Anatomy of a Growth Epidemic

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell teaches about how little things can make a big difference in any type of epidemic. I’m interested at seeing how this applies to a an epidemic of personal and social growth. Let’s look at some of the principles from Gladwell’s epidemic model and apply them to growth and development.

Gladwell points out that epidemics have three characteristics. Contagiousness, little causes and big effects, and their rise and fall in a single moment.

The way the internet works today is very important to contagiousness. Things are spreading constantly like mini epidemics. Social media services like Digg were practically built on that concept. Ditto for Twitter. The blogosphere too. Information digitized is very contagious.

Growing consciously is all about little causes and big effects rising and falling iin the moment.

Lets explore Gladwell’s three rules for epidemics and how they apply to conscious growth.

Stickiness

Stickiness is the ability of a message to spread. If something is able to spread quickly it’s sticky. If it isn’t it’s not. Is growth sticky? Absolutely. Change is sticky. Especially positive change. Barack Obama’s political campaign in 2008 really took advantage of that. The stickiness is built right in to the message. People want to their lives to be better. Most of the highly conscious people I’ve met want the world to better too. I went to Steve Pavlina’s Conscious Growth workshop a few weeks ago and one of the phrases I heard a lot was changing the world. The inherent stickiness comes from the fact that many of us realize that the world isn’t nearly as good as it could be right now. There’s this want to make things better not just for ourselves but for everyone on the planet and there’s a great opportunity right now to do that. At an individual level we want our lives to be better. At a social level we want everyone’s lives to be better. Change is the stickiness of a growth epidemic.

The Power of Context

The power of context tells us that our environment and groups of people play a big role in what we do. What is the context of growth? Our environment isn’t in good shape right now. My immediate world is in ok shape right now, but things could be a lot better globally. People in other parts of the world are not as fortunate as I am. People are unhealthy, starving, there’s wars going on, and the environment is deteriorating. I don’t like that. In the world I envision those things don’t happen. Those conditions and the awareness around them are invitations for change.

I’ll address groups in the next section, because there’s one group in particular that’s very important.

There’s power in that context. The world is good, but it could be much better. A growth epidemic has strong context.

The Law of the Few

The Law of the few says that there’s very specific people that start and cause epidemics. Gladwell identifies the few as the connectors, mavens and salesmen of society. Who are the mavens, connectors and salesmen in a growth epidemic? It’s growth related bloggers, and all bloggers in a sense, because a good blogger is all three of those things.

Connectors

One piece of advice given when starting a new blog is to find and occupy a niche. That’s exactly what a connector does. Gladwell says a connector is someone occupying the corners of society. There’s so many different blogs and bloggers out there talking about growth. Something really unique about blogging is that they all connect to one another. If one blogger reads another bloggers post, they link to it or post a comment on it. This is hardcore connecting going on through hyperlinking in cyberspace.

By blogging the bloggers get an audience. They get to know readers and readers get to know them. Connectors know lots of people and lots of people know them. A blogger is an excellent connector.

Mavens

A maven as defined by Gladwell is an info broker, someone who helps because they like to help. See the connection to blogging? Bloggers write about topics to get information into the minds of readers searching the googles all over the world. The majority of bloggers get nothing directly out of doing it. There’s internal rewards sure, and external rewards for very few, but even so they still do it.

Blogging is the fastest growing medium ever. There’s over 100 million blogs on the internet. 100 million! That means there’s about 100 million people just writing blogs. That doesn’t even count the people reading blogs. The nature of blogging is growth oriented. The most popular blogs are blogs that help the readers in some way. If you follow any blogs regularly ask yourself what you get out of them. You’ll come up with something, otherwise you wouldn’t be following it.

Salesmen

A salesman is a person who is intensely persuasive. It’s not that person tries to be persuasive, they just are. They naturally infect you in a positive way. The bloggers that you read, you read them because there’s something about them you like. You relate to them on some level. You allow them persuade you on things.

The nature of blogging is persuasive. Searching for something online is like allowing yourself to be persuaded. Giving someone permission to connect with you. Permission to teach you something you didn’t know. Most people come to blog articles through search engines, searching for a piece of information they need. When the blogger gives it to you in a way you appreciate you’re sold on them.

We’re seeing a lot of blogs these days with themes of change, and growth. A lot of websites talking about changing the world. The more people we see enter this conversation the greater chance of social development we have. Bloggers because of all of the things they do are sticky people.

I’m not saying that solely blogging will change the world. Blogging itself is just part of the puzzle, because in any epidemic including a growth epidemic…

Little Things Make a Big Difference

An epidemic is something small that spreads quickly into something big. So how do you do to create a personal growth epidemic in your life? How can we create a growth epidemic in society? How can we get the results we’re after?

In one of the most interesting parts of the Tipping Point Gladwell writes about how seemingly unrelated events make huge differences in epidemics looked at in the book. In New York City, public officials were able to curtail crime on the subway by arresting fare beaters at subway turnstiles and painting over graffiti on subway cars. They applied the same principle to the streets and began arresting people for public drunkenness and public urination.

These seemingly insignificant actions had a major effect. Crime in New York City dropped dramatically over the next few years after 1990. What about this can be applied to personal and social growth? There’s tiny actions adding up all over the world right now, and they all begin at the individual level.

The Broken Windows Theory

The Broken Windows Theory says that an environment with “broken windows” is a likely environment for more violent crime because broken windows give the impression that no one cares about the area. Broken windows can be anything eliciting neglect, not just glass.

In New York City the lesser crimes like fare beating and public urination were the broken windows that invited more violent crime like murder. By reducing the smaller crimes they greatly reduced the larger crimes. How can we apply this to personal growth?

Fix Your Broken Windows

Every event in your life, even seemingly insignificant events make a big difference. Every choice you make from the decision of what time you wake up in the morning to where you put your keys after you come home are important.

So what are some things you do that invite larger “crimes” in your life? Do you leave dirty dishes in the sink? Do you hold your tongue about something you really want to say to your boss? Or your partner? Do you leave your socks on the floor after you take them off? (I’m guilty of this one )

Maybe telling your partner you love them and giving them a hug one extra time per day will lead to a more fulfilling relationship. Over the course of 6 months that leads to 180+ hugs and I love you’s. It’s very possible that could make the difference between a successful and failed relationship. What’s one little thing you can do in your relationship to show your partner you love them and keep your relationship strong?

Where are the broken windows in your life? How can you begin to start repairing them? Maybe you can triple your productivity by picking your dirty socks up off the floor. Seems unlikely but is it totally impossible? Who knew curtailing violent crime in New York City could come from cleaning up graffiti and cracking down on public urination, but that’s what happened. Who knows? Something small might steamroll into something bigger.

To think more globally where are the broken windows in society? And how can we fix those?

The awesome thing about growth is that once you’ve repaired your own broken windows you can help other people repair theirs. Some of the windows you’ve already fixed on your own building will undoubtedly be broken on someone else’s. This gives you an opportunity to contribute, connect, help out, and further your own growth too.

Take Any Action

Remember, these actions aren’t necessarily related. In the previous paragraph I gave you an example where they were. Working a little on your relationship leads to a successful relationship. But maybe making your bed everyday will give you a more fulfilling relationship. Maybe getting 10 minutes of exercise everyday will make you a better relationship partner.

All the aspects of our lives are interconnected but we have a tendency to ignore this and compartmentalize areas. The food you eat can have an interesting effect on your mood and emotions. So can exercise. So can your job. And they all affect each other too.

The influences in my life at the time I’m writing play a big role in the type of article I write and how it’s written. If I’m reading a lot about a particular subject at the time it tends to show in my writing. I even notice that I subtly emulate the style of the writer after I’ve read a piece by a certain author.

This is actually a good thing, because when we focus on one area and compartmentalize it for a little bit, we actually improve other areas too. Focusing on your math skills might improve your writing or vice versa.

I’ve been writing a lot recently and I’ve found through writing that my reading comprehension is a little bit better than it was before. I’ve been moving through books faster than normal.

Experiment

A key is ability and willingness to experiment. Make a change and notice the feedback you’re getting. It could be emotional, spiritual, physical or it could come from another person. No action is too small.

Make a small change in your daily routine and notice how it affects the rest of your day. Write it down in a journal or text program. Even things that seem unrelated could possibly help. For example if you have a goal that you want to exercise everyday. Maybe watching less tv will help, or drinking more water throughout the day. It’s can be a little hard to tell, but you have to be willing to try anything to get the results your after.

It’s not necessarily that all of these little actions add up and produce a large result over time. That’s something I hear a lot, little actions add up and over time you will begin to see results, but that’s not the way it typically happens. It’s more like small actions lead you to take bigger actions. Those bigger actions lead you to take even bigger actions, and all of a sudden you’re seeing progress. That’s your tipping point.

Many of the very productive people I know of make their bed everyday. Most will scoff and say “oh well that doesn’t make you more productive” and you’d be right in saying that because there isn’t ONE thing. It’s many things.

We don’t usually see experimentation on a grander scale. Most people aren’t willing to experiment to create large social changes. The way our economic system works doesn’t make it any easier either. Having to make money can be a direct barrier in willingness to experiment. Many people aren’t willing to invest money they won’t ever get back. If something helps people but doesn’t appear to be profitable, the likelihood of it getting done is small. That’s a big reason we have more than enough food to feed everyone on the planet but there’s still plenty of people that go hungry.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Some actions might hold more weight than others but that doesn’t mean the ones that hold less weight aren’t important. This is a version of the FAE (Fundamental Attribution Error) from the Tipping Point.

Humans like to attribute effects to one major cause. We make blanket statements about what specifically makes us successful in an endeavor. Instead, it’s usually a lot of smaller causes and a few medium causes all together that produce a desired result.

When I want to stop idle web surfing (something that still bites me today) it helps when I realize I’m about to open up my browser for no conscious reason. Then I just stop. I just close the browser. That tiny little action caused me to think about what I really wanted to do. I might do some writing after that or go for a run. Does closing my web browser make me a better runner?

Here’s where we see the gray area. It’s hard to make an unrelated connection like that, but it is true that without closing my browser I might not have gone running. Closing my web browser had a little ripple effect through the rest of my day. So does closing my web browser make me a better runner? I say absolutely YES!

Your Tipping Point

When you have a sudden awareness of progress that’s your tipping point. It would be like if your interest rate went up every time you put money in the bank. You’d keep adding money to your account and your rate keeps going up. Keep adding the money and the rate keeps going up. One month you’d look at your bank statement and be a little surprised about all the money you’d banked. When you look at that bank statement you’d realize your finances tipped. All of a sudden crime in New York City drastically declined. Crime in New York City tipped.

The tipping point works like that in your personal life too. You’re exercising day after day. When you notice you’re looking a little thinner in the mirror you’ve tipped. It’s like an epidemic of your awareness. All of a sudden you’re just noticing all the progress you’ve made from the time you’ve been putting in.

September 2008 was a Tipping Point for financial markets. All of the inputs that went into the moment when the institutions collapsed had been going on for years. That one moment where it’s noticed is the Tipping Point.

Start an Epidemic Today

My challenge to you is to do just one thing right after you’re done reading this article. Anything. Just pony up and do it. Start a positive epidemic. Notice how it affects the rest of your day.
If you’re stuck for ideas here’s 20.

20 “Insignificant” Actions

1. Close your browser
2. Turn off the TV
3. Open a book
4. Read for 5 minutes
5. Go outside
6. Go for a walk
7. Go for a run
8. Do 1 pushup
9. Do some jumping jacks
10. Take out a pen
11. Send someone a hand written thank you note
12. Give a hug
13. Tell someone you love them
14. Say hi to a stranger
15. Play a game w/ your child
16. Call a friend
17. Throw away something unhealthy
18. Pick one piece of dirty clothing up off the floor
19. Write a sentence
20. Clean off your table or desk

The growth epidemic is already underway. I’m a part of it, and if you’re reading this you’re probably a part of it too. Keep doing the little things in your own life and make a big difference in society.

Note: I obviously heavily used Malcolm Gladwell’s material in this post. He is one of my favorite authors and hold all his work in extremely high regard. The Tipping Point is about 10 years old, but it’s still as relevant as ever. Buy the Tipping Point Here (not an Affiliate Link)

Did you like this article? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts!
____________________________________________________________

Like This Entry?
Get Tom’s Articles Free in a Reader!
Get Tom’s articles Free in your email!