Who creates a tipping point?

[Lucas_Wyrsch]

M recommendation to the group as an introduction is: Who creates a tipping point? bizjournals.com
Every now and then a gifted writer comes along who helps us better understand human behavior. Perhaps the most talented -- and engaging -- writer today who explains how society and individuals interrelate is Malcolm Gladwell. A former business and science writer with The Washington Post and The New Yorker, Gladwell is one of those exceptionally smart people who doesn't just look at situations, he analyzes them. And the reason that his two books, The Tipping Point and Blink, are simultaneously on the The New York Times bestseller lists is that Gladwell has the ability to open readers' eyes, and do it in a way that feels as if you are sharing his discoveries firsthand, rather than listening to a lecture.

Winning at Work

• Best-selling author and keynote speaker Connie Glaser is one of the country's leading experts on gender diversity and women's leadership issues. She has appeared on The Today Show, CNN and NBC Nightly News. A popular speaker at corporate and business events, she can be reached at connieglaser@aol.com

The Tipping Point is an exploration of how trends or "epidemics" in ordinary life occur. For example:

• Why did New York's crime rate fall?
• Why did Hush Puppy shoes inexplicably become popular?
• And why do certain movies, restaurants, vacation destinations, and yes, books, become wildly popular, while others languish?

Gladwell identifies three kinds of people who have the ability to influence us and effect sweeping change. He calls them

• Connectors,
• Mavens and
• Salesmen

. Since all three personality types are essential in creating social change, it helps to recognize the people in your work environment who fit each category.

Let's start with Connectors.
Gladwell researched a 1974 study called Getting a Job by Mark Granovetter and found that half of employed people found their jobs through a personal connection. But when the "quality" of these connections was analyzed, the studies proved that people don't get their jobs through friends, they get them through acquaintances. Gladwell makes a strong case for the fact that "Weak ties are always more important than strong ties." And the reason is that your friends tend to occupy the same world you do, i.e., they probably go to the same school, stores, social gatherings, etc. But your acquaintances are more likely to know things -- like job openings, let's say -- that you don't. As Gladwell points out, "Acquaintances, in short, represent a source of social power, and the more acquaintances you have, the more powerful you are."
People who have the most intricate web of acquaintances are the Connectors.

Mavens, on the other hand,
are information brokers because they share and trade what they know, and for the trend or "social epidemic" to get rolling, someone has to be persuaded to do something. Mavens, according to Gladwell, "have the knowledge and the social skills to start word-of-mouth epidemics …
It's not so much what they know, but how they pass it along. The fact that Mavens want to help for no other reason than they like to help, turns out to be an awfully effective way of getting someone's attention." So when it comes to starting a trend -- whether it's at the office or at the gym -- we know that we need a Connector who will spread the word, we know that we need a Maven whose word will be trusted, but

we also need a Salesman
who has the skills to persuade us in case we are unconvinced of what we are hearing. Good salesmen seem to have an X-factor. Attractiveness and optimism are givens, but Gladwell points out just how persuasive nonverbal and even subliminal messages can be.
Gladwell dissects persuasion in a way that makes the wheels of society seem like a well-orchestrated -- if unconscious -- dance.
He helps us better understand, for example, why Baltimore's syphilis rate skyrocketed in 1995 and why Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood became a bestseller.

"Simply by finding and reaching those few special people who hold so much social power, we can shape the course of social epidemics. In the end, tipping points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action. 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."

By Connie Glaser
How do you comment the article?

[ChristianDeBlis]

Great post. Very informative. I'm going to research this author, Malcolm Gladwell. Thanks!

[David Sandusky]

Great post. Very informative. I'm going to research this author, Malcolm Gladwell. Thanks!

Gladwell endorses a book called "Freakanomics", pick that up too.

[carter]

The concept is fascinating as are the examples in the book. Thanks for the summary!

To answer the question, the passionate. Because it does not happen overnight and the passionate will stick with it. The load minority usually causes the "tip" to mainstream.

[thubten]

The passionate may be the energy and the engine behind a particular aspect of social existence becoming a phenomenon, but without the mavens to take notice and agree, and the connectors to spread the word, the tipping point cannot be reached.

The real question here is how do WE create a tipping point with our product, service or personal brand?

[David Sandusky]

The real question here is how do WE create a tipping point with our product, service or personal brand?

That is the question. The good news is you only really need to create a tipping point within your target market related to your personal brand - as apposed to a society wide epidemic like creating a fashion trend or stopping crime in your city. The hard part is not being a commodity. Once creating and consistently showing value that is significant, different and trusted, the viral wildfire your evangelist will create will be genuine and specific - tipping point - success!

It is that easy...and that hard!

[Private One]

The passionate may be the energy and the engine behind a particular aspect of social existence becoming a phenomenon, but without the mavens to take notice and agree, and the connectors to spread the word, the tipping point cannot be reached.

But when the passionate have something that people could use AND can communicate passion into real understood value, the mavens can be inspired and the connectors too.
The passionate creates the maven and connector???