MALCOLM GLADWELL

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

March 5 at 7:30pm · Mountainlair Ballroom

Malcolm Gladwell is a former Washington Post reporter and is currently a staff writer for The New Yorker. He draws on his background in business, science, and medicine to present a bold new theory that explains how and why change – social, political, business, technological, etc. – happens so suddenly and unexpectedly.

Gladwell’s new book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, presents a new way of understanding change — illuminating how ideas, behavior, messages, and products sometimes behave like outbreaks of infectious disease. Currently a New York Times bestseller, The Tipping Point examines the “social epidemics” that surround us.

The genesis of the book came from Gladwell’s coverage of the AIDS epidemic for The Washington Post. The words “tipping point” come from the world of epidemiology and refer to the moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. Gladwell then began to search for tipping points in business and in social policy.

His goal is to show people how to start positive epidemics of their own. The virtue of an epidemic, after all, is that it spreads very, very quickly with very little input – creating widespread change. This makes it something of obvious and enormous interest to everyone from educators trying to reach students, to businesses trying to spread the word about their product, or to anyone trying to create a change with limited resources.

Gladwell applies “outside the box” ideas to familiar and timely fields. He has brought an original and provocative voice to subjects ranging from medicine and technology to marketing and management. In a talk before professional marketers, he might explain how the study of rumors by anthropologists can inform the creation of a successful advertising campaign. For an audience of corporate managers, Gladwell might discuss breakthrough research by neuroscientists on what kinds of group organization best promote cooperation and efficiency.

He has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and has spoken to dozens of business and civic groups, illustrating how The Tipping Point can create positive epidemics within organizations.