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

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The following post was written by Fairy Godmother Nancy Cadjan, Founder of Sign Babies and Host of Babies and Moms Radio. Nancy will be presenting at our StartUp Princess September Networking Tea Party, “Transform Your Business into an Idea” in Provo, Utah. 

The Tipping Point is that dramatic moment when little causes drive the unexpected to become expected and propel the idea of radical change to certain acceptance. It could be considered a social epidemic because it requires contagious agents to spread the message, sticky ideas, and an environment allowing the epidemic to spread.

For The Tipping Point to occur, Malcolm Gladwell isolates four things that must happen:

The Law of the Few
The Stickiness Factor
The Power of Context and Groups
The Law of the Few

In today’s world, word of mouth appeals are the only kind of persuasion that most of us respond to anymore. The success of any social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts. These are:
• Connectors: These people have a special gift for bring the world together. Gladwell says that there are a very small number of people are linked to everyone else in a few steps, and the rest of us are linked to the world through those special few.
• Mavens: These people are information specialists who know everything about certain things. Mavens want to share what they know which turns out to be an effective way of getting someone’s attention. Additionally, Mavens are databanks of information.
• Salesmen: These are the people who can persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing by using non-verbal persuasion (not necessarily intentionally).
In order to get any idea to become an epidemic, you must have the help of these three groups.

The Stickiness Factor
To become an epidemic, something also has to have “stickiness.” When considering how “sticky” something is, you must consider:
• How retainable is the idea or desired behavior?
• Is it memorable?
• Is it practical and personal (how the idea fits in a person’s life)?
• Is it novel?
• Is there a “simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible?
The more “sticky” an idea is, the easier it is to translate to other people.

The Power of Context and Groups
Behavior is a product of social context. For example, in an unkempt environment, people are more apt to misbehave than in formal settings. This is known as the broken windows theory. You can change the way people behave just by changing their environment. For example, violent crime in NYC was curtailed by cleaning up graffiti and petty crime on the streets. If you can get your idea in the right context, it can benefit from the context and take off.

Groups play a critical role in social epidemics. In a group, we are more susceptible to peer pressure and social norms. And the skillful use of group power can spread a new idea. Groups are an environment where new beliefs can be practiced, expressed, and nourished. Small-close knit groups are the most powerful in this regard (the max number of members in a group that a person can easily remember is 150—larger groups lose cohesion). So, in order to coordinate one contagious movement you often have to create many small movements first.

Ideas for StartUp Princesses
1. Building a word-of-mouth epidemic requires focusing resources on your core innovators: the connectors, mavens, and salesmen in your area.
2. Find what is “sticky” about your concept or product.
3. Make sure your idea is in the right context and if you can, help create small groups that can support it.
Personal Note: In the last 5 months, I have started an internet radio show for moms with children from birth to 3 years. We started with a few listeners and now have 1 million weekly listeners. Our show Tipped so fast because we were able to use word-of-mouth and had some connectors and mavens to help us. We also found a very “sticky” topic and put it in the right context—on the Internet and in iTunes where moms can listen anytime they want. We are working now on a way to create small groups of women who can support each other and take Babies and Moms Radio further and help even more moms.

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