The Tipping Point

I enjoyed Outliers so much that I decided to knock out another Malcolm Gladwell book that was on my list. The Tipping Point is on all kinds of reading lists, and after reading it I can understand why it became such a phenomena after its release in 2000. It is all about epidemics and the small things all around us that can make a very big difference. He spends a good bit of time digging through how we define epidemics, but more importantly how they are created (or where they start).



The premise that ideas, products, and messages spread the same way viruses do forms the foundation of the book, with three theme running through it:

1. Behavior is contagious
2. Little changes can have very big effects
3. Big things happen in a hurry

All epidemics can be traced back to a ‘tipping point’ – something that pushes people over the edge and into a dramatic, new direction. But determining exactly what causes such tipping points is not as simple. Two questions lie at the core:

1. Why do some ideas or behaviors or products start epidemics and others don’t?
2. What can we do to deliberately start and control positive epidemics of our own?

He argues (rightly so, in my opinion) that social epidemics are almost always driven by the efforts of a handful of exceptional people, set apart by things like how sociable they are, how energetic, how knowledgeable, and how influential.

Context plays a huge role in the start and spread of epidemics. To illustrate this point, Gladwell takes us back to the Broken Windows Theory, which explains that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. Seemingly less consequential crimes like graffiti and broken windows create an environment of disorder, where more significant crimes flourish. These so called quality of life crimes seem to be the tipping point for violent crimes in most cities – again reminding us how much the littler things really do matter.

Once you understand that context matters – that specific and relatively small elements in the environment can serve as tipping points – our defeatism is turned upside down and we realize how much control we actually have. This leads us to believe that crime, for example, can be prevented. Your environment changes everything – your field of view, your capabilities, and your perception of what is in fact possible.

A case study on Gore & Associates (they make Gore-Tex and hundreds of other products in a multitude of industries) was particularly interesting to me. I am in the processes of seeing what other articles/books I can dig up on their organizational structure. It is an almost entirely flat organization – no titles, no chain of command, and no manufacturing facilities larger than 150 people. Bill Gore (founder) believed that people were not capable of building a sense of team and loyalty to groups larger than 150, so at that point of growth within any of his facilities they break off and form a new plant. Definitely an interesting concept that I’d love to read more about. Check out their website if you’re interested - http://www.gore.com/en_xx/aboutus/

A sentence near the end of the books seems to give a solid summary of what The Tipping Point is really all about: “What must underlie successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or belief in the face of the right kind of impetus.”

One thing I've learned about myself during this journey towards 50 books is that I am great at great at starting new books - but that does not always translate into finishing them once I start! I am currently half way through The Partnership, How to Influence, and The New Art of the Leader. Let's see which one I get through next :)