Think Different
Malcom Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” was just one of the many books in early 2000s to drive up excitement around the new science of complexity or what was popularized as ‘chaos theory.’ Of particular interest was the potential for understanding and gaining insights into how tipping points occur, i.e., when ‘more becomes different’ as in when water turns to ice.
Understanding and even managing to bring about a tipping point requires a shift from linear to non-linear thinking. For example, scientists were able to model the rate at which polar ice caps are melting much more accurately when they included the effect of increased black water and decreased surfaces for refracting sunlight. Similarly, scientists became much better equipped to model how fast a disease like COVID will ‘tip’ into an epidemic based on materially relevant contributors, or how fast a small brush fire will ‘tip’ into becoming a wildfire. Complexity theory has helped scientists gain insight into tipping points in a whole host of other interesting things affecting our lives, ranging from weather patterns, traffic jams, the economy, terrorist activity, to the expansion of the internet.
Cultural Tipping Points
But until now, complexity hasn’t been applied in any serious way to how organizations evolve into what we have referred to as their ‘Culture State.’ In our last blog, we introduced three distinct Culture States: Mercenary, Tribal, and Synergistic. We argued that Culture State reflects how well a company’s people are aligned around Vision, Products, Operations, and Key Performance Indicators - determining their degree of resilience and adaptability.
There are at least two different strategies for effecting a tipping point in the Culture State: The first, most direct route is through improving alignment around Vision, Product, Operations, and KPIs – what we refer to as the organization’s Strategic Framework. This requires concerted effort to understand where opinions differ significantly and the reasons behind the differences. Bridging the differences is what leadership is then called on to do. Increased alignment reverses vicious cycles and builds synergy. At some point, ‘more becomes different,’ as evidenced in greater trust, improved efficiency, and a perceptively more positive outlook about the future. Successful process improvement initiatives emulate shifts in Culture State – at least for those affected. Our Cultural Alignment survey is designed with this in mind.
Innovation Fuels Tipping Points
The second strategy for effecting a tipping point is through harnessing external ‘hot spots’ as depicted in the figure below. Leaders are always on the lookout for hotspots. Hotspots represent a source of innovation developed for one purpose that is discovered to have application for another purpose. Take for example, 3-D printing. Developed in the 1980s and 1990s in Japan, it wasn’t very successful initially. But in 2010, the quality of 3-D printers improved significantly while prices dropped dramatically. Executives who saw the potential and were able to effect the required changes in their Strategic Framework, soon disrupted the market for on-demand manufacturing of industrial parts. 3-D printing is now rapidly spreading to a wide variety of industries, many of which are undergoing their own tipping points as a result.
Another example of a tipping point that had wide repercussions was Frank Gehry’s 1980s exploitation of CAD-CAM, originally developed for use in large-scale manufacturing industries such as aircraft and shipbuilding. Given his network of relations in the global design community, the potential for CAD-CAM in architectural design and construction was an inevitable discovery. The Bilbao Art Museum and Disney Hall in Los Angeles are testaments to the ‘tipping point’ he brought about in terms of the kinds of structures architects were now able to imagine, plan, and successfully erect.
As we stated in ‘Making the Magic,’ market Leaders are also likely to have Magic Cultures. It is their network of ties extending both internally and externally into their respective ecosystem that keeps them abreast of interesting and potentially important hot spots.
But Leaders also need the right kind of culture to resist out-of-hand rejection of ideas whose potential is not immediately obvious. In fact, the further away the hot spot originates from where it is being considered for another purpose, the more powerful its effect but equally, the more powerfully it will be resisted.
In a future blog, we’ll explore the catalytic effect of Style and Mood in bringing about a tipping point. With the right combination of Style and Mood, tipping points can be achieved much more quickly than otherwise perceived.
Conclusion
Managing tipping points are key to sustained success of Culture State and market position. Senior executives who succeed in understanding, engineering, and integrating one or more tipping points into their enterprise will reap multiple benefits, including non-linear growth.
As always, your questions or comments are welcomed.
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