The Power of Three

Jun 21, 2009 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: Productivity

I caught this video the other day via a mention on twitter.  Naturally, I had a good laugh and that moment of ‘that’s awesome!’-ness, but then filed it and moved on to the regular day’s activities.  Later that night I sent it over to a few friends, and watched it again.  Again a smile came to my face, but something else happened.  I started thinking about group dynamics, and how this example could apply to the marketplace.

At 20 seconds in, the guy in the green t-shirt joins (possibly crazy) guy number one, and we’re not quite certain if he’s a 100% participant, or a 99.44% mocker.  My guess is that we’re probably a bit closer to option 2 than 1.  At 54 seconds in, guy number three enters the picture and joins the dance.  He’s our key figure here.  Notice that it only takes another 15 seconds for not just one, but two additional participants to join the what will soon become an all hillside dance party.  For the next two minutes festival goers continue to add to the frenzy, until just about everyone in the shot is dancing like it’s 1999.

While dancer number one may have started the craze, and dancer number two’s commitment is questionable at best, it’s dancer number three that started the tipping point here.  He’s the guy that was clearly not mocking, saw something that he liked or enjoyed, and decided to unabashedly commit to it.  Couldn’t we draw the same parallels between your product or marketing message?  You would be dancer number one (again, possibly crazy), dancer number two may represent your competition, naysayers, the popular media, etc., but  dancer number three is the one that you need to be on the lookout for. He’s the one that received the message, and made it ok for everyone else to join in as well.

Naturally, it’s scary and challenging being the leader, the initiator.  It’s not quite as scary to have dancer number three’s role, but that doesn’t make it any less important.  A good lesson to be learned in the seemingly comic video.

Always be on the look out for dancer number three.