Made to Stick, Lesson 5: Credibility

Unfortunately, even if you’re sharing a great idea, you can’t just walk into a boardroom and tell people what to do and know that they’ll do it. There’s this little thing called credibility that you need to ensure that people listen to your idea, and that they give it weight.

Some common techniques that people in the corporate world use to get credibility are endorsement and statistics. “Oprah says my product is great, so it must really be something” actually sells a heck of a lot of products. And statistics can work well, too, provided they’re relevant. But statistics are often less compelling than we think they are - as they carry little emotional weight. And endorsements can be hard to get.

The Heaths say that case studies and stories about delivering results from an implementation that you’re suggesting can work wonders. These stories tend to be stickier than statistics, and come in handy when you can’t find Oprah or Tiger Woods to promote your idea for you.

In my world of innovation strategy, case studies do work wonders. And even if we can’t get Oprah on the phone, telling clients that I’ve been successful working with the likes of Target and GE is a powerful way to build credibility.

Of course, my kids don’t care about any of those things. Still, I do borrow the credibility of others to make my point stick. When we’re in a restaurant, and the monkeys are eating their favorite pancakes, I can often get them to be on their best behavior just by telling them that the restaurant staff won’t let us stay and eat unless they’re quiet and calm. Invoking the power of the waiter makes my threat credible.

Another way to win credibility that I think is equally useful, whether you’re trying to get an idea across to your kids, your colleagues or your clients, is to communicate by setting an example with your own behavior, instead of just using your words to shape the behavior of others.

The other day, I made a comment that really pissed USD off. I knew he was angry, and I kind of new why. I also felt a little justified in what I had said. So I waited until after we finished making lunch to go talk to him, and when the monkeys asked where daddy was, I told them he was upstairs because he was mad at me.

They raced upstairs to find him and confirm that he was, in fact, angry. Yup. And then they came back downstairs to me. Mommy, they said, you have to say sorry to daddy. I am, of course, constantly telling them they have to say sorry to anyone who they hurt, either accidentally or on purpose.  So I sucked it up and apologized, even though I didn’t feel like it, because I knew that I had to set an example for them.

And the next time I told a monkey to apologize for hitting his brother, he actually did.