Chip Heath's Blog, page 3

You've probably seen "The Girl Effect" video. When it launched, we raved about it and tried to explain why it's so effective.

Now there's a sequel, and it's just as impressive as the first one. Check it out:

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The folks at Brains on Fire, an agency that specializes in creating movements, have just published a smart new book called Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements. To celebrate that, here are 3 questions for BoF "Courageous President" Robbin Phillips:

Q1: All marketers are trying to do something to rally passion around their products or services. What's the #1 thing you see marketers doing wrong in pursuit of that goal?

The mistake I see most marketers making is ...

Lynda Obst says that the "word around Hollywood" was that Inception would be only a minor success. Too weird, too hard to explain, etc.  Then the PR team took over and made it into a Movie Event. In her telling, here's how they did it:

They turned Chris Nolan into a star—not a movie star, but a cinema star. No director had accomplished this, except Spielberg. [...:] The materials cut by the WB team were taut, dramatic, consistent, and told a narrative:

1. This is an event.
2. This Director...

In honor of the recent paperback release of The Blue Sweater, as well as the release of Switch, Jacqueline Novogratz and I decided that we'd swap short Q&As. Three questions each.

Novogratz is the CEO of the Acumen Fund, and I'm a big fan of the work that Acumen does. (Learn more about it below.) Her book, The Blue Sweater, reflects on her work using investment as a tool to fight poverty. It is a fine book — part memoir and part rallying cry — and full of the kinds of stories that help you...

Our latest column for Fast Company is online. Here's the lead:

Football coaches pore over game film to spot things they'd never see in real time. Check it out: When the defense blitzes, the free safety picks up the running back. So by picking off the safety, the middle of the field will be wide open for a screen pass. The value of this meticulous observation is intuitive in the sports world. After all, coaches get a week to review a 60-minute game. In the organizational world, where every day...

The philosopher Peter Singer wrote a moving book called The Life You Can Save, which makes a powerful moral case that all of us should be doing more to help the poorest of the poor.

The video below provides a 3-minute intro to his thinking. (Disclosure: I helped to create this video, along with my friends Jeff Sims and David Hamburger.)

I desperately want Singer's idea to stick: We can, and we should, save lives. If you agree, will you help me spread the word about his work? You can learn...

Now they've got a video to go with the posters. And it is hilarious and utterly disgusting:

See our take on this campaign here.

Here's a preview of our latest column in Fast Company:

The business world is obsessed with "talent" — hiring it, retaining it, rewarding it. We're urged to "get the right people on the bus." (And, really, what better symbol of the high-performing enterprise than a bus?) The metaphor implies that good workers are portable units of competence. They can bring their talent to your bus or your competitor's bus, but ultimately, it's their prize to bestow.

What if talent is more like an orchid...

What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity. Change accelerates when people understand — in specific, behavioral terms — how to reach their goals.

This theme emerged in some educational research cited by Amanda Ripley in her new Time piece called, "Should kids be bribed to do well in school?" The most successful "bribe" programs rewarded behaviors rather than grades. At first look, that seems odd. Why reward an "input" rather than the "output"? Well, here's why:

The students [in New Y...

Next Wednesday, I'll be giving a talk about Switch at the beautiful National Cathedral (see below). The event is hosted by the Beauvoir School, and the $25 registration price goes to support teacher development.

I'll give a 60-min talk followed by Q&A and a book-signing. If you're interested, you can register here.

National Cathedral