The Tipping Point:
How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell

What does Paul Revere have to do with Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point? The message is simple and reflective. Change happens! It can be created, facilitated, and managed. Understanding the how and why gives executives the insight to stimulate and manage it.

Gladwell reminds us that the number one issue senior executives deal with every day is change – schedules, products, customer demands, regulations, competitors, and the like. It is change and its consequences that guide their actions.

Gone are the times when one could anticipate change, have time to reflect on its consequences and wait to see if it was temporary or permanent before acting. In today’s business world, executives are forced to respond promptly because the pace of change is more rapid, uneven, unexpected, disruptive, and at times revolutionary. Gladwell makes the point that today’s executives will quickly become irrelevant unless they understand how and why change takes place. Stated another way: How executives deal with change and its effect will determine their success.

The author describes how change takes place by using the analogy of a viral epidemic. He points out that in order to have an “epidemic” you must have an infectious agent, people to transmit it in geometric progression (doubles and doubles again and again) and an environment to host the process. When enough people are “infected” it becomes an epidemic. This same sequence takes place when people move quickly from one product, service or idea to another.

The Tipping Point is filled with stories and examples how “acts” of omission or commission can come together, in one dramatic moment, when change becomes more of a certainty than a possibility. Gladwell refers to this moment as the “tipping point.” To the casual observer this action appears to happen spontaneously and without cause when “everything” changes all at once.

It is the “little things” that can make the difference between a tipping point moment or not. Gladwell describes the key components of the tipping point as: The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor, The Power of Context, and the Magic Number of 150.

The Law Of The Few says it only takes a few uniquely qualified people with exceptional skills to turn something into an “epidemic.” Gladwell calls these individuals Mavens, Connectors and Salespeople. Mavens are knowledgeable about the issue. Their “publics” perceive them as teachers, information specialists, and “data banks.” They supply the infectious agent (the message). Connectors are folks who know lots of people. They have the ability to move freely and comfortably in different “worlds” and subcultures. Connectors have the unique ability to bring people together. They want to share the “story” and possess the social power to spread the message effectively. Salespeople have the skills of persuasion and are critical when the audience is skeptical about what they are hearing.

Though the Law of the Few is critical to generate a “tipping point” moment, it cannot by itself precipitate a “tipping point.” One also needs The Stickiness Factor – fashioning a message in such a way that under the right circumstances it becomes irresistible (sticky) and moves a person to action. The message must have content, be memorable, infectious, transmittable, and move the recipient to respond.

In today’s world of informational “clutter” it is harder to get any one message to stick. Knowing a lot about the people you want to reach and paying thoughtful attention to the structure and for-mat of the substance of the message can dramatically enhance the stickiness of the communiqué.

The Power of Context is the environmental aspect and the social network an individual “lives” in. The environmental aspect is the “space” one occupies. It shapes one’s emotions and actions. The social network is identified as the group of people one trusts and relies on for insights, opinions and “community” memory. It is the group that helps define who one is and how one relates to others.

The last element of a tipping point moment is called The Magic Number 150. It is defined as the optimum number of people with whom an individual can have a genuinely social relation-ship. Even a relatively small increase in the size of the group makes it far more difficult to move information around the network. One criticism of Gladwell’s hypothesis is he does not explain how he derived the number 150. Whether or not his number is accurate, experience shows that we develop close personal relationships with a limited number of people.

And now, here’s how Gladwell relates the tip-ping point to story of Paul Revere and his ride to warn the colonists on a cold morning in 1776. Remember his compatriot William Dawes? No, not really. Paul Revere is the one who is remembered. He was the connector and maven of the two riders. Revere was gregarious and intensely social. He knew everyone in the community and they knew him. He was the also the community data bank. He gathered the information about the British and he passed it along to other connectors and salesman.

William Dawes’ ride had little effect. In Glad-well’s analysis, “he clearly had none of the social gifts of Revere, because there is almost no record of anyone who remembers him that night.”
The book is a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action. What makes one leader, idea or technology succeed when others fail? Why do certain ideas, products and services take hold and race through the society when others do not? The answer to both questions is the same: It is a tipping point moment precipitated by an infectious message, a few critical people and a favorable environment.

Gladwell’s Tipping Point is worth serious consideration. In a world of rapid and constant change he shows how to radically transform behaviors and beliefs for those who want additional tools for facilitating and managing change.

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