Chip Heath – Author Biography
Early Life
Chip Heath is a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses on organizational behavior. With a background in psychology and engineering, he became fascinated by a simple question: why do some ideas stick in the mind while others vanish?
Career
Heath’s research on “sticky ideas” became the bestselling book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (2007), co-written with his brother Dan Heath. The book introduced the SUCCESs framework — Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories — and became a communications classic. The brothers followed it with Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (2010), on leading change through the metaphor of the Rider, the Elephant, and the Path; Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work (2013), on overcoming decision biases; and The Power of Moments (2017), on creating defining experiences. The Heath brothers’ books have sold millions of copies and are staples of business and education reading lists.
Major Works
Made to Stick (2007) is the landmark — the essential book on memorable communication. Switch (2010), Decisive (2013), and The Power of Moments (2017) extended the brothers’ research into change, decisions, and experience design.
Writing Style and Themes
The Heaths write as academic storytellers: every principle illustrated with vivid case studies, from urban legends to business turnarounds. Their great theme is that human psychology is predictable — and that understanding it lets you communicate, decide, and lead far better. Their style is crisp, framework-driven, and relentlessly practical.
Legacy
Made to Stick became the definitive modern text on effective communication, its SUCCESs framework taught in business schools worldwide. Together the Heath brothers created one of the most successful research-to-practice partnerships in popular business writing, bridging academia and the real world.
