Finding the Tipping Point

A very interesting read for times like these.

Last week I just finished reading Malcom Gladwell's 25 year update to his bestselling The Tipping Point. The subtitle for this volume is "Overstories, Superspreaders and the rise of social engineering." And yes, you should be paying attention to all of these.

He calls this book: "A new set of theories, stories, and arguments about the strange pathways that ideas and behaviour follow through our world."

Who creates a social epidemic?

In short, we do. And it is time to acknowledge our own role in creating them -- all the subtle and sometimes hidden ways we try to manipulate them. That's what he writes in the introduction.

 If you've been with me for very long, you know I repeat these two ideas in many different forms:

• We live in a story and that means we can change it.
• It's time to take back the power of your own story, in fact it's one of the most subversive things you can do.

Right now, with an active assault on dignity, personal freedoms and unity that's trickling (flooding?) around the world, it is tempting to feel powerless. But remember, each of us has the power of story at hand and this is a powerful resistance.

The Magic Third

I want to cover this first point Gladwell makes in this edition of the newsletter. I discovered this tipping point myself more than 20 years ago working on a merger process. I asked my team: "How many people throughout the whole system would need to be personally involved for everyone to come on board?" They said: "One third."

I've asked in other projects too, and each time, the common wisdom that was that if 30% of people were engaged, that idea would spread rapidly.

This is exactly what Gladwell suggests -- around racial diversity in cities, around the number of women in the boardroom, around racial diversity in universities, and so on. Somewhere between 25 and 30% is the tipping point where the balance changes.

When I'm working with people who want to attend an Art of Hosting training I also encourage them to think in threes. If you come alone, you won't have much opportunity to work in the way we suggest. If there are two of you, you have a practitioner mate. If there are three of you, there's a team.

Remember -- when you stand alone, there's just one opinion. When you stand together with someone else, you have support and strength. When you are three or more, you make a field that can call in change.

(...and do consider reading this book or listening to the audio book. Gladwell is a superb storyteller!)

What action will YOU take?

It is good to remind yourself in times like these that the stories you tell yourself are the ones that matter most.

If you tell yourself fearful stories you not only become awash in fear, you also start to debilitate your ability to make a conscious choice and you also weaken your body.

A good way to change the storyline is to come together with others who can remind you to keep discovering what's possible.

See Part 2 here.