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Kevin and Debra Rollins Center for eBusiness - The Tipping Point
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The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Malcolm Gladwell

A Book Review by D. Richard Dance and Ann H. Jenkins

September 2002

Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point is an in-depth look at "how little things can make a big difference." The book explores how ideas, products, messages, and behaviors spread like viruses.The book challenges companies and individuals to focus on the subtle aspects of business and social interaction in order to produce greater results. Topics such as epidemics and the Rule of 150 are focal points of Malcolm's book.

Premise of the Book

Malcolm Gladwell's premise for writing the book is to explore (1) how ideas, products, messages and behaviors spread like viruses do, and (2) what sort of little changes can have big effects.

The title of the book comes from "the name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once," which is The Tipping Point.

Agents of Change

Malcolm proposes that the three agents of change are:

  • The Law of the Few
  • The Stickiness Factor
  • The Power of Context

If one or more of these change, they can tip the scales and an idea that spreads like a virus can begin.

Law of the Few

It has been Malcolm's observation that a tiny percentage of people do the majority of the work. This small group can make epidemics occur depending on their social ability, energy, knowledge, and influence. How does he define them?

Connectors-They know lots of people. They like people in a genuine and powerful way, and find the patterns of acquaintanceship and interaction with people fascinating. They keep detailed rosters of names and addresses on their computer or PDA. Acquaintances give them a source of social power. They are usually gregarious and they know so many people that they get access to new things wherever they pop up. They are people specialists.
Mavens-The word is Yiddish, and it means one who accumulates knowledge. They aren't passive collectors of knowledge either. They talk quickly, precisely, and with absolute authority. They give the sense they are interested in and curious about everything. Gladwell says, "They read more magazines than the rest of us, more newspapers, and they may be the only people who read junk mail." What also sets them apart is how they pass their knowledge along. They like to be teachers, or information brokers, sharing and trading what they know.
Mavens are the databanks who provide the message. Connectors are the social glue who spread it. But there is a third group with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing. They are as critical as the other two-they are the salesmen.
Salesmen-The number and quality of answers they are prepared with makes them different to begin with. Furthermore, they tend to have energy, enthusiasm, and charm. It's all those things and yet something more.
Salesmen are also senders who have special personalities that allow them to send their emotional state to us with their voice, facial muscles, gestures and presence in a room.

To make these points stick Gladwell uses the story of Paul Revere's word-of-mouth epidemic and then contrasts it with William Dawes forgettable ride that did not rouse the troops.

Paul Revere was gregarious and intensely social. He became a kind of unofficial clearing house for the anti-British forces. He knew everybody. He was the logical one for the stable boy to go to on April 18, 1775. On Paul's ride he would know exactly whose door to knock on, who the local militia leader was, and who the key players in town were. He had met most of them before. They knew and respected him. Along Paul Revere's route the town leaders and company captains instantly triggered the alarm. Paul was a connector and a maven.

William Dawes was a man with a normal social circle and once he left his hometown he probably wouldn't have known whose door to knock on. In his seventeen mile ride to Lexington only one town seemed to get the message. He was not able to start the word-of-mouth epidemic like Paul Revere did on his route.

The Stickiness Factor

Sesame Street succeeded because it learned how to make TV sticky and reach out and teach young children. Stickiness can be defined as the quality of the message. It needs to be memorable so it can create change and spur someone to action.

"We all want to believe that the key to making an impact on someone lies with the inherent quality of the ideas we present," Gladwell writes. Instead the message is usually tipped by how we tinker with it to get it right.

There is a simple way to package information that can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.

I liked this message for e-business, and you can learn a lot from studying chapter three of the book as it delves into Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, and the education virus.

The Power of Context (Part One)

The Law of the Few looked at the three kinds of people who are critical in spreading information. Stickiness suggests that in order to be capable of sparking epidemics, ideas have to be memorable and move us to action. The Power of Context explains that epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur.

To see how this all fits together, take a look at Paul Revere's ride again.

Law of the Few - He was a collector and maven that salesmen supported.
Stickiness - His message: "The British are coming."
Power of Context - His ride was at midnight.

It was chapters four and five of the book that questioned our ethics. It reports from studies that honesty isn't a fundamental trait. It has been proven to be considerably influenced by the situation in which we find ourselves. Gladwell submits that we invariably make mistakes in interpreting other people's behavior by over estimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of situation and context. "Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstances and context. The reason that most of us seem to have a consistent character is that most of us are really good at controlling our environment (163)."

That merits some personal introspection and discussion. It's suggesting that we are powerfully shaped by our external environment. The features of our social and physical world, the streets we walk down and the people we encounter, play a huge role in shaping who we are and how we act.

The Power of Context (Part Two)

In part two, the author discusses the critical role that groups play in social epidemics. When people are asked to consider evidence or make decisions in a group they come to different conclusions than if they are asked as individuals. This has been used successfully by arbitrators, negotiators, and others attempting problem resolution.

If you are interested in starting an epidemic, what are the most effective kinds of groups? Gladwell calls it the Rule of 150 and seven digits.

As human beings we can only handle so much information at once. That's why telephone numbers are seven digits. Based upon this natural limit, we can compute our social channel capacity to be about 150. In other words, this is about the extent of the number of people that can be sufficiently familiar with each other so they can work together as a functional unit and achieve goals informally. This occurs because we know who the 150 are and how they relate to us.

Malcolm suggests keeping the group size less than 150 to start an epidemic or there will be structural impediments to the ability of the group to agree and act with one voice.

The Power of Translation

Chapter six talks about the early adopters who are visionary and why they need a translator that can adapt the idea or product to the masses-the mainstream people.

The Author's Conclusion

The first lesson of The Tipping Point is to concentrate your resources on a few key areas. Start with a small budget if you must and use it more intelligently to change the context of the message, or change the messenger, or change the message itself. Whatever you do, focus your efforts.

Although these might appear to be Band-Aid solutions, they involve solving a problem with the minimum amount of effort, time, and cost.

The second lesson of The Tipping Point is that we may need to reframe the way we think about the world. How we function is not straightforward and transparent-it is messy and opaque. Those who are successful at creating social epidemics do not just do what they think is right. They deliberately test their intuitions.

Gladwell concludes by saying the bedrock belief must be that change is possible and that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus at the right time. And with the slightest push, it can be tipped.

Our Conclusion

The book was fascinating: It pertains both to e-business and life. As newly discovered mavens, we recommend you buy a copy and read it.

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