The Tipping Point & Health Care Reform
One of my clients, for Junto, is in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I have been traveling there a couple of times a month. The trip includes a two-hour drive from the Denver airport and has given me some time to listen to some books on CD.
Most recently I have been listening again to The Tipping Point. As I listen, I often find myself making connections with what is being said in the book with some part of what I’m working on. In this case, the connection came regarding the health care debate, which is now back dominating political news.
In the book, Malcom Gladwell talks about two key elements that make products, movements, crime waves, diseases, etc. tip. These key elements are:
- Small Changes: rather than big massive plans or huge reforms or major marketing campaigns; it was the small almost unnoticed changes that had the largest impact. A sort of “out of small things are great things brought to pass” principle came into play.
- At the Margin: These small changes were also found at the margin. It was the sort of outlier type changes that people thought may not be related enough to the problem that actually helped change the problem.
So what does that have to do with health care reform?
If we apply Gladwell’s principles of “tipping” type change, President Obama’s ‘complete’ overhaul of the system and reform is not only unnecessary, but most likely will be counterproductive, much like the D.A.R.E. programs of yesteryear. Instead of a major overhaul of the system, perhaps we should be looking for very small changes at the margin that have proven to be far more effective at tipping behavior than grand plans like the one before Congress right now.
