Adopting early?
The term early adopter comes from the work of Everret M Rogers and his book Diffusion of Innovations written in 1962. The Rogers Bell curve (see image below) describes the flow of uptake of new ideas or technology from firstly the innovators through the population until a critical mass is achieved. When examining the topic the focus is often technology or consumerism. It is though a concept relevant for healthcare in particular the spread of new ideas, change and improvement.
This article examines the psychology behind early adopters in a digestible 5 minute read. Early adopters are information gathers, they want to research, examine and understand how and why somethings works and some don't. They are also risk takers, when examining something or trying something out, it might not work, it might be a failure, the early adopter will try anyway. They also have a connection with status, in so much that they are choosing ideas, concepts or products that represent who they are in the world and how they want to be seen.
Understanding who the early adopters are in your team is helpful for change to spread. An IHI conference I attended - and where the picture above came from - I added a new dimension to my understanding of spread of change and improvement work. A crucial element that I certainly hadn't really factored in.
When looking at how you spread change - you know that great idea you've tested in your own head and you now need the whole world to know. Of maybe the new idea that your boss has suggested would be a good idea to test (I have a bad feeling I have been that boss at times). The spread isn't generated by the innovators, it is the connections and the environment between the groups of people that support the spread and adopting of new ideas. A note I made at the conference reads 'putting it into a shiny brochure isn't going to make it happen'. The new followers follow the followers.
The early adopter (the second dancing person from the video in this post) is the pollinator to help the spread the idea. You need communication, connection, relationship and the environment for the idea to move between the groups. The span of physical connection between each group is important. From early adopter - early majority - late majority a connection has to exist. There needs to be interfaces that actually work between people at every level for any new idea to spread. The crowd won't follow the person at the front - that innovator has already moved onto the next idea anyway - the critical mass and the spread will come from the first followers.
