the tipping point: how little things make a big difference ... · for more go to drdouggreen.com...

For more go to DrDougGreen.Com

The Tipping Point:How Little Things Make a Big Difference

by Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell, M. (2000). The TippingPoint: How Little Things Make a BigDifference, Little Brown: New York,NY.

A summary for educators by Douglas W. Green EdD.


Tipping Point:The biography of an idea

It is a way to help understand theemergence of trends and mysteriouschanges that mark everyday life.

Ideas, products, messages, and behaviorsspread just like viruses do.

Three key characteristics (p. 9) Contagiousness Little causes can have big effects Change happens often in dramatic fashion


High status workers and socialproblems

Role models do matter Professionals, managers, and teachers

are considered “high status” by theCensus Bureau.

When the number of such people dropsbelow 5% in a neighborhood socialproblems like drop-outs and teenpregnancy explodes

At the tipping point schools can losecontrol of their students and family lifecan disintegrate. (p. 13)


Connectors: They know “everyone”!

Sprinkled among every walk of life are ahandful of people with a trulyextraordinary knack of making friendsand acquaintances. They are connectors.

Connectors often span many differentworlds and have some combination ofcuriosity, self-confidence, sociability, andenergy.

The closer an idea or product comes to aconnector the more power or opportunityit has.


The importance of “weak ties”

Your friends “strong ties” occupy thesame world that you do. As a result, howmuch do they know that you don’t.

Your acquaintances “weak ties” occupydifferent worlds. They are more likely toknow something you don’t. That is whythey represent a source of social power.

Weak ties with connectors are veryuseful.


Mavens: Those who accumulateknowledge

In addition to accumulating vastamounts of knowledge mavensusually also want to share it. Thiscan be very effective in startingword-of-mouth epidemics.

Mavens are teachers and students.They are not natural persuaders butthe information they present can bepersuasive.


Salesmen: People who are bornpersuaders

Some people have a hard to define traitthat makes what they say powerful,contagious, and irresistible so the peoplewant to agree with them. It may includeenergy, charm, enthusiasm, or likability.

When people talk their volume and pitchfall into balance. People with persuasivepersonalities tend to draw others intotheir own rhythms and dictate the termsof interaction.


Motor mimicry: Show someone a smileand they are likely to smile back.

Emotions are contagious. This givessome people an enormous amountof influence over others. They arecalled emotional senders.

Such charismatic people can infectother people with their emotions.

Paul Revere was a good salesmanwho also had the particular geniusof a maven and connector.


Sesame Street was sticky but notperfect

Sticky things are easy to remember. This iswhat all advertisers strive for.

Sesame Street was most sticky when thechildren understood what was happening.If they were confused it didn’t matter howsplashy the content was.

The Muppets were sticky. The lessons wereoften not sticky.

Adult elements were added so parentswould watch. This, however, made theshow less sticky for children.


Kids have longer attention spans thatone might think

Preschool learning theory at the time(Piaget and others) stated that childrencould not follow extended narrative.

Now psychologists (Bruner and others)believe that the narrative form isabsolutely central. It’s the only way theyhave of organizing their world. (p. 118)

For understanding, preschoolers neednarrative to be perfectly literal withoutany wordplay or comedy that mightconfuse. This is what the creators ofBlue’s Clues did.


What made Blue’s Clues even moresticky?

They found that kids would participatewhen asked which got them moreinvolved.

They borrowed the idea of repetition fromSesame Street. Each time children seesomething, they see it in a different way.

Blue’s Clues runs the same episode fivetimes in a row.

The law of stickiness says that there is asimple way to package information thatunder the right circumstance makes itirresistible. All you need do is find it. (p. 132)


The Power of Context (Part One)

The Law of the Few states that there arecertain kinds of people who are critical inspreading information.

The question of stickiness suggests thatin order to make a difference ideas haveto be memorable and move us to action.

The power of context suggests thatepidemics are sensitive to conditions andcircumstance of the times and placeswhere they occur. Imagine if Paul Reveredid his ride in the afternoon when peoplewere not at home.


Why did crime dip radically in New YorkCity in the 1990’s?

Crime is the inevitable result ofdisorder (Wilson and Coles, 1996)Things like graffiti, panhandling,and broken windows invite crime.

Although graffiti did not seem like abig problem, it was symbolic of thecollapse of the system. Winning thisbattle improved moral and allowedmore important physical changes totake place.


Subway fare beating – the next battle

Like graffiti, fare beating was a symbol ofdisorder. At the time it was only a $1.25fare and police didn’t think it was worththeir time.

At first, fare beaters were hand cuffedand lined up for others to see. Arrest timewas streamlined. As it turned out, 1 in 7of those arrested had an outstandingarrest warrant and 1 in 20 had a weapon.For the police it was like opening a box ofCracker Jack.


Other quality of life crimes were next

Squeegee men were banished. Repeat offenders for public drunkenness

and urination were arrested. If you peedin the street you were going to jail.

Throwing bottles in the street and minorproperty damage were no longertolerated.

In short, an epidemic was tipped byattending to the smallest of details.


Fundamental Attribution Errors (FAE)

A fancy way of saying that humansinvariably make the mistake ofoverestimating the importance offundamental character traits andunderestimating the importance of thesituation and context.

We want to explain the world around usin terms of people’s essential attributes:he’s a better basketball player, thatperson is smarter than I am.


FAE in action

The birth order myth is a good example ofthe FAE in action. When older siblings areaway from their families, they are nomore likely to be domineering andyounger siblings are no more likely to berebellious than anyone else.

People can control their context and allowtheir character to take over. Someonewho is fun at parties is perceived as fun inall situations by people who only see theperson at parties. They are probably lessfun in hostile situations.


Environment shapes character

Studies of juvenile delinquency and drop-out rates demonstrate that a child isbetter off in a good neighborhood and atroubled family than in a troubledneighborhood and a good family.

Other studies suggest that it is possible tobe a better person on a clean street or ina clean subway than in one littered withtrash and graffiti.


The Power of Context (Part two)

Groups play a critical role in socialepidemics.

John Wesley (a classic connector) was notthe most charismatic preacher but heunderstood that changes he preachedwould only persist if there was acommunity to support them.

The Devine Secrets of the Ya-YaSisterhood only became a best sellerbecause of the reading groups of womenwho related to the content and spread theword. The group discussion made thecontent even stickier.


What does correlate with brain size?

Among primates, brain size correlateswith the size of the groups that animalslive in.

This implies that brains evolve to handlethe complexities of larger social groups.

Humans socialize in the largest groups ofall thanks to their large brains.

Dunbar calculated a neocortex ratio forprimates and found the maximum groupsize for each species. For humans thisturns out to be about 150.


The magic of 150 for human groups

A study of hunter gatherer societies foundan average village size of about 148.4.

A religious group known as the Hutteriteshave a strict policy that when a colonyapproaches 150 they split in two. Ifgroups get too big you start to becomestrangers and close-knit fellowship is lost.

Gore (makers of Gore-Tex) designs plantsthat are staffed by about 150 people.They find that peer pressure is morepowerful than boss pressure.


Group Think – Transactive Memory

It seems that we store informationwith other people. Couples do thisautomatically. Pairs who know eachother remember more than pairswho do not.

It can be argued that loss of jointmemory helps make divorce morepainful. The loss of transactivememory feels like losing part ofone’s own mind.


Steps in the diffusion model forinnovations

Adventurous innovators are the first to trysomething.

They are followed by early adopters.These are opinion leaders who thecommunity watches.

These two groups are visionaries wholook for revolutionary change.

The early adopters include mavens,connectors, and salesmen. They mayalter the idea or product somewhat tobetter translate it to a wider audience.First to the early majority, then the latermajority and the laggards.


Case Study – Teen Smoking

The law of the few and the stickinessfactor result in teen experimentation withsmoking and addiction.

Smoking isn’t cool, smokers are cool.They are the salesmen. Contagiousness ismostly a function of the messenger.

Nicotine (the messenger in this case) isaddicting for many. Stickiness is aprimary property of the messenger.


Who gets addicted?

The question of how sticky smoking endsup to be depends on an individual’sreaction to nicotine.

Nicotine is only addictive in some people,some of the time.

Many people can smoke withoutbecoming addicted.

Smokers who are depressed are inessence using tobacco as a cheap way totreat their own depression. This givessmoking stickiness with a vengeance.


Can smoking addiction be controlled?

There also seems to be a tipping point interms of the amount of nicotine it takesto become addicted.

Cocaine and heroin seem to be less stickyas smaller percentages of those who trythese drugs become addicted. (0.9% ofthose who try cocaine become regularusers.)

Paying attention to the tipping point forcigarette addiction may make it possibleto make smoking less sticky.


To start an epidemic you needconnectors, salesmen, and mavens!

When Georgia Sadler tried to increaseknowledge of breast cancer and diabetesin the black community in San Diego shetried using black churches. When thatdidn’t work she tried hair dressers. Shefound them to be a little bit connector,salesman, and maven rolled into one.“Once you find someone who can manageyour hair, you’ll drive 100 miles to seeher.


Doug: How to improve school climate

You need to focus your efforts on the keypeople be they students or staff.

Find the people who influence others forbetter or worse and get them on yourside.

These are the people who either knoweverybody (connectors), know a lot(mavens), or influence others (salesmen).

Notice who has many visitors to theirroom. Pay attention to groups talking toeach other. Also look for subgroups orcliques that operate somewhatindependently.


Doug: What to do with key staff

Find who others follow and figure out howto lead them.

Work with them to lead together. If you can’t lead or work with them then

see if you can follow. Join their cause. Do them unexpected favors so they will

see you in a good light. As a leader you may be criticized or

treated badly by key people. Do notrespond in kind. Take the high road andwear them down with kindness.


Doug: Determine who is loved andrespected

Every school has people who maynot be leaders but who are widelyloved and respected.

Make sure you love and respectthem as well. Take care of thesepeople.

Better yet treat everyone with loveand respect.


Doug: Law of the few for students

Student salesmen are key to the qualityof a school environment.

These students are liked and respected byother students for reasons that may notbe obvious to adults.

Such students who behave badly can selltheir behavior to others. They include thecool kids who smoke and sell thisbehavior to others.

Figure out who they are and work to reignthem in. Stop small problems before theyspread or turn into big problems.

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