perfectly
- Tappers think listeners will get 50% of songs; reality is 2.5%
- Once you know the melody, you can’t forget it—you hear it even in the taps
-
Memory Research
- Concrete details recalled 3x better than abstractions
- Stories create mental rehearsal (you remember doing it, not reading it)
- Emotional spikes mark memories for long-term storage
-
Decision Making
- Choice architecture (how options are framed matters more than content)
- Information processing (people satisfice, not optimize)
- Behavioral economics (we’re predictably irrational)
References
- Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2007). Made to stick: Why some ideas survive and others die. Random House.
- Additional research papers and studies cited throughout
- Case studies and interviews referenced in the book