Power of Context. Power of Context (Part Two). Management Essay

Power of Context
Name
Institution
Power of Context
What underlies successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus. Can leopards really change their spots and do you agree that it only takes the smallest infractions to cause the greatest changes? With the slightest push in the right place, can the world around us be tipped?
Change is never easy even with the right conditions and right kind of impetus. However, this does not mean that it can never happen and people cannot be transformed and have their beliefs changed. A people’s beliefs can be easily changed, but it takes time. Many would disagree that leopards can change their spots, but one can also wonder whether the issue is with the leopards changing their spots or with people adopting a different stance on the kind of spots leopards have. The color the leopard has and the spots it has is as a result of one man, and his branding of the spots of a leopard was adopted all over the world. What the above statements are trying to communicate is that some things in life depend on the perception people have. Therefore, if a different, relevant and overly convincing perception would be introduced, a significant percentage would change their minds. But the change would not be rapid and happen in an instant. Change as Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book is often a result of small but notable switches which induce a lasting result. Therefore, it will take time, but once an idea starts spreading, it will take a short time before it is widely adopted. This article is based on the premise that with the right people, the right message or content, and the right environmental factors (internal and external), the world around us can indeed be tipped.
Firstly, anything that tips or tilts the world’s perception or beliefs has to be initiated with the right people. Gladwell writes that like diseases, “social epidemics work in exactly the same way. They are also driven by the efforts of a handful of exceptional people.” He continues to say that “it’s things like how sociable they are, or how energetic or knowledgeable or influential among their peers” (21). The examples he provides where a group of young people re-popularized the Hush Puppies as well as how 168 individuals led to the outbreak of a gonorrhea epidemic in a city with more than 100,000 people help to ascertain his stance. It is not known how many young men don...