[BONUS EPISODE] Mom On Purpose Book Club: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Ever wondered how a single idea, product, or behavior can suddenly become a widespread phenomenon?

My journey with "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell took an unexpected turn when I finally tuned into the audiobook, narrated by Gladwell himself. This experience completely altered my understanding of how small actions can ignite major social changes. 

Today on the Mom on Purpose Book Club, we talk about Gladwell's seminal work, discussing the interplay of connectors, mavens, and salespeople who shape our world.

Join me as we also tackle the power of context, not only in broader society but in the intimate setting of our homes, and how this understanding can empower us as parents to navigate family life more effectively.

What you'll learn:

• Ideas from Malcolm Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point" about how small things can make a big difference in society
• People like Paul Revere who started big changes in society
• How the situation we are in can affect our behavior
• The 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' idea about how everyone is connected in some way

Featured on the Show: 

• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
• Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• Darley and Batson: Good Samaritan Study
• The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

Click HERE to watch this video to learn The 3 Things to Avoid When Reading Self-Help Books

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Transcript

Welcome to the Mom On Purpose podcast. I'm Lara Johnson, and I'm here to teach you how to get out of your funk, be in a better mood, play more with your kids, manage your home better, get your to do list done and live your life on purpose. With my proven method, this is possible for you, and I'll show you how.

You're not alone anymore. We're in this together.

All right, welcome everybody to the Mom On Purpose book club. This is really fun. Today we are doing the Tipping Point so you can even see, like the secondhand sticker, that I bought this. I was just telling everybody I bought this years ago and I've wanted to read it. It says The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, and it's by Malcolm Gladwell. 

Malcolm Gladwell is a very famous author. I think one of his most famous books is outliers, where he talks about what makes people successful how to be an expert. If you've ever heard that phrase like I don't have 10,000 hours, yet you have to have 10,000 hours in order to be an expert that comes from Malcolm Gladwell. It was funny because I was listening to the audible. You know finishing listening to it this morning, when I was at physical therapy and my physical therapist mentioned. Oh, like I love Malcolm Gladwell. I listened to his podcast all the time and so we started talking about it and I was like, do you actually know his background? He's like I have no idea. 

So, he pulled up like the Wikipedia on Malcolm Gladwell and he like graduated in history but he's like one of in the business sphere, one of like the most renowned authors. I believe. Like every like in the business space, a lot of people reference him and then to find out that he had just a mess or just an undergrad in history. His dad was a mathematician, and his mom was a psychologist, something like that. I can't remember, I always get all those mixed up. So, it was kind of cool to be able to see. I just assumed he had a PhD in sociology or something like that. 

So, as we were talking about this and looking at this book, we actually found out also that this was his very first book ever. So Ansi had mentioned before we started that she had begun the book but had a hard time getting into it, and I kind of felt the same way when I was reading it and I typically don't listen to audible books, especially for book club, because I'm marking things, I'm very visual, and so I'm seeing where they are in the book so I can go back and reference them for the book club. 

And I did feel like this was probably one of the first books that I felt like it was easier on audible than actually reading, and Malcolm Gladwell is the one actually reading it, so I feel like hearing his voice and how he talks made it a little bit easier to get through the book. So that's one thing to keep in mind as you're going through. The second thing, as you're going through, is, like I mentioned, it is his first book and I find that sometimes first books have a little bit of a clunkier feel to them, especially when you get a lot of these repeat authors like Brené Brown. 

Her very first book was the Gifts of Imperfection, very different writing than how she writes books. Now I still love the Gifts of Imperfection, but it's just very different. And so that's one thing to keep in mind as you're diving into this is it will feel different if you're familiar with his writing than some of his other books. And then the last thing that I will mention, and I've mentioned this in the past depending on the author there's some. 

There's always a different style that people write with. One of them is a lot of short stories over and over and over, and we've talked about that with, like Adam Grant, for example. He has like story after story after story to help illustrate his point and like my poor brain can't hold on to any of these stories that he's telling. I felt like Susan Cain's book Quiet was a very like research backed. 

So, there's that side. But then there's also, as you know, the universe has your back Gabby Bernstein type writing, which is much more conversational, like you're sitting and talking with them in real time. Or, if you remember the Shonda Rhimes, excuse me, the year of yes like you feel like you're on a journey with them as they're revisiting stories in their life or sharing stories. It's a much more storytelling type feel book. 

This one I thought was really interesting because it felt like it landed in the middle. There were stories that he shared that I thought I have no freaking idea how this ever goes back to anything. They were very interesting stories, and we'll dive into a couple of them. I just didn't know how they were all connected or why he was telling us about some of these things. 

So that's the other thing to keep in mind is he does tie everything back together, but as you're reading it, it's going to feel very strange because you're like these don't feel connected by any means. So, I'll share with you just a couple of the main stories, like the main story, just briefly, okay. So there, at one point he was talking well, I'm not even going to write it down because then we'll go into everything at one point he was talking about Paul Revere. 

Another point he went deep into Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues. At one point he was talking about the HIV and syphilis. You're like, what is happening? Like these could not be more unrelated. He talked about in New York, some of the crime rates that were going on. And as he's talking and he's sharing such out of the box thinking on these things, you know, and then the story, like one of his later stories, is about airwalks, the shoes and all of those things. Like how do these things become like epidemic? Like the tipping point where it just goes completely like for lack of a better word viral. So, as you're going through, just keep that in mind, that these stories will feel very unrelated. Okay, so be on the lookout for that. 

But I hope also that, as we go through this, that I will also be able to share how this applies to you, because, with a lot of these books some when they're more of a business book and how we apply them to our everyday life, you may not be marketing a business somewhere, you may not be going out and you know selling I don't know a new shoe or you know whatever that might be but there is a tipping point and we will talk about why that's so important for you to understand the context of these things within our own life and within your work. Okay, even though, if that may not be, you know you're not starting a global brand, or maybe you are. I hope you are, if that's what you want to do. 

Okay, so let's dive into this. The first thing he talks about is what an epidemic is, you know, and this is where, like, the tipping point comes in. So, he says everything that becomes some kind of like viral again, for lack of a better word then it becomes epidemic. So, the way he describes it, think about it as, as you know, an exponential curve. We looked at these in math, okay, so there's just everybody's kind of going along and then there gets to be a point around here where it just exponentially takes off. 

So what he was talking about with the HIV virus, for example, and syphilis, how they were trying to study how this became so rampant so quickly and as I was listening to it was like my mind was trying to find a reference point, because I don't know much about syphilis and I feel like HIV is problematic now, but it was very much how we all lived through COVID not that long ago. 

So just kind of keep that reference in mind as we're talking about syphilis and HIV. Just keep that in the back of your mind because there was so much conversation around all of us during that time. So he said, as far as, like an epidemic goes, there might be, you know, one person Okay, and that person may have one partner Okay, syphilis is sexually transmitted disease and that partner may have three more partners Okay, and each of those may have however many more, or they might just have one. 

So, he said what they were trying to do is figure out how it got so out of control where that tipping point was, and they were able to bring it back to only six communities. I can't remember what state it was in. If you remember, because you've read the, the first beginning, you can bring it back. Actually, I think he talks about the shoes first, okay, anyway. So, as he's talking about this, he's talking about how very quickly this began to spread. And as this began to spread, they were able to trace it back to a very short number of communities, able to trace it back to a very short number of communities, and within those communities there were some very sexually active people. 

So then, instead of like how do we solve this on a global problem, it was how do we solve this for a very few communities, and then it became so much easier to start getting a handle on the epidemic that they were faced with syphilis, okay. So, when we're talking about, and what Malcolm Gladwell talks about is being able to understand how things can go exponential, so quickly, this on, like you know, something small, like one person might have three partners instead of one, can drastically change the outcome, essentially overnight. 

So, from here, he also tells a story about hush puppies, and I didn't know about hush puppies. I actually looked up what they looked like, because he talks about hush puppies a lot. They are a shoe, more of a vintage shoe. And I'll also mention that a lot of the examples he uses are from like the 80s and 90s, because this is an older book, so just kind of keep that in mind. Oh, so Ansi says you loved hush puppies. 

Yeah, so he talks about how hush puppies were much more vintage, and I think like around the 70s. So, at some point some kids in the East Village in New York were trying to set a new trend. They were, you know, they were kind of innovators or trendsetters and they wanted to get something that looks a little bit vintage. So suddenly they started wearing these older shoes, hush puppies you could get them at like boutiques or not vintage stores, but like secondhand stores. 

And suddenly hush puppies what felt like overnight suddenly was everywhere again and what used to be a shoe and a business that was barely making it, all of a sudden had this exponential growth, this epidemic, essentially of hush puppy shoes. So, he said, once you start understanding that that happens very, very strategically, then you can start understanding and using it for your benefit. 

So, he talks about the three rules of epidemics. Now remember epidemics, just that exponential growth. So the three rules of epidemics is the law of the few, the stickiness factor and the power of context, and this is how he's broken up the chapters within his book, or within these three rules, but then he also has sections within each of it. I always like to know how the book is laid out. So, we're going to start with the law of the few. As he dives into that, he talks about something called the connectors, the mavens and the salesmen. I've heard the phrase maven before, but I didn't totally understand what it was, and so that's why we're going to talk about this. 

So, he's going to start with it at the very beginning of this chapter. This is where he starts with Paul Revere, and Paul Revere we kind of all know the story of the British are coming, the British are coming, and the Midnight Riot and all of that where they were all able to be ready for when the British, like, came on the banks and they were prepared for them. That's a lesson that we've all learned in history. What I didn't know is that there were actually two people that made the ride. The other person, his last name's Warren. I can't find his first name right. 

Like I said, I listened to all of these on book, on tape, and so I can't remember where everything is. But what he was talking about is at some point you've got these two people. We're going to say Revere and Warren, and at this point there was a young kid who overheard some British officials at the dock talking about how the British were coming and they were going to essentially storm the banks. So, this kid immediately goes to two people and tells them exactly the same thing. We know nothing about this Warren guy, although he still did a valiant ride, but we know a lot about Paul Revere and his ride. 

So, he kind of goes into what was the difference between these two men? Why did one motivate troops to where they were prepared for the British and could win a war and one? Nothing happened. So, the first thing he talks about is being a connector. When he started to look at the difference between these two people, there were some very significant personality differences. 

Revere was one of the people that found his way into a lot of different communities and within all of these different communities he created a base of people that he knew, and I can't remember all of these different communities. He created a base of people that he knew, and I can't remember all of the different communities, but he was one that he liked to travel all kinds, but he was very different than the other one and he was much more of a quiet person, much more of an introvert. So, when he went to go tell people, nothing really happened. 

I want to be clear here that when we're talking about the difference of personalities, one of them is not right and one of them is not wrong. We are only discussing it in terms of a connector, like the law of the few, in the ability to affect an epidemic or create a tipping point. I will never be one of those people. Like Paul Revere can motivate the troops to win a war. I will be much more like this one right here and I think I did say his name wrong. 

I think it is William, okay, so that's one thing that he starts talking about is what is an actual connector and what are some of the things that they have about them. So, he goes into a whole list of well, I'll just read it Connectors know lots of people. They're the kind of people who know everyone. All of us know someone like this, but I don't think we spend a lot of time thinking about the importance of these kinds of people. I'm not even sure that most of us really believe that the kind of person who knows everyone really knows everyone, but they do so. 

Then he goes on to talk about a study that he did where he would read a whole list of names that they just pulled out of the yellow pages. And then we're able to go and ask people like how many of the names that you recognized? And ask people like how many of the names that you recognized? So, then he goes on to say that there was a huge range in these individuals. He said, when they were looking at people that were largely white, highly educated, had PhDs, were wealthy, their average score was 39. He said when you were looking at more America middle class, lower income the average score was 20.96. 

So, they were trying to figure out, like how is it that this has such a wide range? And he said then I gave the test to a relatively random sample of my friends and acquaintances, mostly journalists and professionals in their late twenties and thirties. Their average score was 41. He said these results shouldn't be all that surprising. College students don't have a wide circle of acquaintances as people in their 40s. But then he goes on to say that there should be people like the professionals that are in, you know, meeting all the different people there. 

He would have thought that that would have been a significantly higher than those within middle-class, lower-income America. So, he then went on to say that as he then shared this score with other people, he started to see that there was a huge range, from like two to scoring 95. And he said like this just kind of blew his mind and he was trying to understand how is it that he had given this test and there was such a range of it? He said what he found was that, regardless of the social group, there was a huge range of scores, and that's what he couldn't figure out. 

What was it in every single one of these social groups that made somebody score so high and recognize all these different names from the yellow pages? He said sprinkled among every walk of life are a handful of people with truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances. They are connectors. So, I appreciated that he really spent time looking at all of these different social groups. He didn't just go into one social group and then assumed it was the same in all of them. 

So, when we're talking about connectors, it has nothing to do with your socioeconomic. It has nothing to do with your race, with your culture. There are some people that just naturally have this knack of making friends and acquaintances and I'm sure if you pause for just a second, you can very quickly think of someone that you need to meet, someone you could call that person up and chances are they would know someone that they could connect you with. So, he shares that example about one of his friends and how this friend is literally, you know, connected to everyone. 

But he also said there's a game that people play called the six steps to Kevin Bacon. This is a way of like being able to see there are some people that are just connectors. So let me explain the game. The game is that in order to get to Kevin Bacon, you have to think of any person in Hollywood and start thinking about the movie that they play in and somehow connect it back to Kevin Bacon. And the belief is that within six steps, you can trace any actor back to Kevin Bacon, which is funny because this was a game that we always played growing up with my mom. 

My mom loves celebrities and Hollywood. Anytime you sit down to watch a movie, she'll say, did you know? And she'll give you some fact about the actors or actresses in it. I love it every single time. You just plan on it. Did you know that this person was also so? We used to play this game growing up. Ansi said you do that too. I love it. It's it. I honestly have so much random, amazing history about a lot of 80s and 90s movies because that's what I grew up with. 

So, he goes on to talk about why is it like? For some people it's so easy to make this connection back, so he goes on to share. You know there's different actors that even though they may be ranked in their connectedness to Bacon, they don't rank very high. But because they are so connected and they show up in so many different places, naturally not just in their profession, but they're just always there. 

So, I'm not making a lot of sense. Let me go back. He says, for example, how many steps on average does it take to link everyone in Hollywood to someone like Robert De Niro or Shirley Temple or Adam Sandler? In this research they found that all Hollywood actors ranked all the Hollywood actors in order of their connectedness. Bacon only ranked 669th. Martin Sheen, in contrast, can be connected to every other actor in 2.6 steps. 

So, it goes on to talk about, like what makes this huge difference? Like what is it? So, he goes on to talk about it's just the amount of, it's not necessarily how many movies they make, it's just how connected they are and why these people are so much fun to be around. So, when we're looking at something like the tipping point and we're going back to the connector, those are the people that know everyone and it's all going to come together. Like I said, this won't make sense for a bit. Stay with me, okay. 

So, the next law of the few is the maven. Oh, I think when we're talking about the maven, I probably related the most to the maven. So, he talks about how sometimes it's easy for us to think connectors are the only ones that spread like the social epidemic. But he said there is another really important person and that is the raven. And the raven is the person that he describes as the price vigilante. They're the ones that want to research everything and that they'll spend so much time going into all these different places and gathering as much information on everything that they can. So, he says that the maven comes from the word Yiddish, and it means the one who accumulates knowledge. 

So he shares a story about a gentleman that he knows and this person is wants to. She says that the critical thing about mavens is that they aren't just passive collectors of information. They are obsessed with how to get the best deal on a can of coffee. They're the ones that will go out of their way to collect information on products, places and things, he says. They are the ones that spend a lot of time on consumer reports and are sending requests to the consumer reports. I have yet to do that, just to be clear. They said you can also think about them as like the market maven, the ones that are not as socially motivated but informationally motivated. 

So, then he goes on to talk about Mark Alpert and a gentleman that he knows how he was a maven, how he is a maven I don't know if he's still alive and Alpert had done so much research on the Audi 5000. And I guess it was the Audi 4000 and the Audi 5000. And there was a consumer report that was put out that this gentleman disagreed with and he had collected so much information that he was writing consumer reports, which you know produces all the information for consumers to actually read about different products, like vehicles, and he wrote them because he was so upset that they had given it wrong. So, I love what Malcolm Gladwell says about Mr. Alpert. 

He said he had outmavened the Maven Bible and what he said right here is that a maven is not like an obnoxious know-it-all, he said they're very much in a desire to be of service and influence. They're ones that they're not trying to be nosy, they just have like this automatic reflex to know what's going on in the marketplace and want to be able to share that as a way to help other people. So, when we're thinking about that in terms of the tipping point, I think again connectors. It's very easy to think, well, they'll just go tell everybody about it. But what really sets a maven apart is that they are very effective in getting information to multiple people. 

So, where a connector is socially and wants to be socially based knowledge, they're the ones that are informationally based knowledge. That's not a good way to explain it, but I hope you're following me. So, they're the ones that are going to have all the research on why this thing or why you should buy this thing. He said it's also important to remember that Mavers are not persuaders. Their goal is to always educate and to help, not to talk you into something. They're the ones to be most likely the teachers, okay? 

So, then he goes on to the next one, and the next one is our salesman. So, it's when we're looking at salesmen, it's very easy for most of us to have a really bad taste in our mouth about sales. But they are critical to epidemics, they are critical to creating tipping points for every company. But every idea that exists out there Now when we're looking at this, every idea that exists out there Now when we're looking at this, I want to be very just. Recognize. If you have some internal beliefs about salespeople, it's okay. I have them too, which is very funny because both of my parents are in sales, and they are incredible, amazing people. 

But when we get to sales, it's very easy to think negatively about their gift as being a persuader. So, when somebody gets to this spot and they're able to see their gifts within persuading, I'm trying to see if I can. I think this one we don't need to go into as much because it's pretty self-explanatory. When you get someone like Paul Revere, for an example, it's very important to have the gift of being a salesperson in order to motivate an entire nation to go to war.

That's the biggest thing is that when we are talking about an epidemic, we can have all the science and information about something. We have an entire medical field that does so much research, but without somebody selling the idea, without somebody like a maven that's distributing the information, the science behind it, the amazing things can't get out into the masses, the masses. So that's why it's important to have someone like a salesman. That is part of you know, the law of the few is because without them our passions or ideas like nothing can get out. 

And I remember talking to my dad, who you know again is in sales. He's an electrician by trade and then he went into selling electrical equipment to large commercial businesses and so I grew up with a very, you know salesy dad. But he wasn't that way. It was very much relational relationship built. He was taking customers, fishing and things like that. He was very enjoyable to be around. He still is. 

Everybody is very attracted, same as my mom. They are just people, love to be around them and they're able to get into places and have conversations with people that others would not. But it's not like this front. It's just naturally who they are and it's incredible and they are able to share so much with other people and persuade, you know, ideas to move on because of their natural gifts. All three of those things a connector, a maven and a salesman are all important. So, the next rule that he dives into is the stickiness factor. 

I learned more about Sesame Street on Blue's Clues than I ever thought possible. So, he gives very in-depth history on the making of Sesame Street and the research that like the very detailed research they did on every episode, on every segment like so much information Like I'm not even going to go into it. It was very cool, it was very fascinating to see that, something that that we're just like we just watch, and we don't really think about it. There is so much research backing it. 

So, when he talks about, like the beginning of Sesame Street back in the 1960s they were determined that kids could not learn through video. That had never been done before. Sesame Street was the one that really changed all of that and they had to like work and fight and prove that that was the case. So, Sesame Street, if you remember, they have, you know, many different segments. He calls it a magazine style show, kind of like how there's lots of articles in a magazine. You also have one show, because there was a belief that kids couldn't sit still long enough to be able to follow an entire show all the way through, so there was all these different segments. 

Well, while they were going through creating this, they were testing segments and being able to see how kids learn, and there was always the belief that young children would get bored and leave, but what he was finding was, when young children are watching a show, it's very different than an adult watching a show, where we are passively taking and watching things, whereas young children are actively learning as they go. So, it became a very effective way to teach children, but what they also had a very strong belief was that you had to keep reality and make beliefs separate. So, in the very beginning stages of it, they had the Muppets very separate from, like, all the live people that were on the show, and then they were being. 

They were like practicing, presenting, like information, like the letter at the top versus the letter on the bottom, and how often they repeat phrases like very detailed that he goes into. What was cool, though, was that what they found was very different than what they originally thought. With young children they realized, as they are active learners, anytime they are leaving, it's not because they are bored, it's because they are confused, and when they are confused their learning stops. They also found in the research that it didn't actually matter if there were toys in there or not. They were still actively learning. 

So, what he starts to introduce here is the stickiness factor, that in order for something to get to that tipping point, it has to be sticky. It has to be something that they hold on to and that they remember. So, what they were doing with Sesame Street is they were testing the stickiness factor. One of the things that they realized was like the placement of the wording mattered when they presented the letter. 

Another thing that they realized was that children got confused when make-believe and reality were separate. But they started to learn better when they put the two together and big birds started showing up with actual, like people that were there. So, all of a sudden, these things were starting to come together, and they were starting to get, you know, great results. I mean to where, like Sesame Street is like a long-time running show and it's amazing. You know, I think we all grew up watching Sesame Street. We all remember it. 

But then there came a point where there were some producers on the show and they felt like there were some great things that they wanted to take a step further, which was the introduction of Blue's Clues. So, Angela Santomero, I think, is her name, she wanted the learnings of Sesame Street and they wanted to take it one step further. She said TV is a great medium for education, but people up until now haven't explored the potential of it. They've been using it as a roadway. 

I believe we could turn that around. And which is, they came up with a show called Blue’s Clues and it was a half an hour, not an hour, and they didn't have this big ensemble cast. They weren't always bringing in all these people. They actually had one live actor, which was Steve, if you remember. He was in his early twenties, and he had his rugby shirt, and he had his khakis, and then it was the animated dog named Blue. 

So again, they took the two. They had the stickiness factor; they took make believe in reality and combined it together. And then, at this point, instead of what they call the magazine style, like a whole bunch of different segments, they had one storyline all the way through, which had never been done before. They didn't believe children could maintain that attention all the way through. So, this is where they then started to test a lot of different things in order to find the stickiness factor. One of the parts that I remember with Blue's Clues is they were, you know, again going into a lot of depth about Blue's Clues I feel like I'm an expert on it now. 

They talked about how, when they launched it with Nickelodeon, they wanted to launch the same episode five days in a row, and they thought they were crazy. Nickelodeon thought they were crazy, but what they were finding was that children were more engaged when there was repetition, and they could anticipate what was coming next. They actually learned more about the stickiness factor. 

So, Nickelodeon agreed to do it, because they didn't have a budget to launch the entire thing and to make a new episode every single day. So, they aired it five times in a row, and they had the results from their research on this was exponentially higher and that children were actively engaged in this. The other thing that was super fascinating when they were talking about the stickiness factor is, again, they thought that children were not active learners, but they wanted to prove that they were. 

So, if you've ever watched Blue's Clues, which you probably have, Steve will ask a question and then pause and then there's like a whole group of children that like are you know? Or they say it's over there, you know. Whatever. What he's doing right there is inviting the children to answer and then having a that community that also answers, as these going forward and looking at these children are now actively participating. If you pay attention to a lot of the children's shows now, they all have these pauses that are built in in a lot of shows and how the some of them, the actors are talking directly to the children. 

They're looking at the camera and inviting those responses back. That all comes from the research based on the stickiness factor. This is what helps children retain information. So, he said what's really important as we're looking at this tipping point, is you have to know this information, to know if something is sticking or not, because if you don't have that research then you are going to be throwing good money after you know bad ideas, I guess. So that's the stickiness factor that he talks about. 

So, let's get into the third one, the power of context. So here he shared. He shared a couple of stories. So, the first story that he shared was when all of the subway became well, all of New York was very dangerous. The crime rate was off the charts, and they couldn't get it under control. He shared a story about a gentleman who had gone into the subway. The whole place is totally graffitied, inside and out. It's very dirty. He talks about how so many of the cars, the subway lines, they were broken. There were always things that were off. I mean, it was just a mess, he said with this information from New York. 

So, then he goes on to talk about a gentleman who had come onto the subway and there were like a whole bunch of people that were sitting separate from a group of kind of rambunctious teenagers. You know, they looked very fishy. I can't remember the exact words that he used. 

So, this guy walks in and all of a sudden one of the kids comes up and tells them like give me $5 and looks like he's holding something in his pocket at him and the gentleman that had just walked onto the subway pulled out a gun and shot every single one of them and he didn't understand why. That wasn't his normal behavior, he wasn't a vicious person, like, why, all of a sudden, did he pull out his gun and shoot these individuals? Okay, so that's one story that he shares. 

The next story that he shares is they did a study where they brought in, like in the psychology office, they took some offices and made them into like prison cells, like looking like prison cells. They then started bringing in I think it was 20 people, I think when they first, like, had applicants, there were over 70 people that applied for this study. To, you know, be part of this like prison mentality study, they brought in the 20 most emotionally, mentally stable people that had applied. 

They then separated them into 10 that were in the prison and 10 that were guards of the prison. And these are people that you know in everyday life. They're just, you know, like you and me. But suddenly they put them into these scenarios. They went through and, you know, pretended to arrest them in their house. They brought them in. They, you know, stripped their clothes, they gave them a number. That was their only identity. They made like, they assigned their brackets, like where they were living, essentially put them into prison. 

So the study was supposed to go on for two weeks and within just a very short time frame, these very normal type people in the outside world, these prison guards suddenly were acting horribly abusive, to the point where some of the prisoners there was one that like had to tap out just within a couple of days. There were like insane depression. These men were crying all the time. 

Like all of these like horrible, like mental things started happening while these prison guards had like turned into like these completely like abusive power driven, like dominating individuals, to the point where six days in, they had to shut the entire study down. They, it had like gone out of control so quickly, like they couldn't have even anticipated it, so quickly, like they couldn't have even anticipated it. 

So, what he was talking about here is context matters. Okay, so we've talked about people and how they naturally are. We talked about, we talked about the connectors, the mavens and the salesmen. Then we talked about, like, how to get ideas to stick. Now it's important to talk about how to get these ideas moving forward because context matters. People that were very normal in the outside world. You put them in the context of a prison guard and suddenly they act very different, or being a prisoner, or you take someone in like the crime scene who in the context, he would never have shot someone. 

But suddenly you put him into a very dangerous environment and have somebody approach him asking for $5, looking like he's holding something in his pocket, and he acted completely insane, even though he never would have done that at any other time. So, when we're looking at the power of context that's what he said is so important when we get to the tipping point, context matters. So, I want to pause here. I mean there's a lot more that we can do in the book, but what I want to do is spend the last few minutes taking these three things and applying them to how we parent and how we function within our home. 

I find that a lot of moms, when I am coaching them, get very discouraged because they're not the quote-unquote fun moms. Or they're not the mom that puts on like fun parties and decorations for their kids, or they're not the mom that wants to sit on the floor and play with their kids. There's always some kind of idea where they think they can't be a good parent or a good mom because they lack a skill in some way. 

What I wanted to mention is that every single one of us has very specific gifts and talents and we can use those to our benefit in creating a tipping point, essentially on getting our ideas through our family, being able to create this exponential growth. But if you are a maven and you're trying to be a salesperson, or you're a salesperson and you're trying to be a connector, it may not work, okay. So I want you to think about this in terms of yourself, a spouse or partner, and even your children. Okay, I'm going to use an example of this in just a second. 

The second thing is thinking about, like, the stickiness of an idea. Now, I can't tell you how many times in years past I would go on Pinterest. I would print some kind of cleaning list. I would stick it on and be like, hey, this is what we're doing now. Or you know, I do some kind of meal planning where you print something out and you're like, okay, this is it. I've created my command center, these are my groceries and my meal planning, and within like a week, it was gone. 

Okay, didn't have the stickiness factor. And I see that all the time in, when we're trying to get our kids to do chores and being able to, like the, participate in the function of the home, it doesn't stick. Okay. So then think about that within the context of our home. So often we turn into very different people based on the context. That was one other thing I'll share really quick. 

He talked about a study within like seminary students where they were presenting on a good Samaritan. But it was actually the study that to see how many of these seminary students that are learning God for their profession, essentially, if they would actually be the Good Samaritan, and so they had them presenting this story about the Good Samaritan, but on their way to go present it, there was somebody that needed help and they said that in the very beginning, before they were able to go you know, walk across wherever they needed to give the presentation. If they said, oh, you've got a few minutes, it's okay, take your time Like 60% of those people would stop and help that individual. 

But if they said, oh, you're running a few minutes late, they would like 90% of the people would pass the individual that needed help. They would like 90% of the people would pass the individual that needed help. So, what he was saying again is like the power of context, somebody that is very compassionate and patience based on the context, even like a time restraint being the context. Suddenly you show up as a very different person. 

So, when we're thinking about this in terms of what we want to accomplish within our home, it's important to think of these three things, okay, first, you want to get very clear on who you are and what your gifts and talents are. Okay, this is the connectors, the mavens and the salespeople. And it's also fun to think about, like, who your kids are. Now I've got my daughter, who is very amazing at persuading. 

She is very amazing at it. She is one that has no qualms about making cupcakes and going and delivering them to people's houses and getting them to buy them from her. It's incredible. But some of my other kids are very different. That way, I would say my kindergartner is the connector. He wants to just be around everybody, and everybody loves him. You can use that to your benefit, but also think about it for yourself. 

The second, the stickiness factor is to really research and test things. I know if I'm going to implement some kind of system within my home, it's I have to research it and I have to test it before I introduce it as something new. 

This is where you know when I'm coaching my clients. I call it the home system study, where you're spending time gathering all the information and seeing what actually exists, before you ever take some kind of cleaning system and slap it out that everybody has to do. It's not going to stick because it's not the way that they naturally are working within your home, and it may go against their gifts and talents. So, for example, with chores, each of my kids have a different list of chores. 

Now my oldest son, who wants to do all the gadgets. He helps set up a lot of the technology in the house and helps me learn all the different, like the privacy settings and the security settings. But he's also the one that wants to change the filter in the hot tub and clean the hot tub out like and take care of the pets Like. That's naturally who he is, whereas when I'm looking at you know, some of my other kids, their chores look very different. Okay, so really think about that. 

The third is when we're looking at the power of context. Now I am amazed at how I can be running late to church. I feel like I'm a pretty patient person and I could be running late to church and suddenly I turn into a demon or all of a sudden you get to, like the entry of the church and you're like, okay, everybody. And then you like pretend like you weren't just yelling at them like two seconds ago to hurry up Context matters. So, when you are presenting information to your family, really think about the context within your home. 

I was thinking about this in terms of, like, wanting a clean and decluttered home but also wanting my kids to learn that thing. But when I don't have a clean space and when my spaces are cluttered, that's the context that I'm taking into it. Same thing, when I'm looking at it, I need to get out the door and I want them to come with me. I want them to be able to get their shoes on and get out the door. 

But if I have not created a context where I am rushing them or pushing them, it's not going to happen. We're not going to get to that epidemic, which tipping point where we can all work together within our house. So, there you have it. There's the tipping point. A lot of great information, but I hope that this helps, also helps you to apply it in your everyday life. All right, I'll see you next month, bye. 

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