The Tipping Point #4
by Author Malcolm Gladwell 2005 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 8/13
How can the Tipping Point help me? Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push — in just the right place — it can be tipped. Author Gladwell said: “I came to this book while going through a challenging time career-wise. Although I had achieved many things, I felt like I’d put in too much effort for not enough results. So I begun to identify the situations where a little effort brings about big changes. Better yet, he identified a short list of how these sorts of interventions come about”.
What is a Tipping Point? We’ve heard of the straw that broke the camel’s back. That is an example of a Tipping Point. The place where a little difference has a big effect. The Author studies several cases in detail, and supplies – non-obvious, but verifiable – evidence of situations where, a little bit of effort goes a long way.
Example: Women’s Health Care. A nurse wanted to get women in her community to get themselves tested for diabetes & breast cancer, who would not ordinarily do so. She began by holding Seminars at local churches, but discovered that most of the people attending were already knowledgeable, women seeking more information. She didn’t want to be preaching to the already converted. Applying principles consistent with the Author’s model of how to create a Tipping Point, the nurse switched venues to Beauty Salons. She trained some stylists in the information to convey the info – in how to weave it into the sorts of conversations stylists & patrons already have in the salon. She supplied handouts laminated in plastic to survive in the salon. She measured the success of her interventions, and refined her training, techniques & handouts. With a small investment, she showed new group of women getting mammograms & diabetes tests, with a success rate far in excess of what she was getting from her church seminars. She created a Tipping Point.
How is a Tipping Point created? The Author models the introduction of a new idea, a new product, or a behavior like an epidemic. He shows certain non-obvious aspects of epidemics that give simple, powerful, yet usable insights into how to create an epidemic as well. In an epidemic, the thing being introduced must be:
· widely disseminated.
· “sticky” enough to be retained by each new recipient.
· operating in a context that nurtures it.
Non obvious fact about dissemination in epidemics: They’re spread not by large numbers of people randomly interacting. They’re spread by a very few key people with exactly three roles:
· Connector — knows a lot of people.
· Maven — takes the new thing being introduced, sifts through its real-world complexity, organizes and translates it down to the simple relevant new bit.
· Salesman — gets the recipient to take in that relevant new bit.
[ How is a Tipping Point created continued, Stickiness, Context, Examples in Premium Content ]