Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
Book Review by Adam Chan
Date of Review: 30th July 2007

Many turns of events appeared before our eyes. Under some unique situations, some have left us baffled with the unexpected outcomes. Events like upsurge in sales of a product, major shift in social behaviors like crime rates, ideas that spread like wild fire, subtle actions that influence the outcome of some milestone events, etc have demonstrated a underlying trend, discreet converging of certain patterns, the subtle presence of certain factors or law that exercise the unique yet silent forces on the outcomes. These elements when converged will produce nothing less than a cognitive revelation which would often alter the way we look at the world.
The book Tipping Point brings us into a realm that is hidden from our naked eyes and conscious mind. The discoveries made by Malcom Gladwell who is also the author centers around the unfolding factors driven by environment, decisions made by a group of unique individuals and some inevitable circumstances that contributed to causing certain events to tip in both upwards and downwards trend. The term Tipping Point is repeatedly used in the book to describe the sudden shifts in the studied events.
Understanding and appreciating the underlying principles would help us to view the unfolding events of the world with such interesting and alternate perspectives which is beyond what “thinking out of the box” could offer. For functions that primary focus is to reach out to masses, sending the message that would “stick” in the receivers mind has never been clearer and easier.
The book discussed in details the three rules of epidemics. How each rule contributed to the wide spread of an epidemic without launching a major effort to spark the chain of infection. It is about timing, amount, and certain unique individuals that come together arriving to the tipping point which launch the epidemic to an uncontrollable phenomenon. The three rules are:

In this review, each rule will be scratched on its surface to provide an adequate understanding of the interesting and alternate ideas behind them.

1. The Law of the Few

The Law of the Few highlights three characters each possesses a collection of unique attributes that creates the tipping point for an event.

They are the unique individuals who will initiate the word-of-mouth epidemic that will prepare an event to tip. They are charming individuals packed with amazing energy and exuberance, hardly able to contain these forces, seizing every opportunity to expand the energy to benefit those they know.

Connectors

They link us up with the world, they have huge social circles up to four or five times larger than the usual, they are connected to many others of all walks of lives, they have a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances, they remember most of their friends by names and faces. They will help you to get a piece of news to masses, to people who matters too. Nobody will do a better job in starting a word-of-mouth epidemic.

Salesmen

Extremely persuasive, is capable of selling anything that would sell. Exhibit a kind of natural exuberance. It is not only what they are capable of saying that determines how persuasive they can be. It is the energy, charm and likeability projected that make them who they are. They possess a knack of subtle persuasiveness consists of facial expressions and body languages that exercise their influence unobtrusively but certainly to the audience, convincing the audience in the most natural way they feel but the true reasons are far from being natural.

Mavens

A word comes of Yiddish which means one who accumulates knowledge. They are most sought after by economist because of their discernment in the fluctuations of markets. They can tell you where the finest restaurant to dine at in an area he doesn’t live in. In addition they can recommend what is the best item on the menu that will get you the best value for its price. The latest gadgets are always on top of their head and they will narrate the major feature without missing a beat. They are also the same group of people who would complain about dodgy sales discounts carried out by retailers that are oblivious to most shoppers but it will never escape their eyes. They are more than glad to offer help in your shopping, deciding on an investment plan and most rewarding to them is making connection between people and the market place.

2. The Stickiness Factor

Most major marketing effort would involve launching it with a bang, occupying all available prime time slots, placing ads in every possible widely circulated journal and seeking for the hottest celebrities for endorsement and more.

To all marketers, what is obvious or loud gets remembered. The stickiness factors discussed in the book is in contradictions to all marketing bibles and rules. Stickiness factors are concern with the content of the message and a specific quality in the message that makes it “sticky” also determines its success in getting into people’s heads, staying in there and arousing them to act in a certain way intended by the message.

Unexpectedly, the elements that make a message sticky are usually small and as seemingly trivial. This idea is hardly acceptable to most marketers but there are enough successful stories to demonstrate the validity of this concept.

What sticks gets remembered and acted upon. The production of the children television Muppet show, the Sesame Street clearly demonstrated by leap and bound the importance of stickiness. In late 60s, Joan Gantz Clooney wanted to spread literacy to children of disadvantaged homes, impart pro-learning values to the children and their families to counter the epidemics of poverty and illiteracy. She may not know anything about what stickiness is but with every conceivable idea, concept and method developed then have everything to do with the stickiness factor.

Long before the conception of Sesame Street, education experts have been casting doubts in the ability for a television program to educate a kid. Education is should be interactive and filled with engagement between the educators and learners. A television set is liken to be a “talking box” seated passively, waiting for viewers to engage it. Watching a television program is considered as “low involvement” by education experts.

Through studies, the creators of Sesame Street discovered that most kids have a common television viewing behavior. In brief they found out what and when the kids would watch and why they don’t by observing them watching the program. The many studies conducted have helped them to determine what sticks and what don’t. For example kids like cute animals and that leads to the birth of BIG BIRD. When adults appear in the show, children loose interest and such segments have been reduced. Equipped with the information, the creators are able to pay careful attention to the structure and format of the material thus making the program a great success.

3. The Power of Context

During the 1980s, New York City averaged well over 2000 murders and 160,000 serious felonies yearly. Conditions in there can only be described as chaotic. In the subway, there is never a piece of clean wall spared from graffiti, in the train carriages were repeated thick coats of paint representing mobster’s expressions. Train derailment was common as weekly affairs and track damages were so rampant that many sections of such track could only allow train speed of 15 miles per hour to remain safe. Fare beating by jumping over the turnstile was a common culture that resulted in loss of revenue of up to $150 million annually by the Transit Authority. By the end of an decade, harassment of riders by panhandlers and petty criminals were so pervasive that the ridership the trains has sunk to its lowest in subway history.

It seems like New York City is on route to a downward spiral into a bottomless pit. Without warning, from its all time high crime rate in 1990, the crime epidemic tipped. Murders were reduced by two-thirds and felonies were cut half suddenly. This trend continues into the end of the decade where felonies were reduced by 75%.

The third rule, The Power of Context looks into the conditions and circumstances of the times and places which is sensitive to starting an epidemic.

One could argue the reduction in crime rate is likely to be linked to the recovery of America’s economy. As the city became affluent, more jobs are available and with stable incomes the crime rates dropped. It is easy to understand that falling crime rate due to such reasons happen gradually. However, the decline in New York City is anything but gradual. Something must have played a role in tipping the crime rate.

As the Power of Context looks into conditions and circumstances, likewise for New York City the convergence of some conditions and circumstances happening during the period must have caused the tipping of crime rate. The Broken Window theory by two criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling adequately described the phenomenon in New York City. They argued that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a broken window is left unrepaired, people walking pass it will soon conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon more windows will be broken thus sending a signal of anything goes. This is the start of other more serious crimes that follow. In a city, seemingly trivial problems like graffiti, panhandling, fare beating, they are the equivalent to broken windows.

Crime is contagious; it can spread like any common flu. Stamping crimes is not about having wider deployment of law enforcers and stricter regulations. Building this “tighter” conditions and circumstances will not tip the crime rate. George Kelling was engaged as a consultant to the Transit Authority and he promptly applied the Broken Window theory to the dire situation. In addition, David Gunn was appointed as subway director to overseas to multi-billion dollar project to rebuild the subway system. Immediately he was advised to focus on big issues like subway reliability and safety. Gunn insisted otherwise; he said,” The graffiti was symbolic to the collapse of the subway.” In order to rebuild the morale of the subway system, the war against graffiti needs to be won. Painstakingly Gunn ordered the setting up of cleaning stations and every vandalized train must be cleaned before it can be back in service. Where longer time is needed to clean the mess, it will be taken out of the service until it is cleaned. The idea is to send a resolute message to the vandals. In all, the graffiti clean up took place from 1984 to 1990.

At that point, Transit Authority hired William Bratton to head the transit police as the second stage of subway rebuilding. Bratton too subscribe to the Broken Window theory. At the height of subway crimes, he decided to tackle fare beating crimes as oppose the more severe ones. Bratton believes fare beating is like graffiti, a small expression of disorder that invited much more serious crimes.

An estimate of 170,000 people enter the subway daily and the sheer numbers presented many ways were evolved to fare beat e.g. jumping over the turnstile, leaning backwards on the turnstile to force through it. A few successful fare beating attempts would be adequate to invite the unlikely suspects to join in the fare beating culture. Since they aren’t paying, why should I? Epidemic starts in such a manner.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that fare beating is not easy to fight. Only $1.25 is at stake and this tiny amount doesn’t seem worth the administrative and investigative effort to pursue. Bratton choose the most severe “fare beated” station to begin the fight. Each arrest is carried out in the public and the suspects are chained to a daisy chain on the platform until they have a “full catch”, thereafter they are hauled to the nearest station. The intended high visibility of the arrests serves to send a clear stance taken by the transit police with regards to fare beating.

To speed the process, Bratton refitted city buses and turned them into rolling station house, all equipped with sufficient office facilities to process the many arrests. Bratton also insisted on crime record tracing to done on every suspect. They quickly discovered one out of seven has criminal records and one out of twenty was carrying some sort of weapon. It is now evident to the transit policemen, tackling fare beating make good sense after all.

Conclusion

The world, as much as we want it to, does not accord to our intuition. We have trouble estimating dramatic, exponential change. We cannot also conceive that a piece of paper folded over 50 times can reach the sun. There are many things we see as face value and many would also focus on the obvious and conventional.

The three rules discuss in Tipping Point challenges the way we frame the world, they give us discernment in sensing the underlying and subtle forces that would tip an epidemic in both ways.

The Law of the Few; connectors, salesmen and mavens will spread your words and ideas like a wild fire, also to those people that matter. The Stickiness Factor uncovers what content will stick in people’s head, driving them into actions. The Power of Context addresses the conditions and circumstances that help tip an epidemic. Bonding all three rules in a single application, one could imagine the enormous potential it can surface and the success rate it can elevate.

Last but not least, what underlies a successful epidemic is the bedrock belief that change is possible, people can radically change their behaviors and beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus. This too directly contradicts some of the most ingrained assumption we hold ourselves and each others. That is what Tipping Point is all about.