The Tipping Point – My Review
I read ‘TheTipping Point’ a long time ago. Then I wrote a short, boring blogpost telling
you I read it. Recently I thought: I’m going to write a longer book review
about Malcolm Gladwell’s book. In this way I can remember its contents more
easily and, if you haven’t read it, inspire you to read it.
Concepts
‘The
Tipping Point’ was my first Gladwell book. I wanted to read it because of my
interest in social media and social networking (- later his take on the effect
of social media in revolutions was highly debated…). The book is not about
social media and social networking (tools). It’s about the underlying concepts
of social media and networking. And, as I’ve said before, those concepts are
important to understand.
Tipping
What is the
book about? The subtitle of the book is: ‘How Little Things Can Make a Big
Difference’. In his own words: “The
Tipping Point is the biography of an idea, and the idea is very simple. …
Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.” (p
7)
There are
lots of lists in this book, elements of what a Tipping Point is, what cause
change and epidemics, etc. I’ll do my best and summarize the book for you
below.
Epidemics
Gladwell
starts out with looking at epidemics. He looks at epidemic to understand how
change happens. But how does we describe an epidemic? He lists three
characteristics:
“… – one, contagiousness; two, the fact that
little causes can have big effects; and three, that change happens not
gradually but at one dramatic moment …”. “One of the three, the third trait –
the idea that epidemics can rise or fall in one dramatic moment – is the most
important, because it is the principle that makes sense of the first two and
that permits the greatest insight into why modern change happens the way it
does. The name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything
can change all at once is the Tipping Point.”(p 9)
Change agents
But what
causes change? He mentions three agents of change and will extend them throughout
the book. They are the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of
Context. (p 19)
With the
Law of the Few he means that “a handful of exceptional people” ( p 21) do the
majority of the work when it comes to epidemics. (p 19) The Stickiness Factor
says that there are specific ways of making a contagious message memorable;
there are relatively simple changes in the presentation and structuring of
information that can make a big difference in how much of an impact it makes.
(p 25) And the Power of Context says that human beings are a lot more sensitive
to their environment than they may seem. (p 29)
A big
question in Gladwell’s book is: “People pass on all kinds of information to
each other all the time. But it’s only in the rare instance that such an
exchange ignites a word-of-mouth epidemic. … Why is it that some ideas and
trends and messages “tip” and others don’t?” (p 32)
Change roles
The answer
is that the success of any kind of social epidemic is dependent on the
involvement of people with special roles. (p 33) “I call then Connectors,
Mavens, and Salesmen.” (p34) Even though research has shown that we are only
six degrees apart, research also finds that not all degrees are equal. (p 36)
Connectors
are people with a special gift for bringing the world together. (p 38) They
have to know lots of kinds of people. (p 46) They span many different worlds.
(p 49) (Granovetter’s work about strong and weak ties is also mentioned here.) A
maven is one who accumulates knowledge. (And this person can also be a
Connector.) (p 60) But they are not passive collectors of information, they
want to tell you about it too. (p 62) Mavens want to help for no other reason
than they want to help. This turns out to be an awfully effective way of getting
someone’s attention. (p 67) A maven is
not a persuader. Mavens are really information brokers, sharing and trading
what they know. (p 69)
Mavens are
data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue: they spread
it. “But there is also a select group of people – Salesmen – with the skills to
persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing, and they are as
critical to the tipping of word-of-mouth epidemics as the other two groups.” (p
70)
Persuasion
How does
persuasion work? There’s not an easy answer to that question. Here are some
elements of persuasion: 1. Little things can make as much of a difference as
big things. 2. Non-verbal cues are as or more important than verbal cues. 3.
Persuasion works in ways that we do not appreciate.
Context and stickiness
So, we’ve
seen that in epidemics, the messenger matters: messengers are what make
something spread. But now this book also stressed that the content of the
message matters too. And the specific quality that a message needs to be
successful is the quality of “stickiness”.” (p 92) And stickiness is hard in
this information age. (p 99) There’s too much information to pay attention to.
The Law of the Few says that there are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them. The lesson of stickiness is the same. There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it. (p 132, also refer to the book Made to Stick for a more detailed approach to stickiness)
Stickiness
is needed to spark epidemics. When is an idea sticky? When it’s memorable and
moves us to action. (p 139) (Stickiness relates to the messenger,
contagiousness to the messenger. - p 234)
But this
doesn’t mean a sticky idea will work in all contexts… Epidemics are sensitive
to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which the occur.
(p 138) “The essence of the Power of Context is that the same thing is true for
certain kinds of environments – that in ways that we don’t necessarily
appreciate, our inner states are the result of our outer circumstances”. (p
152)
In sum
At the end
of the book, I think this paragraph sums up the book’s main thrust:
“Epidemics are, at their root, about this very process of transformation. When we are trying to make an idea or attitude or product tip, we’re trying to change our audience in some small yet critical respect: we’re trying to infect them, sweep them up in our epidemic, convert them from hostility to acceptance. That can be done through the influence of special kinds of people, people with extraordinary personal connection. That’s the Law of the Few. It can be done by changing the context of communication, by making a message so memorable that it sticks in someone’s mind and compels them to action. That is the Stickiness Factor. But we need to remember that small changes in context can be just as important in tipping epidemics, even though that fact appears to violate some of our most deeply held assumptions about human nature.” (p 166)
(Note:
Gladwell also mentions the Dunbar number in the context of social channel
capacity. (p. 177- 179) “The figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum
number of individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship,
the kind of relationship that goes with knowing who they are and how they
relate to us.”)
Evaluation and questions
I really
enjoyed reading this book. I’m wondering what type of role I play: Maven,
Connector or Salesmen. What do you think you are? And what role do I play
according to you?
Some things
in this book are easy to apply. The Dunbar number 150 for instance.
Acknowledging I can keep up with that number of people helps a lot. Other
things are harder to apply. For instance, making an idea sticky. Maybe I should
read ‘Made to Stick’ to learn more about stickiness. In any way Gladwell’s book
does push you to experiment with stickiness, instead of just sending out ideas
and hoping for the best.
This book
has a clear link with social media, social networking, communities without
talking about the tools. As I’ve said before I think it’s important to
understand underlying concepts of social media. We’re so focused on the hottest
tools, we forget to ponder about what makes them run.
If
non-verbal cues are so important to make a message spread, what does this mean
for digital communication? More communication via video (like Skype)? Are
emoticons enough in textual communication?
Because of
information abundance we have a stickiness/attention problem. Could we say: In
the past we had a spread problem? The networks weren’t as extensive and fast as
with the internet. And now we have a stickiness problem? The networks are fast
and extensive, but there’s lots of information to filter.
Finally
Have you
read The Tipping Point? If you have
please let me know what you thought of this book (or point to your review). And
I’d love to hear your thoughts about my questions/remarks about the book.
Extra
An extra present for you: A list of 12 mind-blowing concepts from Gladwell's book.