I hope I have encouraged people in business to expand the way they make sense of human behavior. Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell has published three books in the past nine years, and they all have been best sellers. In all three books he sets out to demonstrate how there are predictable patterns associated with success and by understanding those patterns, you can control or influence them. The Outliers is about the success of individuals, Blink is about the success of snap judgments, and The Tipping Point is about the success of ideas and messages. I believe what makes Malcolm’s books best sellers is that, of course, he picks topics of great interest to people, but more importantly he lays out the points that he is trying to demonstrate through a variety of very compelling stories. His books are interesting because of the concepts and because of the stories that he uses to support those concepts. Here are some examples . . .
In The Outliers, he shows how the success of individuals results from the steady accumulation of often arbitrary advantages. One of the examples he provides deals with hockey teams, where junior league teams are formed based on age groups. Children within the same age group who are born earlier in the year have a great maturity advantage over those born late in the year. As a result, the more physically mature players emerge as strong performers and that strong performance continues to be reinforced over time.
In Blink, he shows how situations and relationships can be broken down into identifiable and predictable patterns. By recognizing these patterns, you can make highly accurate predictions based on very limited information. One example that he shares is about a professor at the University of Washington who can predict with 90 percent accuracy whether a couple will still be married 15 years later simply by observing a 15 minute conversation.
In The Tipping Point, he shows how small things can make a big difference. One of his examples is how a major epidemic of violent crime in New York City was reversed simply by increasing the focus of policemen on minor quality of life crimes, such as littering, graffiti, and sneaking on the subway without paying.
If you would like to read more about the themes in each of Malcolm’s three books as well as the themes that are common across his three books, please enter your first name and e-mail address in the box to your left to receive a copy of the Malcolm Gladwell Trilogy.
Malcolm’s book are a great demonstration of the power of storytelling, which is emerging as one of the most important communication skills of the future because stories tap into both our heads and our emotions. In future Blogs I will be talking more about storytelling and its power.
Tags: Blink, making predicitions, malcolm gladwell, patterns of success, snap judgments, The Outliers, The Tipping Point
