Book Review - The Tipping Point - How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point - Book Review

Book Review by Sarah Fowles, Communications Director, Connect Moms

I recently read The Tipping Point – How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. I had read it a while ago but wanted to read it with the filter of how can small things or small changes assist moms in the workforce and what would those small things be to ‘tip’ organizations into creating innovative and progressive work environments. The overarching message of The Tipping Point is that small things can make a huge difference. Whether it is in relation to epidemics, social causes or the marketing of a product it is often small changes or factors that can ‘tip’ something into the mainstream.

The book discusses in detail that in order for something to find it’s ‘tipping point’ there are a variety of styles of human interaction required. There are the Connectors, the Mavens and the Salesmen. The Connectors are the people that know a lot of other people and can spread the message as they know the ‘right’ kind of people, the Mavens are the people who are the experts in a certain area, they are not persuasive but they are able to educate and advocate and in turn spread the message and then there are the Salesmen. These are the people who have the personalities that attract people and they are engaging and persuasive.

I loved the story of the nurse, Georgia Sadler, who wanted to increase awareness of diabetes and breast cancer in the black community in San Diego. The context of how she was trying to deliver her message was not working. She needed to find a new way of getting the message out. She needed someone who was a little bit of all three of the personalities traits mentioned above: Connector, Maven and Salesmen. She “needed a new stickier way of presenting the information” and she did not have a lot of money to get her message out there. So she moved the campaign from meetings after church to beauty salons. She realized that the relationship between the stylist and the client was very special; a long term relationship. So she trained the stylists to transfer the message about breast cancer and diabetes in a compelling way that fit the environment it was being received in and it worked. Attitudes were changed and more women went for mammograms and diabetes testing.

So I began to contemplate what all this means to the issue of women feeling engaged in the workforce, so if they have children, they feel empowered to be able to go back to work. What are the factors that will tip workplace cultures to allow for innovative changes that recognize the needs of employees in all phases of their lives? What is the context that this message needs to be receive in order for it to stick?

If we look at the issues of working mothers and enabling new moms to feel able to come back to work perhaps we need to focus on the smaller issues of why new mothers feel disengaged from the workforce. Just as Gladwell discusses the removal of a small thing like graffiti in the New York subways tipped the presence of crime, can we focus on what seem to be small items that will end up making a big difference for working moms? And can we engage the Connectors, the Mavens and the Salesmen to ‘tip’ these changes into the mainstream?

So what are these smaller items? Well let’s look at the issues a mom faces when she has to navigate the path back into the workforce.

Number 1 - Childcare
Both parents are not working outside the home if childcare is not in place. For many Canadians living in urban centres the wait list for daycares can be up to 2 years. So when an employee let’s a company know that they are expecting, how about a policy that ensures there is an open conversation about childcare and if daycare is an option they are made aware of all the daycare facilities in their area and what there wait lists are. I would argue that most first time parents are not aware of the long wait lists that plaque this important sector.

Number 2 – Gradual Re-entry
Daycares do it, the school system does it, how about in the workplace. When a human being, whether 3 or 33, changes there pattern of activity so extremely there is obviously going to be an adjustment period. When a mom has spent the last year with her baby, attending mom & tots groups, learning to cope with her new existence as a parent, the thought of changing this routine and putting on a suit to head into the office is a daunting endeavor.

Would offering a two week gradual re-entry period be so difficult to implement into the corporate culture? Would this small change be a factor in ‘tipping’ the ratio of women who come back to work after starting a family?

Number 3 – Flexible Work Arrangements
While a flexible work arrangement can look and feel different in every organization the benefits of offering flexible work arrangements far out way the negatives. An important realization for companies is that an employee may not always be in need of a flexible work schedule but for certain key phases of their career a flexible schedule could make the difference of staying in a position or not. This is truly a missed opportunity. The loyalty that a fixed period flexible schedule creates is largely overlooked in North America. Placing an increased emphasis on results rather than face time can greatly facilitate the implementation of flexible work schedules.

These benefits are far more recognized in Europe. Many European countries realize the importance of looking at their employees from a holistic perspective. Human beings are not just about work. Mohammed Yunus, founder of the socially innovative Grameen Bank discusses in his book, Creating a World Without Poverty, how people are not just one dimensional as the existing form of capitalism expects. Rather we are multi-dimensional, fantastically multi-dimensional. I think it is time to see just exactly what the benefits and innovation in the workplace would be from building and reflecting on this multi-dimensional reality.