Book Review: The Tipping Point

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"It is safe to say that word of mouth is still the most important form of human communication."

-The Tipping Point

For those of us who make our living with our words, communication seems to be changing constantly. Athletic departments and teams are rushing to put up Facebook pages and create Twitter accounts to stay up-to-date. But it turns out that our (verbal) word still trumps all forms of social media...or so Malcolm Gladwell says in his book, The Tipping Point.

The rundown: The Tipping Point is about how epidemics start. He talks about regular old epidemics of sickness, but his major focus is on social epidemics. Like how certain books, cartoons, or clothes become popular. In our youTube world, I suppose we'd say "viral" now to mean social epidemic. For coaches interested in making an idea go viral on their team, this book could be helpful.

He identified three different types of people who are required for ideas to go viral: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.

Connectors are people who operate in many different social circles and have a gift for bringing those folks together in a way that's not awkward. Mavens accumulate and share knowledge...they're information brokers. Salesmen are the folks who persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we're hearing.

Recommended for: Coaches who are interested in how teams work. To me, Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen are almost like personality types. If we've got what we think is a great idea or we're planning on changing some things around on our team, identifying these key people on our teams will help us get buy in from the rest of the team. Using this information could prove vital in team management.

Not recommended for: Folks who don't want to have to stretch for coaching connections. This isn't a book about coaching or about sports. It's about how to make ideas go viral. If you're looking for quotations to put up in your locker room, then this isn't the book for you.

I enjoyed The Tipping Point, it made me think about my communication with my recruits, my current team, my alumni...everyone. Gladwell is a researcher with a gift of making tedious information more interesting. This isn't my favorite book of his, Outliers was a game changer for me, but I highly recommend this one as we think about how to get our ideas across to others.

Dawn Redd is the Head Volleyball Coach at Beloit College. Come visit Coach Dawn's community of coaching nerds and team leaders over at her blog, http://www.coachdawnwrites.com/, where she teaches how to become an excellent coach, motivate individuals, and build successful teams.

Her book, Coach Dawn's Guide To Motivating Female Athletes, is available for purchase on her website.

Follow Coach Dawn on Twitter: @CoachDawnWrites

Review of "Saving Sea Turtles"

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Saving Sea Turtles: Extraordinary Stories from the Battle Against Extinction [Hardcover]
by James R. Spotila
240 pages, $24.95
ISBN-13: 978-0801899072
Nonfiction

In 2003, Disney released Finding Nemo, a forlorn tale which chronicles the haphazard journey of a Clownfish named Marlin as he navigates the Great Barrier Reef to locate his missing son, Nemo. In the opening scenes of that movie, Nemo excitedly asks his dad if he has ever met a shark with an important follow-on question: "How old are sea turtles?" Marlin, perhaps a little too annoyed while contemplating his son's first day of school replies, "Well, if I ever meet a sea turtle I'll ask him, right after I'm done talking to the shark." Fortunately, this said tale has a happy ending-Marlin is reunited with his son and informs him that some sea turtles live to be 150 years old.

Such is the mythos of animated cartoons where sea creatures are presented as talkative, happy, and engaging. While sea turtles can live to be quite old, the reality is that their numbers are dwindling every year. In his Saving Sea Turtles: Extraordinary Stories from the Battle against Extinction, James Spotila illustrates the issues that directly threaten these amazing aquatic animals.

Dr. James Spotila, a tenured biology professor for Drexel University, has penned a moving work which illustrates the tragedy of many varieties of sea turtles. While he does have a penchant for dropping names and places where his graduate students have studied, the book does not read like a lifeless doctoral dissertation. Quite the contrary, I found his thesis to be stimulating and provocative-throughout I kept asking myself: Is there anything I can do about this? In this collection of stories, the reader learns some amazing truths about the ongoing effort to preserve sea turtles for future generations.

I will never forget a turtle encounter I had while walking along the coastline in North Carolina. Early one morning, my wife and I were enjoying a leisurely stroll when we were flagged down by a determined beach visitor. He showed us the patterns in the sand that were indicative of a sea turtle coming ashore to place her eggs safely in a nest at the head of the beach. Together we called the local conservation society who dispatched a group of volunteers within minutes to cordon off the nest with appropriate notification.

Turtle conservation is necessary to pass along the appreciation of these amazing animals to our children. This book will anger you when you read of the lengths to which some will go to destroy nature. Everyone can play a part in sea turtles conservation-if you enjoy aquatic life, you will love this book.

Review by Steven King, MBA, MEd