Summer Reading Series: The Tipping Point - Ch. 3-4
July 18, 2008 – 5:00 pm
The two main concepts from Chapters 3 & 4 are the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. Being a Sesame Street fan I really enjoyed hearing about all the research that went into making it “stickier”. Its true what Gladwell says, no matter who you get to spread your message, it won’t last in the long one if it isn’t memorable. What’s interesting though is you don’t have to change up your whole message, just make little tweaks. While Gladwell has a thorough explaination of stickiness and how it worked for Sesame Street, Blues Clues and others, there isn’t a lot of ideas about how to apply it to other things. For that, I recommend checking out a book called Made To Stick, which the authors say was specifically inspired by this chapter of the Tipping Point.
The Power of Context, which is what Chapter 4 is all about, suggests that the environment, surroundings, or situation, play a role in determining actions. This is important on a lot of levels. One is, as Gladwell mentions, the way we view people. We need to be careful to take context into consideration when we make a judgement about a person’s actions (or maybe just not judge all together). The second thing to realize is that small changes to environments can change people’s performance. Schools, offices, homes, etc. may be able to be more productive with small changes to the environment. Its up to us to be creative to figure out what those changes are.
These are just a few things that jumped out for me, but as always, I would love to hear your thoughts as well.
-JH
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