The Tipping Point

Week 6 Questions

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.

There are three teachers in our school who are mavens.  They are always coming up with new ideas for teaching and they share those ideas with fellow teachers.  They are the ones who willingly teach the workshops that we have in-house.  We don’t have any major connectors but we have several teachers who have lived in Lamar for most of their lives and know lots of people.  They generally know who to contact when questions need to be answered.  Our school is not full of salesman.  I know one teacher who is pretty persuasive.  We do have several members of our local who are good salesmen.  They are the ones I would turn to if I needed a salesman.

How would you use the theories in this book to build membership in your Local?   I would be Mark Alpert.  I also like to use my knowledge to share with others.  I would use my school’s personal story to convince people that it is imperative to join the union.  Our school went through a really difficult time a few years ago.  We all filed grievances and asked for transfers.  I still have a copy of all those grievances.  I would show the two-inch pile to newcomers and explain how important the union and their lawyers were during that year.  I’m not sure we would have all survived it without their help.  I am one of those people who get bored during sales pitches; stories make me sit up and listen.  I could help reach those people.  We would still need some salesmen and connectors to get the word out. 

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.

One thing would be to emphasize that we have an early sign-up for new members that gives them five free months of benefits.  To a teacher, that is important.  We could encourage them to try it for a year without a large financial burden.  That would be a way to get the teachers already on staff to try it out.  For new staff just coming in it may be different.  Since we are firing teachers right now, not hiring, I think the step above would be the best starting point.   Then, we would need the personal touch.  Sharing stories like the one I used in the last question might be the best way to reach the last few people.  If that doesn’t work for some people, we could send in the salesmen who might be able to reach them with their unique skill.

I do think that we need to be more of a voice in our district.  We haven’t had the need lately to be vocal about issues but right now with the budget crunch, I think we need to step up and be heard.  Our local is solid but fairly quiet.  I think a little horn-tooting would be an excellent start to get our local growing.