(Or, to put it another way it needs to be both compact and profound.) For example, a newspaper editor liked to have his paper strongly - and only - reflect local issues. The essential part is to make the message compact and to have it imply a sense of worth or priorities about how to implement it. Share the core: The key to motivating others with your ideas is to use the core message to help them make decisions as they apply your idea. For example, rather than details on how to take a bridge, the CI might be 'take the bridge.' Use the technique of the inverted pyramid from journalism: Tell most important aspect first, then tailor, then add details.

The military uses a 'Commander Intent' instead of a plan.

The hard part isn't weeding out unimportant aspects, but it is in pruning the important, but not truly essential aspects - i.e., distilling to the most important idea at the core.įind the core: Determine the single most important thing, being careful not to bury the lead. The goal is to strip an idea to its core without turning it into a silly sound bite. What happened, of course, is that the tapper sings the song in their head and thus thinks he has the right rhythm, but the person hearing the taps cannot hear the song inside the others head and therefore has no idea of what the taps mean. A single example illustrates the essence of the problem: One study tested a 'tapper and listeners' game: They asked a person to tap out the rhythm of a song and have another recognize it - the listener nearly always failed to identify the song.

The main problem is the 'Curse of Knowledge': The person sharing the idea has all sorts of insider information that others don't, so they have already framed the problem and understand its relevance. How to make our ideas clear A summary of Made to Stick

Made to stick by chip & dan heath