book recommendation

I'm reading a book that I'd like to recommend to anyone who's job it is to be a communicator: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dad Heath.

The authors lay out the critical elements of a sticky idea. They are--
* Simplicity: the idea must be stripped to its core, and the most important concepts should jump out.
* Unexpectedness: the idea must destroy preconceived notions about something. This forces people to stop, think, and remember.
* Concreteness: avoid statistics, use real-world analogies to help people understand complex ideas.
* Credibility: if people don't trust you, they'll ignore you. In some cases, they will be openly hostile, which means they'll actively try to dispute your message!
* Emotional: information makes people think, but emotion makes them act. Appeal to emotional needs, sometimes even way up on Maslow's hierarchy.
* Stores: telling a story [gets] people into paying closer attention, and feeling more connected. Remember the Jared Subway commercials? ('Gleaned' from Brian Bex Huf's review on Amazon.com)

Very interesting reading, I just wish I could've finished it before preparing the message that I gave last weekend... No worries. Always room for growth.