Tipping Points and Competencies:
Our Profession and our Association
Ethel M. Salonen, MSLS
June 9, 2003
SLA Annual Conference
Professional Competencies for the Digital Age: Cybrarian,
Librarian, or Information Specialist
Agenda
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Tipping Point – What is it?
Examples
Tipping Point – What does it mean?
SLA 2003 Competencies Document – June
How the two relate
Conclusions
Bibliography
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What is a “Tipping Point?”
– “A tipping point is that moment in an epidemic when it reaches a critical
mass; it’s the point on the curve when the epidemic starts to take off.”
– “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like
viruses do.”
– “Three characteristics – contagiousness, the fact that little causes can
have big effects, and that change happens not gradually but at one
dramatic moment.”
– “The moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point. “
– “Why is it that some ideas or behavior or products start epidemics and
others don’t?”
• Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big
Difference. Little, Brown and Company, January 2002, 301pages.
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Some examples
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Hush Puppies – East Village of Manhattan
Paul Revere’s Ride to Lexington, MA
Sesame Street
William Bratton
Internet
Web based platforms
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Three rules of the Tipping Point
• The Law of the Few
• connectors – know lots of people, special gift for bringing
people together, information specialists, social glue
• maven – one who accumulates knowledge, connects people
to the marketplace and has the inside scoop on the
marketplace, data banks
• salespeople – skills to persuade us when we are
unconvinced of what we are hearing, energetic, enthusiastic,
charming
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Three rules of the Tipping Point (cont.)
• The Stickiness Factor
• the content of the message must be so memorable that it can create
change and spur someone to action
• can be small and trivial
• The Power of Context
• epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the
times and places in which they occur
• epidemics can be reversed, tipped, by tinkering with the smallest
details of the immediate environment
• minor changes in our external environment can have a dramatic
effect on how we behave and who we are
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Professional Competencies
• Relates to the practitioner’s knowledge of information resources,
access, technology and management, and the ability to use this
knowledge as a basis for providing the highest quality information
services.
• There are 4 major competencies, each augmented with specific
skills
• Draft: Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century,
Revised: June 2003
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Professional Competencies (cont.)
• Four competencies
– Managing information organizations
• alignment, assessment and communication, effective
processes, strategic planning, team leader, marketing skills,
product development, copyright and intellectual property
issues
– Managing information resources
• product life cycle, collection management, content
management, policy development
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Professional Competencies (cont.)
• Four competencies
– Managing information services
• client driven information services, client driven market
research, research information products, metrics
management, value based services
– Applying information tools and Technologies
• tool driven solutions, information organization management,
privacy, current awareness services
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Personal Competencies
• Represent a set of attitudes, skills and values that
enable practitioners to work effectively and contribute
positively to their organizations, clients and profession.
These competencies range from being strong
communicators, to demonstrating the value-add of their
contributions, to remaining flexible and positive in an
ever changing environment.
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Personal Competencies (cont.)
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Seeks our challenges and new opportunities
Sees the big picture
Effective communicator
Creates partnerships and alliances
Mutual respect and trust
Team approach
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Personal Competencies (cont.)
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Knows how to prioritize
Career planning skills
Innovative and creative thinker
Networking skills
Work/Life balance skills
Adaptable to change
Positive and flexible
Celebrates achievements for others and self
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Tipping Point and Competencies
• We are connectors
– KM, workflow tools
• We are mavens
– information specialists
• We are salespeople
– selling intranet services
• The vote on the proposed name change
– Law of the Few, Stickiness, Power of context
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Conclusions
• Tipping Point
– Starting epidemics requires concentrating resources on a few
key areas. The Law of the Few says that Connectors, Mavens,
and Salespeople are responsible for starting word-of-mouth
epidemics, which means that if you are interested in starting a
word-of mouth epidemic, your resources ought to be solely
concentrated on those three groups.
• SLA’s Tipping Point
– Whatever decision is made at the June 2003 Annual Business
Meeting
• Professional Tipping point
– How each of use uses these skills to bring effective change to
our organizations.
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Bibliograhpy
• Cross, Rob and Larry Prusak. “The People Who Make organizations
Go—or Stop.” The Harvard Business Review, June 2002, P. 104
• Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a
Big Difference. ittle Brown and Company, January 2002, 301 pages.
• Kim, W. Chan and Renee Mauborgne. “Tipping Point Leadership.”
The Harvard Business Review, June 2003, P. 60
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Questions
• Thank you!
Ethel M. Salonen
Manager, External Content
Information Resources
Millennium Pharmaceuticals
75 Sidney Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
Voice: 617-444-1297
Email: salonen@mpi.com
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