Professor Arvan, thank you for the example on that précis. I’m changing my idea up a bit, so I made a repost.
I still plan to do my book review on The Tipping Point, but rather than use one elaborate example, I think I will be better able to connect to the book via three (possibly more as I get to writing the first draft) different personal experiences. Tipping Point reinstates the idea that even though the world seems like an immovable place, effective change can happen. However, the effectiveness of the change depends on the type of person, message, and the environment in which it is contained. In a 5 page essay, I will explore these three concepts that cause a tipping point through examples from my personal experiences. Gladwell calls these ideas the Law of the Few, Stickiness, and the Law of Context.
The Law of the Few is an idea that there are certain types of people that can spread ideas. These are three different types of leaders. A couple years ago, I was a summer camp coordinator under the possibility of losing my summer job before it even began. In March, I received a phone call that there was no funding for the educational camp program. How would I find the right people/donors to solidify my job? My encounter with a connector (my direct supervisor) and salesman(the director of the foundation) is what allowed this to happen. My boss was able to provide me with connections to various businesses in the area, taking me around during Spring Break to meet these possible donors. With connections, I was able to spread the idea of the summer camp. I knew the concepts and was educated on the benefits of the summer camp, but it is the connector and salesman that helped me. I started with a few believers in the program, and with the right type of leaders was able to turn a community into believers. In my essay, I will elaborate on how the specific leadership skills of each type allows an idea to be spread. I will also relate this to topics in Gawande's Better, such as the polio immunizations led by one doctor. What made him so successful?
The Stickiness Factor will be discussed relating to my personal encounter with the message, “Never give up”. These three words were screamed out loud at my first high school tennis practice. Little did I know how much it would apply to my life--- not only in tennis, but in education and professional advancement as well. The simplicity and riveting motivation in the message allowed it to be easily spread. For the review, I will apply this idea to what Gladwell calls the “Stickiness Factor”. I will discuss what makes a message “stick” and show these properties in the phrase, “never give up”. I will also include thoughts from Bruner’s Process of Education: structure, application, and motivation matter. The reason this message stuck with me is because I was able to reap the benefits and learn from “never giving up”.
The Power of Context states that the environment surrounding a message is integral to whether it spreads or not. In my business fraternity, we have been able to mold the idea of brotherhood and professionalism into new members each semester. We are a close-knit group that benefit from a mutual relationship. Each semester, new pledges have no idea what it means to be in a business fraternity. By the end of the semester, they have the same understanding of all the older actives. Why, in one semester, can pledges gain such a quick understanding of brotherhood and professionalism? The answer to this question lies in Gladwell’s idea of “an ideal environment”.
For our class project, we hope to design change. But what is going to make this change effective is its tipping point. Throughout the essay, I would like to intersperse various ideas from class and other books that apply to the examples provided. To conclude my essay, I would like to include my personal thoughts on why this book is so integral to any project we may pursue. To be successful in our culminating project, we are going to need to understand the who, what, and how. The diverse group of leaders that we are as a group is what is going to give us power to spread a simple idea. The preparation of the semester is going to help us in creating the “stickiness” of the idea. But understanding the environment, reacting to it, and taking that feedback is what is going to take us to the tipping point.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is much better as a precis. Thanks for the redo. Let me make a couple of suggestions that might make you scratch your head for a bit, but I hope will improve the ultimate result.
ReplyDeleteThe first is to ensure a good balance between what you say about the book under review and what you say about your own experience. If it is too much of the latter then it ceases to be a book review and turns into autobiography. So in choosing the number of examples, make sure you don't short change the book itself.
The other thing is that the examples really need to line up with the ideas of the book. The Tipping point is about how innovation spreads. For the example with the summer camp, after you secured the first donation did that help you get the second? If not, then I would say your supervisor and the foundation director acted as brokers, which is a somewhat different role than Gladwell talks about. If the early success helped, then you will need to elaborate on that in how you write it up. The tighter the connection you can make, the more interesting the read.
Please proceed now to your first draft.