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Change Management Basics: Understanding why people resist change with the Rogers Innovation-Diffusion Model

Change Management Basics: Understanding Why People Resist Change With The Rogers Innovation-Diffusion Model

Authored by: Holly Whitaker, PhD, Learning Strategy Consultant at D2L.

As a change leader, you are probably shining a huge spotlight on your success stories. For Brightspace adopters at your institution, this is great news. They know you have their back, and you know they have yours. But then, you encounter the inevitable arm-crosser, brow concretely furrowed & heels dug in across the line in the sand from where you stand, they resist change while building an intricate and seemingly diabolical case against you and Brightspace. It can feel like your self-esteem and your job performance hangs in the balance of the sentiments of a single resistant faculty member.

While encountering these staunch resisters is disheartening, you should not be deflated in the face of their resistance. Resistance is a completely natural experience, especially if you have a lot invested in the current solution. You don't want to lose your hard work, or be faced with completely starting over in a new technology.

Fortunately, the Rogers Innovation-Diffusion model can help us understand the reasons why our faculty members and instructors resist changing to Brightspace - and what to do about it.

Rogers outlined the Innovation-Decision process to help us understand where our resisters are in the decision-making process. Here's how you can understand the sources of faculty and instructor resistance at each stage of the Innovation-Decision process, and how that can help you bring them along the Innovation-Decision process.

Knowledge

The Knowledge stage of the Innovation-Decision process is where instructors gain awareness of and knowledge about how Brightspace functions.

Humans naturally resist what they don't know, and your job at this stage is to create as much curiosity as possible. When you create curiosity, you're priming the pump for satisfying that curiosity with demos, open houses, webinars, hands-on sessions and other communications that create awareness among your faculty and instructors about the features of Brightspace.

If a faculty member doesn't have their particular, often very granular, curiosity satisfied, this could become a source of resistance. These granular curiosities usually revolve around their personal concerns about how their teaching style will need to change, or how Brightspace will be compatible with what they are currently doing in their class.

How to win them over in the Knowledge stage:

Take time to understand their concerns. Ask them to demonstrate what they are currently doing in their class, and then ask if you can demonstrate how Brightspace replicates the functionality or exceeds their current functionality in terms of efficient workflows or newer tools.

Persuasion

The Persuasion stage of the Innovation-Decision process is when instructors develop an opinion about Brightspace.
Everyone becomes aware of and adopts technology based on a unique set of factors that, when taken as a whole, puts them into one of Rogers's Adopter Categories. Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards all are persuaded based on different sets of factors that prime their opinions of Brightspace.

Brush up on your knowledge of Rogers's Adopter Categories, and integrate the main factors that influence opinions within those categories into your communication messages to your instructors.

How to win them over in the Persuasion stage:

Often, Innovators, Early Adopters and Early Majority are the easy sells with Brightspace. It gets more difficult with Late Majority and Laggards. It pays in those situations to wait them out. Update your communication plan to target repeated, specific messages designed to persuade this group - they will come around eventually.

Decision

The Decision stage of the Innovation-Decision process is the stage where instructors decide to adopt or not adopt Brightspace.
This is where you can't make it personal. Deciding whether & how to adopt Brightspace is your instructors' choice. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Often a decision to adopt or not adopt is based on some tool functionality in Brightspace, some unknown fear, or some other external factor - not because you failed or succeeded in your mission.

How to win them over in the Decision stage:

Focus on Brightspace as being the right tool for them - and work with them to make the adjustments to their course delivery model as easy on them as possible. In this way, you'll make it as easy as possible for them to make the decision to adopt Brightspace.

Implementation

The Implementation stage of the Innovation-Decision process is the stage where instructors who adopt Brightspace actually start using it.

Here's where everyone, including your instructors, hopes that everything goes well. One small gap in help desk or not being able to make one of the tools work within a certain time frame (like the gradebook during exam week) can turn first-time users off for good.

How to win them over in the Implementation stage:

Create just-in-time messages with helpful tutorials that drip out at specific times. Use intelligent agents to automate this communication. For example, use an intelligent agent to send instructors a video tutorial about exams, question banks & the grade book during the first round of exams. You know that is almost always during the 3rd or 4th week of the semester, right

Confirmation

The Confirmation stage is when faculty members keep using Brightspace because they've had a positive experience, or they stop using Brightspace because they've had a negative experience.
Isn't it true that you keep using things you like, and that are easy to use? And you stop using things that take too much time, or don't deliver what was promised? It will be the same here with Brightspace. Sometimes a negative experience happens when an instructor expects Brightspace to have the same tools in the same place as the old system. Sometimes negative experiences happen because instructors did not have enough training.

How to win them over in the Confirmation stage:

Be transparent about what Brightspace will and will not do. Provide enough up-front training for instructors who are using Brightspace for the first time, then have a plan to provide just-in-time training (like using intelligent agents to send out exam tutorials during the 3rd week of class).

Final Thoughts

Remember that resisters resist for a reason, and it's rarely personal, so don't take it personally. You can, however, make it your personal mission to win over resisters. It's easier if you understand the Innovation-Decision process and what you can do at each stage to win everyone over - not just the resisters.

Check out the rest of the Change Management Basics articles: