Concepts from the Tipping Point - A Connector is a person who knows lots of people and can connect you to them...

Great resources for Networking and for Spreading your Memes

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From the President's Night Table – Jonathan N. Tobin, PhD

Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (NY: Little, Brown, 2000). See also www.gladwell.com

Good things come in small packages! Recently a colleague recommended this book to me. What sounded to me like a self-help or personal enlightenment book, is actually the application of epidemiological principles to a series of social observations about patterns of influence and how these relate to social contagion. The Tipping Point is an enjoyable and quick read with current examples that are very relevant to practicing clinicians.

According to Gladwell, "ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do" and The Tipping Point is "one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once…" In order to spread an innovation or idea, "social epidemics…are driven by the efforts of a handful of exceptional people…[who] finds out about the trend, and through social connections and energy and enthusiasm and personality spread[s] the word…"

For Gladwell, there are three rules of epidemics which correspond to three agents of change: the “law of the few,” the “stickiness factor” and the “power of context.” The “few” include: “connectors” - individuals who ”…know so many people and belong to so many worlds…that they are able to spread a piece of information…a thousand different ways, all at once." Next is the “maven” who "solves his own problems by solving other people's problems.” Finally, the “salesman” wants to influence others, and is a persuader with enthusiasm, charm, and likability.

For the few to affect the many, the “stickiness factor” must also be present. Messages can be "small & trivial" and a "simple way to package information…under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible.”

Finally, the power of context acknowledges that "human beings are a lot more sensitive to their environment.” Drawing from diverse case studies, such as Methodist and Hutterite communities, and the business organization of the Gore-Tex Corporation, Gladwell deduces a magic number of 150 as the optimal group size: "…above that point, there begin to be structural impediments to the ability of the group to agree and act with one voice."

Gladwell’s book is ultimately optimistic about how "human communication has its own set of very unusual and counterintuitive rules” and that "[what] underlie[s] successful epidemics … [is the] belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus.”

While the analysis is deceptively simpleWhile the analysis is deceptively simple, the questions remaining to be explored are how epidemiology and clinical practice can do better at earlier identification of harmful (or helpful) epidemics, and how we can produce better methods for encouraging people to make healthier lifestyle choices. Reading The Tipping Point can be one small step in a larger process that can ultimately result in big changes for the health care we provide to our patients.  In each of us, there is some of the connector, maven and salesperson.  The challenge is to use these qualities consciously and rationally to help those whom we care for in order to facilitate small but important changes which can result in improving the health and well-being of the body, family, community and society., the questions remaining to be explored are how epidemiology and clinical practice can do better at earlier identification of harmful (or helpful) epidemics, and how we can produce better methods for encouraging people to make healthier lifestyle choices. Reading The Tipping Point can be one small step in a larger process that can ultimately result in big changes for the health care we provide to our patients.  In each of us, there is some of the connector, maven and salesperson.  The challenge is to use these qualities consciously and rationally to help those whom we care for in order to facilitate small but important changes which can result in improving the health and well-being of the body, family, community and society.

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