The Tipping Point

Book Study Questions - Week 6

Who do you know in your school that is an example of a connector, maven or salesman? Perhaps you are one of them. Give specific examples w/o necessarily using their names.

We have a retired teacher who taught at our school and lived in the community for 36 years. Not only is she familiar with all of the students, but she even had some of their parents as students. She is well respected and seems to know everyone who was and is a part of the community. She is someone I would consider as a connector.

The person I would consider at our school to be a maven is not an elementary teacher. She took on the task of running and overseeing our reading program. She works hard and studies about what we can do to help and improve our students. She is very knowledgeable about many different programs, lessons, ideas and many other concepts that motivate the teachers and the students. She is willing to share her knowledge and help in any way that she can.

I believe that a few administrators serve as perfect examples of salesmen. When they have a concept or program that they want implemented in the classroom, they try to "sell" the concept or program to the teachers. They talk about it positively and in a way that makes it seem like a good idea. Active engagement is a concept that our school is really keen on and all opportunities are used to try and reinforce (or sell) this concept.

How would you use the theories in this book to build membership in your Local?

There are some theories from this book that would help build the membership. Ideally, I think having members that mirror Gladwell’s concepts of Connector, Maven, and Salesmen would be beneficial. The Connector would know most of the people who could become members, the Salesman could "sell" them on concepts as to why it would be important to join, and the Maven could research and stay up to date on pertinent information that would help the members. Similar to what made the Ya-Ya Sisterhood tip, if information could be presented to a group in a way to make the information "stick" then the number of people to spread the information through word of mouth would be greater than a single person trying to spread the word. If the information is not "sticky" then a simple change in the presentation and structuring of information will make a big difference in how much of an impact it makes.

Now do it... build a Local membership plan for your school district. Using Gladwell's theories and principles, show us a comprehensive action plan for the upcoming school year.

The first thing would be to let non-members know about the benefits and advantages of the local membership through flyers or word of mouth. If they have known about the association and have decided not to join then the association should be advertised in a new light. It should follow the direct advertisement concept by trying to get the most feedback from the people reading it. This is also when I would use the connectors, maven, and salesmen to try to encourage members to join. Members who are connectors could use their knowledge of people to try and get familiar people to join. Then, the mavens could provide those with questions or who are wavering with information to pull them in. The salesmen could persuade those that are still unwilling.