192 The Coaching Toolkit for Child Welfare Practice
Change Agents
Everett Rogers (1995) classified five different types of members of an
organization based on response to change. Figure 7.3 depicts the
average percentage of individuals in each group.
Innovators are adventurous and most comfortable with uncertainty,
and they have a high level of understanding of technical and
practice knowledge. On average, they comprise 2.5% of any group
and usually are the people who want the change.
Early adopters provide leadership and are part of the local
organization system. They are typically respected and tend to
decrease uncertainty for others. They will check to see if the change
is worthwhile and they should be included in the change process
until the end. Early adopters comprise approximately 13.5% of the
typical group.
Figure 7.3. Adoption curve (Rogers, 1995)
