What ideas are sticky for you?

We continue our conversation about sticky ideas today by looking a new ad campaign I find sticky. Recently I have found myself not skipping the new Intel commercials. The two we included here are SO sticky. Why?

Well first they are quite simple. "Our Rock Stars aren't like your Rock Stars" and "Our Jokes aren't like your Jokes" is so simple and yet packs a lot of punch. They are also unexpected. When you think Intel what do you think? Well I don't think about clever, funny, imaginative or cutting edge. I think boring technical computer stuff. But this new ad campaign is less than boring.

Next the ads are concrete because they reference things I am already familiar with--rock stars and jokes. I understand those concepts. By suggesting their rock stars and jokes are different from my rock stars and jokes I feel like they are giving me the opportunity to know them better. We share some common ground--we both like rock stars and jokes right?

Finally the commercials tell a good story. The rock star one is a perfect story. We have all seen the crowds of adoring fans waiting for their favorite band to pass by so they can swoon. Only this time, the rock star is the most unlikely fellow we could imagine--Ajay Bahht, co-inventor of the USB. Wow!

So what do you find sticky?

Leave your comments below. To leave a comment simply press on comments.

Are you Sticky?

In our lunch, learn and LEAD workshop with our friends at VLK this week we are looking in great depth at how to generate sticky ideas for our presentations. I am hoping to get some feedback leading up to Friday that will help us to wrap our head around the concepts of sticky ideas. One of the most profound, yet simple ideas that comes out of Chip and Dan Heath's book "Made to Stick" is "The Curse of Knowledge" heretofore referred to as: CofK. Ok... The CofK concept is pretty elegant in it's description--Once we know something, it is hard to imagine what it was like to not know it. Done. Millie and I have to remember this when teaching presentation and slide design. We have years of experience doing this--most people don't. So we have to carefully construct our messages to fit the experiences of our audience.

Now, if you have ever had to suffer through the pains of helping your little person with multiplication you can understand CofK at work. As an adult, with years of experience multiplying numbers, we have all learned the little tricks that help us to multiple even the most difficult of numbers. Just the other night I was working with my daughter on 7, 8, and 9. I was hoping the pattern that emerges when multiplying with the number 9 would be obvious. You know it right?

9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81 90 99 108 117 126 135 144 153 162 171 180

Do you see the pattern?

You probably do.

The number in the ten's place is going up as we climb to 90 and it is going down in the one's place. When we get to 99, we start over again and the tens place goes up one while the one's place goes down one.

But my daughter did not see the pattern on her own.

And this made me frustrated. How could she not see it?

Because I am familiar with the CofK I was good to remember that I probably didn't figure out the pattern on my own either (I'm no rainman mind you) and it is more likley that an adult pointed it out to me. And with that realization I was able to then modify my instruction to her to accommodate for the fact that she does not have the same knowledge base as I do.

So, I am wondering--how does the CofK get in the way of your messages? Consider for example if you work in a highly specialized industry. Do you tend to take for granted that not everyone knows the same things you know? (Computer People can be among the worst! Sorry but it's true!)

Leave your replies below. And good luck conquering the mighty CofK (cue dun dun dun music).

Tomorrow's post will get you thinking about what messages and ideas are sticky to you. Start looking around and considering for example commercials, logos, advertising campaigns, packaging, etc. All of these are places where ideas should be sticky (and often are not!)

Until then, have a great (rainy) Monday

The Cost of Self Delusion

I am about half way through "What Got you Here Won't Get you there" by Marshall Goldsmith, a pretty good read on how to break some of our worst habits to reach our full potential. There is not, so far, anything revolutionary in his list of bad habits that hold us back but I am always a fan of repetition to reinforce some of those hard learned lessons. I have paused to put down here a great thought from this very book, found on p. 134.

"Your flaws at work don't vanish when you walk through the front door at home"

that is worth typing again

"YOUR FLAWS AT WORK DON'T VANISH WHEN YOU WALK THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR"

I hear people I work with tell me all the time "I am different outside of the work place" and honestly, I have a pretty tough time believing them. The area I struggle most with in my life is organization. I know that about me. Thank goodness I have Millie as my business partner because she helps me with that by 1. being very organized herself and 2. gently reminding me of things I should be paying attention to but have failed to do. "But I am not that way at home". Yeah right.

Goldsmith tells of a Gordon Gekko like character he worked with who was VERY successful financially but a disaster in his professional relationships. Essentially everyone he worked with hated the man. When Goldsmith sat down with him to address this flaw, the guy's response to him was "Oh that is just me at work, I don't act like that at home". So Goldsmith got his wife on the phone who literally burst out laughing at her husbands self delusional statement. I think the word she used was "jerk" to describe him at home. Just for good measure, Goldsmith got his kids on the phone too. And they corroborated her story. OUCH!

My point? Pay attention to the complaints you receive at home, and there is a good chance that those are the very qualities that are holding you back not just in your personal relationships but in your professional relationships too. May Angelou once said "When people show you who they are, believe them". I would add to that--if they show you to be one thing at work, they are likely the same way at home--and vice versa.

Take a week and write down all the comments that people make about you. Even the comments your kids make (ouch!) Write down the good with the bad. At the end of the week, sit down and see if any patterns emerge from the "passing remarks". Then make a plan to do better.

You Gotta Start Em' Early

My daughter is running for student council today at her school. I don't know if she will win the election as the politics in the 5th grade are just brutal! She asked me to help her prepare her speech and I thought I would share it here to illustrate how I can even apply the principles I teach to a 10 year old's speech to her classmates.

Maddie was a little nervous while she was practicing her speech so I did what I have done for countless other people--I gave her some stage directions. I put them in all capital letters and inside brackets so she would know not to read that out loud! As she practiced her biggest challenge was to not read too fast
(DON’T READ TOO FAST! SLOW) Did you know that a survey I read said people are more scared of giving a speech than of death? Seriously? but I want to run for student council and that means giving a speech.... so here I go.

Maddie had three ideas on why people should vote for her. We used this one as the first because it has the smallest impact. I tried to inject a little humor but who knows with ten year olds if they will laugh at my little attempt at humor. Yeah--I could have told her to just burp really loud--kids love that stuff--but I don't believe in pandering.
(REMEMBER TO MAKE EYE CONTACT)
First of all I think I will do a GREAT job on the maverick morning news. i love watching the news and I think it would be fun to be the newscaster. Have you seen Katie Couric on the TV news? Well I want to be the 5th grade Katie Couric!

(BREATHE, SMILE)
I also like helping other people and I think student council is a great way to serve our school by helping students and people in our community too.

I thought this was the best of Maddie's ideas so we put it last. The idea is a direct connection to the posters she made to hand up around the school. Maddie Spears is Mint and she put packages of spearmint gum all over the poster. It was pretty cute and apparently a hit because all the kids wanted to know if they could have a piece if they vote for her.
The last thing is something I think is a really good idea. Ever wish you could chew gum at school? Well I think we should change twin day to “Double Mint Twin Day”. You would still dress like your friend and be twins but the best part? You get to chew gum in school....ALL DAY LONG! I think that would be really cool.

This was Maddie's idea--I didn't inject a transparent appeal to the audience, she did it herself. You probably have some great ideas too for things we could do at our school. If you vote for me I hope you will tell me your great ideas and I will try and make them happen!

We really struggled here. I had some clever ideas but Maddie vetoed all of them because they were lame and stupid. Her words. So we settled on something pretty simple.
Well I didn’t die huh? My mom said I need a conclusion so here is what I can up with: “If you like a girl with great ideas and want just one day to chew gum at school then vote for Maddie!” (SMILE)

To compliment the speech I made her a T Shirt that says "Vote for Maddie" on the front and "I want to be your DoubleMint Twin" on the back and did black and green to match her gum packets.

Will she win? Who knows. I am more proud that she can get up in front of a crowd and articulate her ideas. She is a pretty great kid and if mom and dad could vote she would be a shoe in. 5th graders are a pretty fickle bunch. But in the end, we had fun working on the posters and speech and win or lose, she is still a great kid.