How can we make our messages memorable? Well, one key idea is to tell a story and I'll tell you a story about Willie Horton. It turns out the story of Willie Horton took over the political campaign as George Bush Senior was campaigning against Dukakis. Now this was a very difficult campaign. The two candidates were different but they were both polling very similarly. And for much of this Dukakis was ahead. Now Lee Atwater was a young politician who became George Bush's campaign manager and he said by the time we're finished they're going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis' running mate. Now it turns Willie Horton was convicted for a life sentence for murder and there was a program in Massachusetts that allowed people furloughs. Allowed these prisoners furloughs for good behavior. And the reason why you do this is to encourage good behavior in prison. People were allowed furloughs. And Willie Horton on a weekend furlough, now, remember he was imprisoned for murder. On his weekend furlough, he ended up engaging in rape of a woman and stabbed the husband. Now that event, it wasn't Dukakis that had personally furloughed him. But Dukakis had said he was in favor of the furlough program and he had defended the furlough program. And it turns it, this issue and the story of Willie Horton ended up derailing Dukakis in 1988. So this story took on such an impactful part of the campaign. It eclipsed other key events of the time. And other key economic and other social issues. So here's a story that ends up becoming very memorable and very impactful. Lee Atwater actually later apologized, on his death bed. He apologized for the use of the story and he apologized to Dukakis. It was a very effective story, but it turned out to be not very pleasant campaigning. But the idea I want to convey is that it's very vivid, that is it's memorable. And in general we want things that are vivid. So when we thought about Afghan refugees there's one photo that comes to mind. We want to keep stories simple. We want things to be in chronological order that is easier for our memory. So the more vivid the example, the more accessible the example, the easier things are to remember. So ideas like Copyrights are property or we are only as strong as our weakest link. These ideas are easy to access and the analogies, it's like closing the barn doors after the cows have gone out. These analogies allow us to access ideas much better. Now sometimes it's a figure of speech. So figures of speech like at the OJ Simpson trial what if his defence attorneys famously stated, if the glove doesn't fit you must acquit.. Many people who watched the OJ Simpson trial which was broadcast on television thought that OJ Simpson was guilty, the evidence seemed to point that way. And yet, this idea if the glove doesn't fit. There was a glove that didn't fit over OJ Simpson's hand, it seemed to suggest that well, maybe not all the evidence is consistent. And then ends up with this rhyming figure of speech being a very compelling idea. Or another one here, loose lips sink ships. This idea that we should be careful in what we say. This rhyming simple idea becomes very memorable. So we want our messages to be memorable and stories, and analogies, and short expressions will help us do that. Now, another idea to make things memorable is to keep them very concrete. So the idea, this sort of goal would put a man on the moon within a decade. So when Kennedy set out this ambitious agenda, it creates a very concrete idea for us to align behind. Or in the 1960s, Boeing had a very concrete goal. The 727 must seat 131 passengers, fly non-stop from Miami to New York and land on a specific runway in La Guardia. Now, this runway was less than a mile long. We could have specified things with more abstract terms, but the idea here, the ideas that we're conveying offer a very concrete set of attributes that allow us to focus on that. So we want to avoid vague claims, or vague ideas like, our goal here is to maximize shareholder value. Or, we want to engage in continuous improvement. Those are nice ideas, but they're not very concrete and they don't guide very concrete actions. Now, one concern however is that sometimes when we narrow our focus, we can do it too much. So, when Lee Iacocca was the CEO of Ford, he did a lot of great things. But one of his goals was to create, in his words, are a car that was under 2,000 pounds and sold for under $2,000. So this is very concrete. It's a very specific goal and in 1970, Ford introduces the Ford Pinto. Now, here's another expression that is also very vivid. It was called the barbeque that seats four. Because of the fuel tank placement, rear-end collisions could sometimes cause the fuel tank to burst into flame. And 56 people ended up dying in Pinto fires. And Time Magazine included the Ford Pinto as one of the 50 worst cars of all time. Now, there's still some debate, whether Ford was aware of the design flaw or not. There was a concern that maybe they decided it was cheaper to pay off lawsuits than redesign the car. But the key idea here is that we have a concrete idea, that is under 2,000 pounds, under $2,000. That's a concrete idea that guides action. It's very memorable. And similarly these very vivid expressions like the barbeque that seats four is also very vivid. So when we're trying to convey ideas, we want people to remember them and the short expressions, the concrete and that use of analogies are all key tools, they are vehicles for making our ideas very memorable.
