Since I am based in the Foundation Center’s San Francisco office, I was fortunate to not have to travel very far to attend the 2008 GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations) annual conference, which took place last month. The conference, “Ideas to Action: Grantmaker Practices that Improve Nonprofit Results,” covered much ground. In reviewing my notes to decide what to highlight here, I think one of the most compelling (or should I say “sticky”) programs that is probably most broadly applicable to the widest audience was the conference keynote on the concept of “stickiness.”
The kick-off of the conference was a keynote on the virtues of “sticky” ideas, and featured Chip Heath, co-author of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. It was a very entertaining and thought-provoking opening which started with urban myths that many of us believe and have stuck with us, despite the fact that they are false such as: we must all drink 8 glasses of water per day, or we only use 10% of our brain power on any given day, or a chilling urban myth popular among the college set about accepting a drink from an attractive stranger and ending up victim of an organ donor swindle (yep, not your ordinary philanthropy conference presentation). And then he outlined why many of our nonprofit or philanthropy communications strategies are probably miserable failures as far as having that same sort of lasting power that urges people to “tell a friend” or to even just understand what it is you just explained your organization does.
Heath recommends these elements for effective organization messaging:
- Simple
- Unexpected
- Concrete
- Credible
- Emotional
- Stories
Of course for most foundations and nonprofit organizations, our mission statements and communications tend to be:
- Complex
- Predictable
- Abstract
- Ambitious/unrealistic
- Cerebral
- Facts
Heath provided several compelling examples of nonprofit-speak mission statements and how groups had taken his advice to shape them into more “sticky” terms. One that has stuck with me is when he described a typical mission statement from an organization that works with children with learning disabilities and said that its mission statement was the usual fare about working to nurture language acquisition skills of children with learning disabilities, and how the average person would tune that out. After working with Heath one of the ways in which this organization now describes their work with the public is to say: “Our organization exists so that every mother can hear her child say the word “mommy.”
Heath then described a couple of barriers to “stickiness” that may be particularly troubling for foundations and the nonprofit sector to overcome. One, which sounds like it could be a “b” movie, is the “curse of knowledge.” As a sector, we are apparently known for our exceedingly tedious ability to look at issues from complex and nuanced vantage points, speak in jargon, and rapidly make people’s eyes glaze over with endless amounts of information.
And in addition to the curse of knowledge, equally troubling is “decision paralysis,” which is the phenomenon that when you give your audience multiple options as opposed to one they are most likely to pick none. So what’s a complex organization that deals with addressing several nuanced issues in our society in a data-driven way with multiple plans of action supposed to do? Tell stories, Heath advises. Stories are memorable, and have a power to create a “springboard” in your audience’s mind allowing them to spin their own story parallel with yours.
So, beware the curse of knowledge, keep it simple, and find emotional hooks by illustrating your organization’s work through stories.
Has anyone out there used the Make it Stick principles to come up with a sticky statement illustrating your organization’s good work? Please share.
-Janet Camarena
Director, SF Office
The Foundation Center
