CHIP HEATH

From one of the most successful business book authors of all-time, Chip unearths the science behind defining experiences and creating moments that matter.

Chip Heath is the co-author of the forthcoming Making Numbers Count.  He is the co-author (along with his brother, Dan) of four best-selling books: The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact , Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions in Life and Work , Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, and their first book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, which was an Amazon Top 10 Business Book for both editors and readers. Their books have been translated into over 30 languages including Thai, Arabic, and Lithuanian. Chip has consulted with clients ranging from Google and Gap to The Nature Conservancy and the American Heart Association.

Chip Heath's keynotes take on the mindset of different generations to understand what makes certain ideas, messages and marketing notions stick while others don't. After receiving his PhD from Stanford University in 1991, he was an Assistant Associate Professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business from 1991 to 1997, Heath became an Associate Professor at Duke University from 1997 to 2000. He went on to be a Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 2000 to 2020.  

Chip lives with his family in Los Gatos, California where he regularly consults with established companies, as well as advising and investing in start- up companies.

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Speech topics

Making Numbers Count

Whether you're interested in global problems like climate change, running a tech firm or a farm, or just explaining how many Cokes you'd have to drink if you burned calories like a hummingbird, this book will help math-lovers and math-haters alike translate the numbers that animate our world – allowing us to bring more data, more naturally, into decisions in our schools, our workplaces, and our society.

Making ideas stick

In a world drowning in information, how do you make your idea stand out? It’s hard enough just to get an audience for your idea—and much harder still for it to be memorable and meaningful for your listeners. (How much do you remember from the last PowerPoint presentation you saw?)

Yet there are ideas that seem to stick naturally, ranging from urban legends to proverbs. Chip’s international best-seller Made to Stickrevealed the surprising parallels between these naturally sticky ideas and ideas in the workplace that change attitudes and behavior, including successful corporate strategies, product visions, public health messages, and even coaching advice. As a result of the unexpected analysis and the practical advice that derives from it, Made to Stick was an Amazon Top 10 Business Book and was subsequently translated into over 30 languages.

In this talk, Chip will reveal that sticky messages of all kinds draw their power from six key traits, ranging from unexpectedness to emotion. If you understand these traits, you can communicate your own ideas in a way that is influential and lasting—in a way that sticks. 

Leading a Switch

Why do some big changes happen easily while many small changes prove impossible? The answer hinges on some of the most fascinating findings in psychology. Our mind is divided into two different systems—an analytical mind and an emotional mind—that are often in conflict, particularly in situations of change. Building on this research, and based on the book, Switch, which spent 47 weeks on the New York Times best seller list, Chip will reveal a simple, three-part framework that will help you change things in tough times.

All of us have things we want to change—in our families, our businesses, and our communities. Our goal might be as simple as losing a few pounds or as complex as changing the culture of an organization. Where do you start? And what do you do when you face resistance? This session is a must for any change leader who is struggling to make progress. Chip’s talk will give leaders the specific tools—and the inspiration—they need to make change happen

Being Decisive

Research in psychology has revealed that our decisions are disrupted by an array of biases and irrationalities. Unfortunately, merely being aware of these shortcomings doesn’t fix the problem, any more than knowing that we are near sighted helps us to see. The real question is: How can we do better?

In this session, Chip will introduce a four-step process designed to counteract these biases based on the #1 Wall Street Journal best-seller, Decisive. In the book, the Heath brothers sifted through voluminous literature on decision making to unearth practical solutions to our biases. This presentation will share an array of fascinating stories, from a rock star’s ingenious decision-making trick, to a CEO’s career-ending acquisition, to a single question that can often resolve thorny personal decisions.

Audience members will walk away with fresh strategies and practical tools enabling them to overcome decision paralysis and make better choices, faster. Because the right decision, at the right moment, can make all the difference.

creating moments that matter

Some experiences are vastly more memorable and meaningful than others: A moment of extraordinary service that a customer can’t stop talking about. A moment of insight that helps a group of employees embrace a new vision. A moment of compassion that makes a patient’s burden feel lighter. Everywhere you look, people are trying to craft memorable experiences—from customer experiences to patient experiences. Leaders are working hard to boost employee engagement, student engagement, and parishioner engagement. But these discussions have been dominated by a focus on fixing problems (what Chip Heath calls “filling pits”), rather than creating memorable experiences (“raising peaks”). Yet Heath’s research suggests that it’s far more valuable to build peaks.

How do you build peaks for the people you care about? In this talk, drawing from his forthcoming book The Power of Moments, Heath will reveal the four elements that create defining moments. Armed with an understanding of these elements, we can be the authors of moments that spark delight, connection, and insight.

Books

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers

Understanding numbers is essential– but humans aren’t built to understand them. Until very recently, most languages had no words for numbers greater than five – anything from six to infinity was known as "lots." While the numbers in our world have gotten increasingly complex, our brains are stuck in the past. How can we translate millions and billions and milliseconds and nanometers into things we can comprehend and use? 

Author Chip Heath has excelled at teaching others about making ideas stick and here, in Making Numbers Count, he outlines specific principles that reveal how to translate a number into our brain’s language. This book is filled with examples of extreme number makeovers, vivid before-and-after examples that take a dry number and present it in a way that people click in and say “Wow, now I get it!”  

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER: The instant classic about why some ideas thrive, why others die, and how to improve your idea’s chances—essential reading in the “fake news” era.

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Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives? The primary obstacle is a conflict that’s built into our brains, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimed bestseller Made to Stick

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Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

Chip and Dan Heath, the bestselling authors of Switch and Made to Stick, tackle one of the most critical topics in our work and personal lives: how to make better decisions.

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The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact

The New York Times bestselling authors explore why certain brief experiences can jolt us and elevate us and change us—and how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our life and work.

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