The Tipping Point Essay Example

In today’s job market it’s important to be able to distinguish yourself from everyone else. You have to be able to understand how your job works and how to be able to supervise and lead others. In the book, The Tipping Point, there are three types of people that have very specific skills and qualities that a supervisor should have. These types of people are what a supervisor should strive to be. If even one quality is adopted, it could very well change an average supervisor into a memorable leader.
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, is an in-depth analysis of what makes something get noticed and change dramatically. It could be when a city’s crime rate radically drops or when a shoe suddenly becomes popular. The name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once is the Tipping Point. (Gladwell, Pg. 9)
There are three characteristics of a Tipping Point. The first one is contagious behavior. (Gladwell, Pg. 7) Fashion trends are an example of contagious behavior. When Hush Puppies became popular, it wasn’t because someone told a bunch of kids that they were cool. A few kids simply wore the shoes to be different and, in doing so, exposed other people to their fashion sense. (Gladwell, Pg. 7) They infected others with the Hush Puppies “virus.” (Gladwell, Pg. 7)
The second characteristic is that little changes had big effects. (Gladwell, Pg.8) When a few kids decided to be different and wear shoes nobody else was wearing, they weren’t planning on making an unworn shoe popular. How many kids actually started this fashion epidemic? It’s possible a hundred, at the most. Yet their actions single-handedly created a fashion trend. (Gladwell, Pg. 8) The last characteristic is that these changes happen in a hurry. (Gladwell, Pg. 8) In New York City, the crime rate was around 650,000 per year from the mid-1970s until 1991. Then, all of a sudden, in 1992, it plunged. Crimes didn’t gently decelerate. It hit a certain point and