Who to Involve in Change Initiatives?

By: Duke Okes
Submitted: 2007-01-17 15:05:17
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By now hopefully most managers and professional know that involving the right people in change initiatives is a key factor that will impact success. Involving those who work in the processes that will be impacted is crucial, as they will ultimately be responsible for carrying out the change on a day-to-day basis.

However, how can we make sure we select the right people from the process? One way to look at it is to consider the presented by Everett Rogers in his book “Diffusion of Innovations.”

Consider the normal distribution, a bell-shaped curve that in this case represents variation in human preferences. At one end of the distribution are what Rogers calls the Innovators and Early Adopters, at the other end are the Late Adopters and Laggards, and in the middle is the Majority. We usually would expect about 2/3rds of people to fall into the middle category, with the remaining evenly split between the two tails of the curve.

The curve can be thought of as predicting who will adopt a new technology, idea, etc. For example, were you one of the first on your block to have a cell phone? When a new restaurant opens are you one of the first to try it? If so, then you are an innovator/early adopter, on the leading edge for at least these specific items. If you wait until several of your friends have done it, then you’re perhaps in the middle. If you don’t yet have a cell phone, then you’re on the other end of the curve.

So how does this apply to selecting who to involve in a change initiative? Imagine that you created a group created totally of innovators/early adopters. They’re going to be so far ahead of the crowd that now one will understand where they’re trying to go. And obviously if you had a group consisting primarily of laggards/late adopters, they’ll just sit around talking about why the initiative doesn’t make sense.

So who to involve? Make sure you have someone from each portion of the curve. By including some of the innovators/early adopters, you’ll have the risk-takers who are willing to try new things. By including some from the middle, you’ll have the core of the organization represented, who will follow the innovators/early adopters as the rationale and process for the change initiative develop. And by including at least one of the laggards/late adopters you’ll ensure that this segment has a more accurate understanding of what is going on. They’ll be communicating to their cohorts what is actually going on (rather than having to guess, often inaccurately, based on fear) and they’re less likely to try to sabotage the effort.

Regardless of which portion of the curve each individual falls into, make sure they are trusted by their peers. This means they’ll be valuable disciples for change within their cohort group.

© 2006 Duke Okes

Duke Okes helps organizations and individuals become more productive and more professional. He can be reached at http://www.aplomet.com

Article source: Expert Articles

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