The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip and Dan Heath | A Book Review

Chip Heath and Dan Heath are two of my favorite authors and their books, Made to Stick and Switch, are my all time favorites — having read and reread them many times. When I heard they have written a new book titled “The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact”, I definitely wanted to read it. And I had an opportunity to read it in 2018 immediately after Daniel Pink’s “When”.

The Power of Moments — Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact is a fantastic book. Like their previous books, Chip and Dan Heath are able to bring out the concept so well and also present it in a manner that the message ‘sticks’.

What I liked about the book most are the practical takeaways. Like the previous books, the lessons of the book are about simple adjustments in your life that can have a massive impact. And, as a professional, there is a strong connection for everyday situations quoted by Heath brothers. Finally, I loved that there were so many examples from India in the book.

The first chapter is called “Defining Moments”. You expect a quote and a story to start off each chapter or a book these days. Chip and Dan Heath also start off with a small context-setting slice of life ‘moment’. Although it doesn’t really pack a punch (probably cultural nuances here), it is short enough to move to part [2] of the first chapter quickly. This is a book about moments: how defining moments are made and how can you create defining moments. And from the first 4 pages itself, it is clear that almost the whole book is going to get highlighted. The authors then ask a question about a hypothetical day at the Disney World and how you would rate it hour by hour while you are still there, and then how would you rate it later. There would be a wide gap between the two ratings. What accounts for the discrepancy? We are then presented with a slightly different cold water experiment. We are then presented with two terms: Duration-neglect and, Peak-end rule. And then, we are presented with the most magical story and passage of the book: Magic Castle hotel in LA. How does this hotel have a better rating than Four Seasons Hotel at Beverly Hills or Ritz Carlton when it is just an apartment and charges the price of a Hilton Hotel. The answer is that there are some experiences that Magic Castle really understands and provides — free snacks on a silver tray and free laundry. Surprise moments like these provide Magic Castle the edge. The authors then introduce what makes for a defining moment: Elevation, Insight, Pride, Connection.

Chapter 2 is titled “Thinking about Moments — Transitions, Milestones, and Pits”. Transitions should be marked, milestones commemorated, and pits filled. The chapter asks some interesting questions. For instance, why is there a complete lack of attention paid to the employees first day is mind boggling (and not in a good way). The authors then talks about thinking in moments, rituals (while 13-year old’s welcome to puberty in Brazil seems very cruel, a grieving widow letting go off her dead husband to start dating again through ritualistic cleansing was poignant). There is an interesting passage about John Derre, and how they do the onboarding of new employee in India. Every start is a transition and (birthdays or new year for instance) presents an opportunity to create a moment. The authors then talk about how pit can be converted to a peak. What is a pit — it is a bad experience. One doctor redesigned the MRI experience after noticing the anxiousness for the parents and the kid.

Next, we see an introduction to how we can create powerful moments. And the first technique that the authors introduce is Elevation — social, onstage, spontaneous. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 cover Elevation. Chapter 3 starts off at high-school and asks why so few of the moments of students are in a classroom when they spend so much time there. The authors then present the case of a teacher who created moments inside the curriculum. It is then that Heath brothers introduce a controversial idea — to create a peak you have to focus exclusively on some moments at the cost other moments. They even say that businesses should focus on converting good moments to great ones even at the cost of making poor just average. It is a different idea for sure and they do present a convincing argument for this. We then see how we can create Elevation. The three-part framework includes: sensory appeals (clothes, senses, offline experience), raising the stakes (games, performance, deadline, public commitment) and breaking the script (go against the norm, surprises). The chapter ends with a moving story of Eugene Kelly, who was diagnosed with cancer and wrote a book which started like this — I was blessed. I was told that I had three months to live. Chapter 4 is focused exclusively on Breaking the Script. The first story is of a mother whose child had forgotten her soft toy at Ritz Carlton and how the hotel staff went out of the way to create an experience for the family. A surprise is shown as a key determinant for guests and customers. Guests love delightful surprise over loyalty cards. How to break the script inside a corporate setup? The best example came from Learn VF Corp (owner of Wrangler, Lee jeans, Vans, Nautica, Tinderland, North Face) where Stephen Dull realised that being innovative starts by being outside the office. The authors also talk about a study done showcasing socks again and again with alarm clock sometimes in between. The term for this is ‘oddball effect’ which essentially says, surprise stretches the time. Favorite quotes from this chapter:

Why are so many if our moments from the ages 15–30

Variety is spice of life — entree of life

We feel most comfortable when things are certain but we feel most alive when they are not.

When leading a change, deliberately create a peak.

Each section includes The Whirlwind Review — a great takeaway.

Insight and Pride are the focus of next 2 chapters. Chapter 5 starts with The Trip Over the Truth as the title. In 2007, British Medical Journal asked its readers to vote on the most important medical milestone since 1840 and the number 3 spot went to anesthesia, number 2 spot to antibiotics and number 1 to sanitary napkins. The authors next talk of open defecation as a menace and how it can be eradicated (answer: not by installing latrines). It can be solved only through Realization — when the villagers realize the problem themselves. Realization in this case was by making villagers express disgust at the practice and then prod them to find solutions. Community-led Total Sanitation has reduced open defecation from 34% to 1% in Bangladesh. In an organizational setup, Scott Guthrie at Microsoft had to make his team have empathy for the customers. He did that by making his team use Azure to build an app and discover how hard it is. Realization again. Let people discover the truth themselves. Takeaway -> Dramatize the problems. You can’t appreciate the solution till you appreciate the problem. Chapter 6 is Stretch for Insight. It starts off with a story of Lea Chadwell. When she was young, she thought an animal hospital was her calling. She joined the hospital and got bored. Then, she thought baking cakes would be her calling — she tried, started and got bored. Eventually, she left both.

Did Lea Chadwell fail? In some ways, yes. But it is not quite that simple. Chadwell doesn’t regret starting her bakery, and she doesn’t regret closing it. What she gained was the insight that comes from experience.

To stretch is to place ourselves in situations that expose us to the risk of failure.

Self understanding comes slowly. One of the few ways to accelerate it — to experience more crystallizing moments — is to stretch for insight.

The authors introduce us to the Peak-end principle — these memories serve as a kind of psychic price tag. “This is what it would cost you to endure that pain again”. Then the chapter talks about the role of mentors. This is the best part of the book.

Mentors push, mentees stretch. If you mentor someone — a student, an employee, a relative — you might wonder about the best way to give them a productive push.

The next section is about the mentors and the authors start by talking of an experiment — 44 high school students in 7th grade were made to write an essay and after the essays were graded, they were split into two piles and then 2 notes were added to each of the piles. The first pile had a generic note “I am giving you these comments so that you’ll have feedback on your paper.” The second pile included what was called “wise comment” — “I am giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know you can reach them.” (high standards + assurance). 40% of the students from the first pile resubmitted the essay, while 80% of the students from the second pile submitted the essay. This technique of high standards + assurance + direction + support = enhanced self-imaging, works the best in organizations.

“The promise of stretching is not success, it is learning. It is self-insight. It is the promise of gleaning the answers to some of the most important and vexing questions of our lives: What do we want? What can we do? Who can we be? What can we endure?”

The next two chapters talk about Moments of Pride, and how pride through feedback, appreciation or awards helps us create powerful moments. Chapter 7 starts off with Kira Sloop talking about 2 of her teachers — one who praised her distinct voice and another who chided her for not fitting in the choir. In another case, a student battling low scores had a new teacher who praised her homework (unlike her previous teacher who chided her often). There are no prizes for guessing which one turned the student around. The chapter then talks about Carolyn Wiley of Roosevelt University who reviewed various employee motivation studies and found out that the most common and consistent employee motivational factor was “full appreciation of work done”. Heath brothers strike a word of caution here — formal employee recognition is not the answer you are looking for here. The problems include the scale, formality and generally no surprises. They suggest that formal recognition should be based on formal milestones and rest of the recognition should be personal, not programmatic. For instance, one manager rewarded an employee who listened well to her customer with a headphone and one charity had handwritten messages from children who benefitted from the donation. That’s the kind of personal touch and surprise that Heath brothers would love for us to use. Chapter 8 is titled Multiple Milestones and I found it very interesting. The chapter starts off in 1996 when Josh Clark was 25 and he started jogging after a bad breakup with his girlfriend. He had always hated jogging and this time too it was boring and painful, Yet, he also found it relaxing and meditative. He stuck and became better, and better. Then he wondered how could he help others do this without enduring a period of suffering themselves. He thought setting a goal would help. Running a 5k marathon seemed like a decent goal to set. He called it couch to 5k in 9 weeks. The basic premise was simple — you start training with a 60-second jog followed by a 90 second walk and, gradually removed the walks from the equation to run the 5k at one stretch. A key defining moment in this technique came to be called W5D3 — week 5 and day 3, when you don’t walk at all — just do a 20 minutes jog. C25K quickly became very popular. The technique had milestones baked in:

• Joining is one moment
• Committing to the run is another
• W5D3 is another
• Finally, there is the 5k run

Levels in life like the levels in games. Similarly, achieving business goals via sub-goals and milestones with each having a moment power — pride, elevation, connection

Chapter 9 is a chapter titled “Practice Courage”. It starts off in Nashville on Feb 13, 1960, with a story of John Lewis, Angela Butler and Diane Nash who took seats at lunch counters reserved for white people. This simple but powerful courageous act helped reverse discrimination law segregating blacks and whites on lunch tables. But how did the students show this courage?

The students did not just show courage, they practiced it and they rehearsed it under a training run by James Lawson. James coached them how to sit, how to organize shift, how to avoid breaking the law. And he made them engage in role plays of increasing the difficulty to make the training sit. And, it was successful. Gradual confidence building is also the part of the exposure therapy. If you have a preloaded plan on what to do — you are more likely to stick to it than someone who has no plan. Always think: when this happens — I will do this. The end of the chapter exercises speaks of Mark the manager who is an asshole and gets a 360-degree feedback which wasn’t flattering for him. This was a nice surprise!

The final section of the book is titled Moments of Connection. Moments of connection focuses on humans creating experiences for other humans. The excerpt below from the chapter captures the essence best:

Moments of connection deepen our relationships with others: You’ve known someone for only 24 hours, but you’ve already told them some of your deepest secrets. You endure a grueling experience with others and emerge with bonds that will never break. Your marriage hits a rocky patch — until one day your partner does something so thoughtful, you can’t imagine loving anyone else.

The chapter for Create Shared Meaning starts with Sonia Rhodes who had an experience at a Sharp Healthcare facility when her dad had an incident. She didn’t like the experience at all and with that started a turnaround. The crux: you can’t deliver a great patient experience without first delivering a great employee experience. Hence, focus internally to focus externally became the rallying point for Sharp Healthcare.

How do you design moments that knit groups together? Sharp’s leaders used three strategies: creating a synchronized moment, inviting shared struggle and connecting to meaning.

If a group of people develops a bond quickly, chances are its members have been struggling together.

If you want to be a part of a group that bonds like cement, take on a really demanding task that’s deeply meaningful.

Heath brothers then talk about purpose and passion among employees. And suggest that purpose is cultivated, not discovered. By focusing on the power of moments.

The 11th chapter is titled “Deepen Ties”. It starts with a story of a school turned around by the new establishment. The authors then talk of Harry T. Ries who wrote a provocative paper, “Steps Toward the Ripening of Relationship Science.” There are 2 tricks here:

Trick # 1 -> Responsiveness. Trick # 2 -> Vulnerability. The final and the 12th chapter is titled Making Moments Matter. Does focusing on the moments have a payoff? It does. In terms of revenue, customer satisfaction and loyalty, motivated employees, effective employees — happiness, closer relationships, self-transformation.

In the short term we focus on fixing problems over making moments, and the choice usually feels like a smart trade-off. But over time it backfires.

It is striking how many of the principles we’ve encountered would serve as antidotes to those common regrets: 1. Stretching ourselves to discover our reach; 2. Being intentional about creating peaks (or Perfect Moments, in Eugene O’Kelly’s phrasing) in our personal lives; 3. Practicing courage by speaking honestly — and seeking partners who are responsive to us in the first place; 4. The value of connection (and the difficulty of creating peaks); 5. Creating moments of elevation and breaking the script to move beyond old patterns and habits.

This is what we hope you take away from this book: Stay alert to the promise that moments hold. These moments do not need to be “produced.” Yes, we examined some moments that took a lot of time and money to plan: The Sharp All-Staff Assembly. Signing Day. The Trial of Human Nature. And, yes, it often takes real effort to elevate a moment properly — it matters that the Trial was held in a courtroom and not in the school cafeteria. But keep in mind these are once-a-year events!

Overall I loved and adored the book. There were several lessons and a key theme which stuck with me. However, it wasn’t the best of Chip and Dan Heath. Unlike the kidney story in Made to Stick or the concepts in Switch, there is no main highlight. The progression of insight with every page was low as well. Despite that, definitely a good investment of time. I will go with 4 out of 5 stars.