If something is wrong, why are people not proactive enough to fix it?
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is an excellent book. In fact, it was so good that I read all 267 pages in one sitting.
In 1964, a young lady called Kitty Genovese was chased and brutally attacked on a street in New York City. That sounds tragic but not as tragic as this – 38 people witnessed the attack from the windows of their homes. No one intervened or called the police.
After much analysis and media attention, it was decided that this event epitomized the alienation and anonymity of people in New York City. Living in a crowded city like London, I can relate. People are always in each other’s personal space so, in order to protect yourself, you zone them out. Indifference becomes a conditioned reflex. That sounds like a pitiful excuse so two New York psychologists investigated the Kitty Genovese attack further.
These social psychologists staged emergency situations to determine which witnesses would help and when they would act. The outcome was fascinating – the severity of the event did not affect a witness’s decision to help the victim or take proactive measures to solve the crisis. The number of witnesses to the event determined whether people helped or not.
Gladwell says, ‘The lesson is not that no one called despite the fact that 38 people heard her scream; it’s that no one called because 38 people heard her scream. Ironically, had she been attacked on a lonely street with just one witness, she might have lived.’
This is known as the ‘Bystander Problem’. It means that, in a group, people are generally less responsive because they expect everyone else to act. If no one does, they assume it is not a big problem. Responsibility for taking action is diluted by a group.
The penny dropped for me because I experienced the ‘Bystander Problem’ many times at work. As a manager, I was often shown problems that could have been solved earlier if someone used their initiative and was proactive. But no one did this and now I understand why – when there are many people involved, they expect others to act. Responsibility is diffused among the group.
I didn’t realize how sensitive people are to their environment. Gladwell calls it the ‘Power of Context’ and says the moral of the story is that if you want people to change their behaviour – help someone in need or solve a problem at work – most of the time you can do this by considering the small, subtle details of their immediate surroundings.
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