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February 2008
With the 2008 International Corporate Citizenship Conference less than six weeks away, we're very excited about all the great sessions we have planned. One of the speakers we're looking forward to hearing from is keynote Chip Heath, the co-author (along with his brother Dan) of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. The book has been written up in Time Magazine and U.S. News & World Report and has been featured on The Today Show and Morning Edition.
Recently interviewed in the McKinsey Quarterly, Heath explained that a sticky idea "is one that people understand when they hear it, that they remember later on, and that changes something about the way they think or act."
In the interview, Heath emphasizes that stories, rather than abstractions, are what really make messages memorable. Companies often talk in abstracts, he explains, using messages like "maximize shareholder value." That's a hard idea for an employee to act upon, but when you can find an equivalent story, it's easier for the listener to understand and remember.
As an example of a memorable story, Heath tells that of a FedEx driver who couldn’t open one of the pickup boxes on his route because he’d left the key back at the office. His deadline was tight and he knew that by the time he could get his key and return to the box, the packages in it were going to miss the plane. So he got a wrench, quickly unbolted the whole box, and muscled it onto his truck, knowing he’d be able to unlock it back at the office!
"That’s the kind of behavior you want when your competitive advantage is 'absolute, positive reliability,'" says Heath. "And that’s how you’re going to maximize shareholder value in the long run. But telling FedEx drivers to maximize shareholder value just leaves them hanging. The story tells them how to act."
Heath will have lots of great stories to share with us at the conference, but until then, he offered some additional advice in an article titled "Make Goals, Not Resolutions" recently published in the February issue of Fast Company.
In it he looks at the difference between resolutions and goals. Each year we proudly announce our resolutions, and no one blinks twice when we just as quickly forget them. "If these were goals, mind you, we'd all consider ourselves utter failures, but with our resolutions, we get a pass," writes Heath.
So how can companies make sure they set goals instead of resolutions? Some of Heath's tips:
- Add publicity and accountability. Peer pressure, or even just peer awareness, is a powerful motivating factor.
- Change your mental environment. Take time to visualize when, where, and how the goal will be carried out, and you're much more likely to meet it.
- Keep an eye on your social environment. Some organizations' cultures "are strong enough to make ambiguous, unenforceable behaviors possible." In other cultures, these are simply resolutions.
So how are you doing on your New Year's resolutions?
Learn more about the 2008 International Corporate Citizenship Conference.
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