Ask Dan Heath: The Problem With Monthly Reports

Dan Heath — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:24:03 -0500

Dear Dan,

Everybody on my team is required to submit a monthly report. Always have been, always will be. Every single month, though, I have to chase some people down to turn it in, like it's a surprise to them that it's due. I've tried being nice, and I've tried being mean, and neither seem to work particularly well. What can I do differently?

- Report Cop

Ask Dan Heath: The Scared Straight Approach to Teens, Texting, and Driving

Dan Heath — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:22 -0500

Dear Dan,

My daughter turned 16 about six months ago, so naturally I am terrified of her getting in a wreck. To make matters worse, I rode with her recently and she started texting while she was driving! I gave her an earful but I could tell she thought I was just being uptight. Any advice on how to pound into her brain how dangerous it is to text & drive?

A Problem-Solver's Guide to Copycatting

Dan & Chip Heath — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Your business has a big problem. You've thought about it, but you can't seem to crack it. So you consult your colleagues -- to no avail. Then you turn to the big guns -- your industry's top experts. They've got nothing. (Well, to be precise, they've got 40 PowerPoint slides worth of nothing, and you've got $225,000 less of something.) Now what?

How to Make Corporate Training Rock

Dan Heath & Chip Heath — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Russ Berland's first assignment at BearingPoint was a doozy. He was asked to redesign the company's ethics-and-compliance training program. If simply reading the phrase "compliance training" sapped a little of your will to live, perhaps you can empathize with Berland.

How Many Slides Should I Put in a Presentation?

Dan Heath — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:35:57 -0400

Q: Next week I'm making a presentation to some colleagues at work. (It basically outlines an approach for promoting one of our products in 2010.) My first draft of the presentation was 42 slides, and my team hit the roof. They say we should present 15 slides max. I say it's not the quantity that matters, it's the quality. What do you say?
- Maximum Verbosity

Presentations That Stick

Dan Heath — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:25:00 -0400

Chip and I devoted a Fast Company column to making presentations stick--we discuss similar themes as the video but in more detail. You can also check out a longer 4-page document we wrote called "Making Presentations that Stick"--just register on our Resources page to get free access.

Sparking Curiosity

Dan Heath — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:23:53 -0400

George Loewenstein is the behavioral economist who formulated the "gap theory" of curiosity--here's his original paper on the topic. In Made to Stick, we talk about the gap theory in our chapter on Unexpectedness.

Jared: The Power Story

Dan Heath — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:23:18 -0400

The story of how Jared was discovered--and why Subway initially rejected the campaign--is told in the Story chapter of our book Made to Stick.

Snapple, the KKK, and Making Ideas Credible

Dan Heath — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:22:49 -0400

Chip and I love Snopes.com, the urban-legend clearinghouse. See its write-up of the false Snapple/KKK legend. In Made to Stick, we have a long section about testable credentials in the Credible chapter of the book.

Motivating Employees: Get Out of Maslow's Basement

Dan Heath — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:21:28 -0400

Here's my brother Chip's research paper on the bias we have about other people's motivations. And In the Emotional chapter of Made to Stick, we discuss in detail what makes people care about an idea.