How close is your business to its tipping point?

The joy recently expressed on my young son’s face as he proudly reached the milestone of his 8th birthday was a true delight, but birthdays are clearly a paradox. There comes a time when most of us reach a tipping point where we’re happy for each additional year to slip by unnoticed. In business however, most entrepreneurs are aiming for the illusive ‘tipping point’ coined in Malcolm Gladwell’s now wildly acclaimed bestseller. In it, he uniquely explores and illuminates the tipping point phenomenon – that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behaviour crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

Since Gladwell’s publication, others have explored this phenomenon such as Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (Harvard business Review, 2003) who examined what entrepreneurs and business leaders can learn from this. They believed that William Bratton (NYPD Commissioner from 1994-96 cited in Gladwell’s book) demonstrated what they called ‘Tipping Point Leadership’ which hinges on the insight that

… in any organization, once the beliefs and energies of a critical mass of people are engaged, conversion to a new idea will spread like an epidemic, bringing about fundamental change very quickly ’

Their key finding is that there is methodology behind Bratton’s obvious leadership skills which suggests it can be replicated. So what is this 4 step process that can bring about rapid, dramatic and lasting change with limited resources:

1. The Cognitive Hurdle

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, leader or manager, you should aim to confront and understand the true reality and not rely on facts and statistics to back up your claims. Get out there and experience your products or services first hand, discover the problems, blockages or lack of communication so you can see things as they are – not as you think they are.

2. The Resource Hurdle

Focus on the resources you already have rather than cutting back or spending time fighting for more. By reallocating resources and concentrating on the places that are most in need of change – you can achieve the biggest possible payoffs.

 3. The Motivational Hurdle

Identify the key influencers inside your organisation to support your renewed way of thinking and operating. Kim and Mauborgne recognised they act like kingpins in bowling ‘when you hit them just right, all the pins topple over’. The result is that these influencers can tip the entire organisation towards change much quicker – like a domino effect – and at a comparatively low cost compared to traditional incentive schemes.

4. The Political Hurdle

Lastly, aim to identify and silence opponents early on. To do this, focus on recruiting respected senior alliances on your team and gathers facts to counter saboteurs and remove political barriers to your renewed strategy.

There’s no denying other key leadership traits are needed to affect change and success, but if you as entrepreneurs, leaders and managers stay aware of these principles, you can use them to your advantage and steer the course of your decisions to generate momentum and stand a chance of reaching the illusive ‘tipping point’ for your business.

As for birthdays, if you’ve reached your tipping point, focus on delighting in counting the years of your young flourishing business instead.