Understanding How People Change: A Diversity Issue

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Understanding How People Change A Diversity
Issue

• Living In / Living With Diversity
• Mary Lynn Manns
• Department of Management Accountancy

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Common misconceptions ofchange leaders

• Policies will address most of our issues
• Laws rewards treat symptoms, not the underlying
  causes
• What is needed?... a fundamental change in
  thinking and behaving
• We can persuade people with well-prepared
  presentations and elevator speeches
• This makes it difficult to address individual
  concerns
• Just the facts, maam
• The facts provide only knowledge
• knowledge persuasion decision
  implementation confirmation

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Leading changeits about relationships

• Change happens one individual at a time.
• Relate to whats going on in the other persons
  head, not in yours. (R.N. Bolles, What Color is
  Your Parachute?)
• What separates those who achieve from those who
  do not is in direct proportion to ones ability
  to ask for help. (D. Keough, former president of
  Coca-Cola)

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Innovativeness of the individual

• The degree to which an individual is relatively
  earlier in adopting a new idea than other members
  of a social system
• Partitioned into 5 adopter categories by laying
  off standard deviations from the average time of
  adoption
• A continuous variable
• A simplification that aids in the understanding
  of human behavior
• However, we lose information as a result of
  grouping individuals
• (Rogers)

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Guru on Your Side
Early Majority
Champion Skeptic
Bridge-Builder
Early Adopter
Connector
Local Sponsor
Innovator
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Innovator

• New stuff is cool!
• Venturesomeness is almost an obsession
• Can cope with a high degree of uncertainty
• A (temporary) gatekeeper for the change
• Not a good opinion leader

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Early Adopter

• This is interesting, but I want to hear more.
• Known for successful, discrete use of new ideas,
  so this person is
• respected and makes a good
• opinion leader

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Early Majority

• What do other people think?
• Are risk-adverse and want to know the experiences
  of others
• Provide a link to interpersonal networks

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Bridge-Builder

• Pair those who have accepted the idea with those
  who have not
• Homophily similar beliefs, personality,
  lifestyle
• Spreads message among similar people
  (horizontally)
• Strong ties (Granovetter, 1973)

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Connector

• Communicates with many different types of people
• Heterophily allows an idea to spread vertically
• Weak ties (Granovetter, 1973)

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Guru on Your Side

• Has the ear of managers and non-managers alike
• May be delicate to convince
• Can make or break your efforts

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Local Sponsor

• Can provide support and resources
• Use
• Whisper in the Generals Ear
• Guru Review
• Tailor Made

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Champion Skeptic

• Rather than fearing or avoiding the skeptics,
  respect what they have to say
• Consider giving them an official role in the
  change initiative

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A variety of peoplein your change initiative

• Innovator
• Early Adopter
• Early Majority
• Bridge-Builder
• Connector
• Guru on Your Side
• Evangelist
• Local Sponsor
• Champion Skeptic
• Manns Rising (2005) Fearless Change Patterns
  for Introducing New Ideas

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Summary

• People are diverse even when adopting change
• If we learn about this diversity, we can
• persuade each person in the most effective way
  PersonalTouch
• involve each person in the change initiative
  Involve Everyone
• develop a Group Identity
• If you and I were exactly the same, one of us
  would not be necessary.