This evening, I finished The Tipping Point, not a book you want to race through in a day or two. The book has sparked so many thoughts in my world about people, change, and progress, that I took my time to read it.
Malcolm Gladwell provided final thoughts that impact everything we do as people. He talked about how we have become more distant from the telephone and even refuse to answer, in sharp contrast to earlier years. He predicts that many of us are moving into the same space with email since our email is as much on overload as the telemarketers became on the phone.
He talks about the new (old?) way to spread information: word of mouth and suggests we will see increased impact from word of mouth in our organizations. He earlier defined three types of people who aid in this communication. Connectors introduce people to other people. (Connectors are easy to see and identify in your life.) Salesmen make a product or experience irresistable to you. (Salesmen are also fairly simple to identify.) His third type, the Maven, is harder to find and know and, in some ways, may be the most powerful of all for organizational change.
Maven, according to Gladwell, "comes from the Yiddish, and it means one who accumulates knowledge." Economists have studied Mavens to see how their knowledge, and most importantly, their drive to share what they know, has impacted market places.
I challenge us to think about how they impact organizational change. If word of mouth is the effective and continuing way to communicate, Connectors and Salesmen are important to identify. But, Mavens, accumulators of knowledge and driven to share, are the most powerful tool we have to affect organizational change.
Their identification is a priority if we wish to change organizational culture, affect employee motivation, increase productivity, adopt more disciplined approaches, and so forth.
After reading about the power of social epidemics, identifying these three types of people and utilizing their talents during strategic change is critical for success.
I remember, from earlier in the book, that only a couple of people delivered most of the letters to the doctor, in an experiment that demonstrated the six degrees of separation. Our Connectors, Salesmen, and Mavens, most particularly, are our change communicators.
The Tipping Point
Warmly,
Susan
11:51:06 PM
Mavens Are Your Messengers 
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