Revisiting The Tipping Point |

. RSS

I first read The Tipping Point years ago, but revisiting it now, something stands out more clearly.

We often think change happens in a single moment. Gladwell suggests something different.

What we call a “tipping point” is not the beginning of change—it’s the point where accumulated change finally becomes visible.

Small actions. Repeated patterns. Quiet influences.

Over time, they build. Then, almost suddenly, something shifts.

Gladwell explores this through three ideas: influential people, messages that stay with us, and the environments in which change unfolds.

But what stayed with me this time wasn’t just the framework. It was the deeper implication behind it.

What appears to be a sudden transformation is rarely sudden at all. It has usually been forming quietly, out of sight, through moments that did not seem important at the time.

That idea feels familiar. Not because of the theory itself, but because of how often we overlook what is shaping us while it’s happening.

We search for turning points. Yet most of what changes us rarely announces itself that way.

It builds quietly.

And then one day, we call it a tipping point.

This way of thinking about change—how small moments accumulate before they are recognized—is something I explore more directly in my own book, What Matters: We Are the Sum of Small Moments.

The 8th Habit by Stephen R. Covey →

. RSS

Covey tells us we move from effectiveness to greatness when we find our voice. That happens when our body, mind, heart, and spirit are all fully engaged in what is most important to us.

If we use our own natural talent it will follow that we will love what we do, and it will be of more interest to us. We will know we are on the right track because an inner voice, our conscience, will confirm it to us.

Covey’s view is that many in business today have either not found their voices or have lost their voices. This happens he says when they don’t serve the whole man only requiring a token of the skills of those who work there. One example of just coasting along is when people just work to fill a bodily need or even addiction. This approach often leaves out the need to fully use one’s talent and creativity.  

For Covey our voice is a good metaphor for understanding.  When we allow our voice to be heard in an organization fully engaged then we resonate our values and goals and it attracts support and builds synergy.  

Quotes

8th Habit Dedication: “To the humble, courageous, “great” ones among us who exemplify how leadership is a choice, not a position.”

“We can take one of two roads in life: One is the broad, well-traveled road to mediocrity, the other the road to greatness and meaning.”

“To know and not to do, is really not to know.”

“people are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren’t getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope...with all of their might.” 

When all you want is a person's body and you don't really want their mind, heart or spirit, you have reduced a person to a thing.”“To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground” 

“what is most personal ,is most general.”

 “No matter how long we’ve walked life’s pathway to mediocrity, we can always choose to switch paths. Always. It’s never too late. We can find our voice.”