Six Principles to Make Your New Initiatives Contagious

“Americans, on average, engage in 16 conversations in which they say something about a brand, product, organization, or service – Jonah Berger

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

Why do some new ideas catch on and others seem to fade quickly? Why are advertising efforts sometimes very disappointing. These are important questions to consider in leadership as you attempt to design and launch new initiatives or product lines. In a recently released book, Jonah Berger offers six principles that drive all sorts of things to become contagious. He started with the very simple question – Why do some things catch on and others don’t? This is evidence-based work from a highly regarded marketing professor at the Wharton School. It has fascinating implications for nurse leaders who try to market new ideas.

The Six Principles or STEPPS – Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories.

1. Social Currency – Making people feel like smart insiders when they use your product or become involved in an initiative is important to moving new ideas. People enjoy telling others what they know and sharing a good thing through conversations, blogs, tweets or Facebook. Berger describes this word of mouth as social currency. The Magnet hospital designation is an example of an initiative that has achieved strong social currency in nursing.

2. Triggers- Triggers are stimuli that help prompt people to think about your product or initiative. Berger offers a number of interesting ways that triggers can work. In elections as an example, people are less likely to vote against legislation that will decrease funding to schools if they are voting in a school. One especially effective trigger in public health was the use of the Marlboro Cowboy telling another rider that he had emphysema. This ad was so effective that many people admitted that when they see a Marlboro ad, they think about the cowboy with the emphysema.

3. Emotion – If we care about something, we will share it. Crafting messages that will capture people’s emotion is important. The emotion may be a sense of awe or a recognition that something could be very useful to someone else such as an article on personal finance or a health issue. Susan Boyle’s You-tube performance from Britain’s Got Talent is one of the most watched videos in the world today. The audience connected with her story. Berger recommends that when crafting your message – focus on feelings and not just on the information.

4. Public – An initiative or idea is much more likely to be contagious if it can be made public and is readily observable to others. People are more likely to seek services when it seems to be publicly in demand. Observability has a huge impact on whether products or ideas catch on. Wrist bands to promote causes are popular for this reason. The I Voted stickers make a private act much more public and encourages others to vote.

5. Practical Value – People enjoy helping others so if we can demonstrate that a product, idea or initiative has practical value – they are more likely to pass it on. I recently had a friend tell a large audience about a wonderful experience he had in medical office where there was a clear focus on not wasting his time as a patient. Everyone was intrigued about the seamless care he described as he went from one diagnostic test to another.

6. Stories – The last principle discussed by Berger is the need to wrap your idea or initiative around a broader narrative through telling a story. The highly respected journal Health Affairs recently added a section to their journal called narrative matters. The goal here is to highlight the need for health reform by telling the stories of how fragmented care is in our current system. These stories are quite compelling and make the point for public policy makers in a way that no list of facts ever could.

The next time you consider a new initiative, think about the STEPPS. It can be very difficult to get heard in this noisy world but Berger does offer some strategies that could make your next leadership venture more successful.

Read to Lead

Berger, J. (2013). Contagious: Why Things Catch On. New York: Simon and Schuster

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