Title: The Tipping Point

Recommendation: 8.7/10

Summary:

The power of storytelling as a method of engaging your audience has been most impressed upon me by Malcolm Gladwell, one of the best storytellers of our time.

He answers questions around tipping points, how they occur in everyday life, what causes them, who causes them, and how you might go about creating them, with fascinating stories that challenge your preconceived perceptions.

Every tipping point needs three key elements:

The Law Of The Few: (Who)

Connectors – Those with large networks.

Mavens – Those who share what they know.

Salesmen – Those with charismatic and powerful negotiating skills.

Stickiness Factor – What makes something memorable. (What)

The Power Of Context – How human behavior is influenced by surroundings. (When)

Highlights:

The Six Degrees of separation doesn’t mean that everyone is linked to everyone else in 6 steps. It means that 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 these special few. (this is reaffirmed in Seth Godin’s Purple Cow)

The smoking and suicide epidemic started the same way – a very small group of people with extraordinary influence.

The factor that above all else predicts helping behavior is how many witnesses there are. When people are in a group their responsibility for acting decreases.

Photo by Milad B. Fakurian on Unsplash.