Malcolm Gladwell is a pop sociologist and staff writer at the New Yorker.

The Tipping Point is the level at which momentum for change becomes unstoppable. Gladwell provides numerous examples of things that changed suddenly and rapidly. For example, crime rates in Brooklyn, USA plummeted in the nineties, transforming some of the worst neighbourhoods in the country. For this sort of epidemic change to happen, Gladwell says, there are three important factors:

The Law of the Few: There are some people with a “social gift”. They have the ability to change society and can fall into any one of the following types:

• The Connectors are people who link us to the world. They have vast social networks that they can leverage. These people are curious, self-confident, sociable and energetic and have ‘the ability to span many different worlds’.
• The Mavens are people who connect us to information. They have a strong need to know and inform.
• The Salesmen are the persuaders. They can direct people towards a particular outcome by using their charisma and negotiation skills.

The Stickiness Factor: It isn’t just enough to find the right people to help create an epidemic. It is important to craft a message that is “sticky” and memorable. Often, the way that the Stickiness Factor is generated is unconventional and unexpected.

The Power of Context: People are a lot more sensitive to their environment than they might seem. If the environment or time is not right, it will not create an epidemic.  

The Tipping Point is filled with ‘case studies’ of epidemics of change accompanied by Gladwell’s entertaining and convincing arguments for them.

Other books the club has discussed: