Last summer, I received as a gift a fascinating and thought-provoking book titled, "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell (2002). As I began to read the book, it dawned on me that many of the points the author raised could just as easily have some application to our daily lives as student union professionals.
What follows is an attempt to relate key elements of the book to our roles as managers, mentors, and change makers. In his introduction, Gladwell (2002) cites an example of the resurgence of use of those classic brushed-suede shoes, Hush Puppies, which was brought about in the mid-1990s by a small group of Manhattan fashionistas who "were wearing them precisely because no one else would wear them" (p. 5). Prior to 1995, sales of these shoes were down to 30,000 pairs per year.
In 1995, 430,000 pairs were sold, and the next year four times as many were sold. At some point in time, the shoes passed a point in popularity and they tipped. What we will explore in this article is what tipping means, how it happens, and how the concept applies to college unions.
Tipping of epidemics
One way to look at fads, trends, or the spread of ideas is to view them as epidemics, social epidemics. In epidemiology, the concept is that small changes will have little or no effect on a system until a critical mass is reached (McFedries, 2002). Then a further small change tips the system and a large effect is observed.
Using an example of a small child bringing measles into a classroom, Gladwell (2002) first broaches the three characteristics of epidemics. A child has measles and goes to school. In a matter of days measles has spread to all of the children in the classroom and those susceptible — nearly the entire class — catch the virus. Then, within a week or so, the outbreak dies out and these children will not catch measles again. The three traits of epidemics are contagiousness, that little causes can have big effects, and that change happens not gradually, but at one dramatic moment. It is this last example that has the most to do with the theory of tipping. As described in the epidemiology definition, is it is that moment when everything can change all at once.
For an epidemic to tip — that is, when it can be forced out of its steady state — these three agents of change must be brought to bear:
- The Law of the Few
- The Stickiness Factor
- The Power of Context
Why would college union professionals want to start an epidemic? A couple of reasons come to mind. Most of us manage some portion of a college union and are often responsible for implementing new programs and initiating change. There are a number of models that we follow to pursue these goals, but few people could assert that they work every time.
Tipping is about spreading the word, making sure it penetrates, and effectively changing culture. As leaders, or potential leaders, these are some of our primary objectives. And as college union leaders, this means impacting the lives of those who report to us and of the students who our unions touch each day. So if you could find someone in your organization whose effectiveness at spreading information is legendary (often known as the grapevine), that person might be able to assist you in getting the word out about your next strategic initiative.
But once that word gets out, if you can't get people to remember the message, your chances of success diminish. You need to find a way to make the message stick, to make it memorable. By paying careful attention to the construction of your message, you can increase its potential for being remembered and acted upon.
Equally, if not more important, is recognizing how physical and social context affects our behavior. Messages can be sent and made more memorable simply by altering the context we inhabit, whether that is space or relationships. As managers and residents of our own local ecosystems known as college unions, we have tremendous influence over the context that exists around us.
The Law of the Few
The Law of the Few postulates that in any given system or process, some people are considered exceptional. Through social connections, energy, enthusiasm, and force of personality, these people can spread the word and start the tipping process in motion.
An example of this can be found in American history. During the night of April 18, 1775, two riders set out on horseback to alert towns along the way about a surprise British attack (Gladwell, 2002). These two men were Paul Revere and William Dawes. Both carried the same message, but only Revere succeeded in making his message known and rallying others to act upon it. Dawes remains forgotten by history. What was it about Paul Revere that made the difference? Gladwell (2002) believes Revere was one of those "Few" people critical to social epidemics with a set of traits that separates them from the rest of us; they are Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.
The easiest way to describe a Connector is to think of the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." The idea behind this game is to try to link any actor or actress, through the movies they have appeared in, to the actor Kevin Bacon in six or fewer steps. The movie stars that link the beginning actor or actress to Bacon are Connectors.
Paul Revere was a Connector and thus his many connections made the message he was delivering travel farther and more effectively. When Connectors fixate on something and communicate that fixation to their acquaintances, it produces what we usually refer to as word of mouth: not me telling you and you telling someone else, but Connectors spreading the word to everyone in their Rolodexes.
Similar to the Connector is a Maven. We rely on Mavens to connect us to new information. Whereas a Connector is a people specialist, a Maven is an information specialist. Everyone knows an individual like this. If you need an opinion, whether it's the best Italian restaurant or what kind of television to buy, there is a Maven that you will seek out. These individuals are not just passive collectors of information; they are often obsessed with how to get the best deal or find the best product and with telling others about that information.
These two have important roles to play in the Law of the Few. The Mavens can be viewed as a data bank; that is, they provide the message. Connectors are like social glue; they spread the message. What is needed to complete the Law of the Few is a final group of people, the Salesmen, to convince us when we are unsure about what we are hearing.
Salesmen have the ability, through a powerful or persuasive personality or what we often refer to as charisma, to draw others into their own conversational rhythms and as a result dictate the terms of the interaction. This can come about through non-verbal cues, such as nodding your head up and down to reinforce that you want an answer to be "yes," and other subtle influences that can touch us emotionally. If you think of emotion as being contagious, you can begin to see how it is possible for people who can affect us emotionally, particularly in ways that we do not recognize, to convince us of the logic of their argument.
Our effectiveness as managers is enhanced by our ability to communicate our mission, our goals, and the parameters of change we hope to accomplish within and without our organizations. Often we think the most efficient way to communicate these messages is through an e-mail alert or announcements printed on our organization's stationery. What if we took the precepts of this part of "The Tipping Point" to heart, and instead identified within our organizations those few individuals who fit the profile of Connectors, Mavens, or Salesmen? Might we not begin the first part of the process of a word-of-mouth epidemic if we tried to communicate the message through them instead?
STICKINESSTo show the importance of "stickiness" Gladwell (2002) gives the example of an experiment at Yale University. Yale seniors were divided into groups and given two different seven-page brochures describing the dangers of tetanus, the importance of inoculation, and the fact that the campus health center was offering free tetanus shots. One set of the booklets was a "high fear" version, which described tetanus in dramatic terms and included gruesome photos and images of tetanus victims. The other was a "low fear" version where the risks were toned down and photos were omitted. When the results of a follow-up questionnaire were tabulated, all the students appeared to be well-educated about the dangers of tetanus with the "high fear" students indicating that they were more likely to go to the health center to get an inoculation. But few if any did, with less than 3 percent actually receiving an inoculation. What would cause highly educated students to disregard a well-described and remembered message? Could it have been a lack of stickiness? When the experiment was repeated, but this time with a map of the campus included with the student health center building circled on the map and times for the shots clearly listed, the inoculation rate increased to 28 percent with an equal number coming from the high and low fear groups. It is important to remember that these were seniors, and so would surely have known where the health center was. What worked in this case was a subtle change to the message that enabled the students to know how to fit the tetanus scenario into their lives, shifting the message from an abstract one to a practical and personal piece of medical advice. And once it achieved that level, it became memorable, or sticky. |
Tipping in your college union then becomes a matter of utilizing these forces to create epidemics. One example would be using a Connector to spread information about a strategic initiative or operational change that would have widespread impact within your staff. You could hold a series of staff meetings or print an article in your college union newsletter. We have all used these tools before and know how effective, or ineffective, they can be. But surely we all know at least one individual in the union who is renowned for his or her ability to spread the word.
As mentioned earlier, this is the person you think of first when you talk about the company "grapevine." This is your Connector. Invite that person to your office, or even better, for coffee in an informal and unthreatening setting, and use that time to elicit help in getting the word out. The person may not buy into your message as strongly or as positively as you would like, but the fact that your Connector will spread the word about your message means people will pay attention the next time you have something to say about it.
The Stickiness Factor
The Stickiness Factor takes up where the Law of the Few leaves off. Indeed it is one thing to locate the right individuals to spread your message, but just as critical is the content of the message. The specific quality that a message needs to be successful is the quality of "stickiness." Is the message, product, or service memorable? Is it so memorable that it can be a factor in creating change?
Stickiness is not a by-product of repeating your message over and over again. We are all familiar with this concept as it plays out in our daily lives. How many times have you seen the same commercial on television or glanced at the same ad in a magazine or newspaper? Do these messages stick because of the repetition? A common perception in advertising is that an advertisement must be seen at least six times for it to be remembered. People you interact with would begin to wonder about you if you repeated everything six timesr more to make it stick.
The key to any message or advertisement is to get the reader or consumer to stop, take note of the message, remember it, and then act on it. One way to do this is to deliver the message so that the individual being targeted becomes an interactive part of the message, a willing participant. In advertising this can be done by including a coupon or involving the participant in a hunt through the ad to find an inducement that yields a payoff.
By paying careful attention to the structure and format of your message, you can enhance its stickiness factor. As the Law of the Few states that any organization has a few unique people capable of starting epidemics, making something sticky does not require a complex message. You just have to find the right hook to make it memorable. If time is important, save them time. If an idea does not work the first time, do not throw out the whole campaign. Tinker on the margins with the presentation itself. Include a map, a box that needs to be checked off, or a puzzle to be solved. Pay attention to response rates and continue refining until you achieve the success you desire.
Physical context
The Power of Context is a fairly simple concept. Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places they occur. Paul Revere's ride was successful because the message was conveyed at night when most, if not all, of the people were at home and in bed. If someone wakes us up to tell us something, we will automatically assume the news is important. Imagine how ineffective it would have been if the ride had been made in the afternoon, when most people were running errands or working in the fields (Gladwell, 2002).
This concept of context is important when viewed as an impetus to change or engage in certain kinds of behavior. And this is particularly so for those who have responsibility for facilities or for creating an environment that others will inhabit. In a lengthy example built around the marked decline of crime in New York City during the 1990s, Gladwell (2002) refers to a theory known as "Broken Windows" to emphasize the importance of environment and context in altering conduct. Created by criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling, this theory postulates that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If broken windows, graffiti, and panhandling exist and are not repaired or discontinued, passersby will conclude that no one cares about the property or is in charge of its upkeep. Soon more damage will occur and an aura of disorder will spread. Thus, crime will become contagious. The tipping point for that epidemic is not a particular kind of person, like our Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen from earlier, but indeed is due to the physical surroundings.
To put an end to the crime epidemic it faced during this time, New York City made an aggressive effort to cleanse subway cars of graffiti as soon as they were tagged. Fare beaters, once left alone, were now pursued. With as many as 10 plain-clothes police posted at the worst stations, this group would arrest fare beaters one at a time and handcuff them on the platform until they had collected enough lawbreakers to justify a trip to the station. This sent a very public message that the police were now taking fare beating seriously. An epidemic can be reversed or tipped, if one pays attention to the smallest details of the immediate environment.
This theory can have powerful implications for the management of facilities and other environments. If you want to send a message to people that your college union will not tolerate vandalism, then act like it matters when it happens. If you want employees to care about their jobs and their surroundings, then pay attention when they make suggestions about improving their immediate environment. Small positive changes send a message that you care and that you want them to also care.
Social influences
A second part of the Power of Context is the critical role that groups play in social epidemics. When we are part of a group, we are all sensitive to peer pressure and other social norms that can sway us during the start of an epidemic. Small, close-knit groups have the power to magnify the epidemic potential of a message or an idea (Gladwell, 2002). This is best played out in the Rule of 150.
Evolutionary biologist S.L. Washburn (1973) is quoted in "The Tipping Point":
Most of human evolution took place before the advent of agriculture when men lived in small groups, on a face-to-face basis. As a result, human biology has evolved as an adaptive mechanism to conditions that have largely ceased to exist. Man evolved to feel strongly about few people, short distances, and relatively brief intervals of time; and these are still the dimensions of life that are important to him. (p. 177)
This promotes the Rule of 150, which has to do with our social capacity. Humans, as primates, have the biggest brains of all mammals and our neocortex is also huge by mammal standards. One thought is that the larger the neocortex, the larger the average size of the groups with whom we can live. British anthropologist Robin Dunbar (1992) has done work that estimates that group size can be based on the size of the neocortex region relative to the size of the brain for primates.
If you calculate this ratio for Homo sapiens, the group size is 147.8 or about 150. This represents the maximum number of individuals with whom we can have a genuine social relationship, the kind where we know who they are and how they relate to us. Examples of the unconscious use of the rule are seen in primitive hunter-gatherer societies from Australia to New Guinea to Greenland, where the average number of occupants of any given village is just under 150.
Closer to home is Gore Associates, makers of the Gore-Tex fabric and many other high-tech products. Gore operates with an unusual corporate philosophy, which includes a lack of titles (all employees are referred to as associates), organizational charts, budgets, and complex strategic plans. What they do adhere to is the Rule of 150. Whenever a department or manufacturing plant approaches 150 people in size, a new plant is built.
By maintaining the Rule of 150, keeping everyone in small teams, Gore is able to use peer pressure to produce efficiencies and spur creativity. The benefit of this kind of unity is that while existing inside a larger complex enterprise (the company as a whole), members of the local unit share a common relationship. This type of commonality can also utilize a concept known as "transactive memory" (Wegner, 1991).
Our memories nonetheless are not composed solely of the facts and figures inside of our heads. Our memories could also be said to reside in those who know us and remember us, or by those who have a knack or facility for keeping track of information we cannot quite seem remember. An example of these transactive memories is the fact that most of us don't memorize all of the phone numbers we need, but do memorize where to find them. We also store information with other people. In any relationship, one or more individuals are recognized as being the experts on certain subjects or hold knowledge (facts, figures, information) that can be retrieved just by contacting them. We do not have to memorize that particular bit of knowledge; we just need to know who to contact to get it.
The concepts of the Rule of 150 and transactive memory can be directly applied to our field. College unions exist as small divisions within a much larger enterprise (the university itself) and do not frequently exceed 150 employees in number. Our small size enables us to more effectively move new ideas and information around our organization, to tip from one person or one part of a group to the entire group. We can exploit the bonds of memory and peer pressure to reinforce the value of our mission, to find the expert on a subject when we need to, and if change is needed, to communicate why and how it will occur. Understanding the power of controlling context will enable you to start epidemics without having to locate a Connector, Maven, or Salesman, or without necessarily having to fine-tune your message to death.
Tipping in your college union
A final lesson of "The Tipping Point" is that as much as we would like it to be so, the world does not always operate in the fashion that we expect or anticipate. To have some impact through social epidemics, we have to understand that communication has its own set of contrary and counterintuitive rules. Gladwell (2002) best sums up how we can successfully initiate our own epidemics by having a
…bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus. This, too, contradicts some of the most ingrained assumptions we hold about ourselves and each other. We like to think of ourselves as autonomous and inner-directed, that who we are and how we act is something permanently set by our genes and our temperament. (p. 258)
If you take examples used in this article — Paul Revere's ride, the cleanup of the New York subway system, the Rule of 150 — you can begin to see that people are actually strongly affected by their immediate environment, its context, and the individuals that inhabit that space. And by using this knowledge you can identify those communicative few, re-work the message so that it is just a little bit stickier, and help to change the context of your surroundings. Who knows, you might just start an epidemic.