Chapter 1: Simple

Principle number one in the formation of sticky ideas is SIMPLICITY. Here, we aren't speaking of simplicity in terms of dumbing down information into catchy little sound bites, but rather "what we mean by 'simple' is finding the core of the idea. 'Finding the core' means stripping down to its most critical essence. To get to the core, we've got to weed out superfluous and tangential elements. But that's the easy part. The hard part is weeding out ideas that may be really important but just aren't the most important idea" (27-28).

When I read this, I immediately saw how this relates to museum mission statements. Museums are complex creatures, built upon a variety of disciplines and swarming with lofty goals for its public. Therefore, it is more than necessary to "find the core" of an institution's vision and proceed from there. If the vagueness of most museums' mission statements tells us anything, it reveals how difficult it is to contain your creative vision in a simplistic form without losing a) the heart of your message b) the passion infused within your message c) the intensity of your message. As the Heath brothers advocate, "a designer of simple ideas should aspire to...[know] how much can be wrung out of an idea before it begins to lose its essence" (28). Perhaps the greatest problem with museum mission statements is simply this: the essence of the museum's most important vision has been lost by the deletion of key characteristics of its "most important ideas."

It's a hard thing to discard a lot of very creative, perhaps useful, and even innovative ideas in order to focus on the one that is the most important. My experience working in museums tells me that this is a very common issue. For instance, the museum I am currently interning at has a new temporary exhibition coming in the fall, and many meetings have been held to discuss the marketing strategy for the show. Unfortunately, the result of these meetings has been that the overall marketing plan does not sell externally the experience that visitors will hopefully have internally. Individuals in leadership positions are advocating for interesting and innovative ideas that are inherently attractive; however, these ideas do not convey the most important message (nor an accurate one) of the exhibition. Why communicate if you are not actually communicating the idea you want to convey? There are serious issues here; museum professional sometimes has a hard time dedicating themselves to one core idea.

The remedy for this crisis is what the Heaths refer to as "forced prioritization" (32). This requires the prioritization of goals that are critical ahead of those that are beneficial (34). Turning back to the case above, perhaps a sexy ad campaign would benefit the museum by bringing in younger audiences that tend to not attend museums thereby driving up attendance and public image in certain crowds, but it is critical? No. Critical would be a message that accurately conveys externally what visitors can look forward to experiencing within the museum's walls. As the Heaths say, "Avoid burying the lead. Don't start something interesting but irrelevant in hopes of entertaining the audience. Instead, work to make the core message itself more interesting" (41).

So once we know what our core message is it is our job to convey that to our audience. The Heaths state that "finding the core isn't synonymous with communicating the core. Top management can know what the priorities are but be completely ineffective in sharing and achieving those priorities" (43). Here we see two different layers of the same difficult puzzle. First, you need to weed out the bad in order to find your core message. Then, you need to make this message known. More often than not, museums tend to fall short on the latter. We know what we want to say, but perhaps we don't have the finances or man power to say it. I would even dare to say that museums often struggle with the former; we tend to explain the circumstances that surround the core message but never truly articulate that message.

Simple ideas are not only related to a "core something," but they must also be compact so as to be sticky and meaningful enough to make a difference (46-48). The more condensed the idea, the better. However, it isn't enough that ideas are compact in order to increase their stickiness. "Compact ideas alone aren't valuable--only ideas with profound compactness are valuable" (52). Yet, how do you fit the complex within a simplistic form? The answer is to layer simple ideas in such a way that they transform into more complex ideas (53). This can be done by utilizing the schemas already present within the minds of your audience. By doing so, you tie new knowledge to those things that your audience already knows. As a result of invoking these schemas, you accelerate the learning process for your audience.

SUMMARY:

1) The first step in making ideas sticky is to simplify the message by finding the core idea.

2) The second step is to communicate that idea in a compact form that doesn't lack meaning.