Question from the field: How do you affect change in others?

You can change yourself and you can change the situation, but you absolutely cannot change other people (Joanne Trollope, 1943)

How do you affect the most change in people who are resistant to new ideas or change, even if it is positive? 

How to get others to accept change is an age-old question. Over time, I have recognized a range in people’s acceptance of and ability to adapt to change (including my own). I have found the work of Everett M. Rodgers’ the most useful in understanding an individual’s ability to adapt to change. Rodgers wrote in his book Diffusion of Innovations (1962)[1] that, by their very nature, some people are “early adopters.”

Early adopters represent the early customers who are open to new ideas and enjoy being the first in line to try a new strategy, product, or process. Change for them is relatively easy and even considered fun! However, the majority of us adapt to change more slowly. Rodgers explained that people’s acceptance of change can be modeled in a normal distribution (also referred to as a bell curve). Early adopters represent the first 15% of the population, but most of us fall in the 68.3% range and are a bit slower to accept change. Those most resistant to change (who Edwards refers to as laggards) represent the right side of the curve. They require the most evidence of change before they will adopt the change, if they ever do!

When I introduce new ideas, I try to remember that I have a diversity of people in the room. Some will accept new ideas in a minute, while others will need time and a lot of evidence before they become open to the change. Educators are on a bell curve as well, with some teachers eager to learn and change and some so resistant that they will likely not accept anything new without enormous energy exerted by the change agents. That does not mean the “laggards” are impossible to change, only that it takes more time. There is no right or wrong here, just real human differences.

Perhaps the next part of your question is “how can we help the person asking the question to affect change in their school or classroom?” How do you get those less inclined to accept change to support new ideas and actions? The first step may be to seek out early adopters who are willing to work with you. Provide early adopters with opportunities to demonstrate positive outcomes (quick wins). Early adopters accept risk taking and the occasional failure because they are more comfortable with the changes needed to fix the flaws.

As these early adopting educators achieve success, other educators will begin to accept the changes. Demonstrated success will help to recruit from the next population of people who are just to the right of early adopters on the bell curve (and who will accept change considerably quicker that the laggards). As more educators learn about implementing changes, work toward a practice of educator inclusion. In other words, help those who are somewhat resistant to feel ownership in the change rather than just adopting someone else’s idea. What is it about the change that does or does not work for some educators? How can we help shape the change to be broadly inclusive? As we listen, we also learn. Learning shapes our own changes in understanding, awareness, beliefs, and behaviors. Ask yourself if you are an early adapter or a laggard or somewhere in between. Perhaps this is the first step in understanding and shaping change in others.

[1] Rodgers, Everett M. (1962) Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press of Glencoe, McMillan Company.