Paul Revere, Workers Compensation, and The Tipping Point

This Is Part 1 in a 3 Part Mini Series.

The Tipping Point in Workers Compensation

1. Paul Revere, Workers Compensation, and the Tipping Point
2. Make Your Work Comp Message Stick Like Gorilla Glue
3. How Work Comp Can Be Just Like Prison

“One if by land and two if by sea,” April 18th 1775, Paul Revere was sent on a midnight ride to notify John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British were coming. He was also tasked with notifying the countryside to be prepared for battle in one of the first stages of the revolutionary war. We all know that story, we all know the name Paul Revere, but there was a lesser known name, William Dawes. He was sent with that same task but why is Paul Revere famous in American history and William Dodd is a relative unknown?

I’m Michael Stack with Amaxx and I just finished reading for the second time The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I read it a number of years ago but I just read it again. I really thought it would be fun to do a little mini series about some of the lessons and the stories that Mr. Gladwell teaches in there about starting change, about starting an epidemic, which is what you’re often trying to do in a work comp management program and in implementation particularly in organization that has a significant difference in how things maybe have been done.

Law of the Few, Stickiness, and Power of Context

There’s 3 three elements that he talks about in there and I did a short mini-series, one on each. The first one is the law of the few. The second one is the stickiness factor, and finally the power of context. The law of the few comes into play when you’re trying to get buy-in. You’re trying to get buy-in from your organization that this is how we’re going to do things moving forward. How do you get that message across? How do you get people to buy into your program? 

Certain Individuals Are Exceptional People

Three different types of people that he talks about in the book. The first is the connectors, second is the mavens and finally the sales people.  It’s a very popular book and many people have probably read it, but I want to have you not forget about these people, these innate skills. I’ll run through them quickly. The connectors are the people that know everybody, that have a lot of friends, have a lot of acquaintances, know everyone at the organization. The mavens are the researchers. These are the educators; these are the people that really read the policy in detail. When you’re looking to buy a new equipment you know you’ve got to to talk to Sue because you know she’s the only one that has really read everything in detail, researched it, looked it up. You have that level of trust in her because you know that’s an innate skill in her. The sales people are those people that are super smooth. You know that they have the charisma, they have that personality that people follow what they do, because that’s built into their personality.

Leverage The Exceptional People To Obtain Buy-In

When you’re trying to get buy-in the first step is to get your CEO involved as well as these people that have these innate skills. It’s critical to have people buy into your organization. Do not forget about the connectors. Do not forget about the mavens, the people that maybe will have researched all the doctors in your program, have researched all the vendors, have read through your entire policy, something that no one else probably did. Make sure you bring Sue on board. Make you bring your sales people on board. Make sure you bring your connectors on board. When you’re working with senior management, rolling out this program, do not forget about the law of the few and it can make a difference at your organization.

I’m Michael Stack with Amaxx. This is The Tipping Point mini series. Remember your success in workers compensation is defined by your integrity, so be great.

Author Michael Stack, Principal, COMPClub, Amaxx LLC. He is an expert in workers compensation cost containment systems and helps employers reduce their work comp costs by 20% to 50%.  He works as a consultant to large and mid-market clients, is co-author of Your Ultimate Guide To Mastering Workers Comp Costs, a comprehensive step-by-step manual of cost containment strategies based on hands-on field experience, and is founder of COMPClub, an exclusive member training program on workers compensation cost containment best practices. Through these platforms he is in the trenches on a working together with clients to implement and define best practices, which allows him to continuously be at the forefront of innovation and thought leadership in workers’ compensation cost containment. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.

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