LIT2T Leadership Guide

58 TO: TABLE OF CONTENTS Havelock’s 1973 theory of change stipulated four roles of the change agent: as a catalyst or trouble maker whose efforts stir up change as a solution giver as a resource linker, be it financial, material, human, or knowledge-based as a process helper who can recognize and define needs, diagnose problems, set objectives, acquire needed resources, help implement solutions, and evaluate solution succes(p. 19) “Within these roles, the change agent gathers relevant information by inquiring and listening to clientele, observing and measuring systems outputs, and then reflecting on that data in order to diagnose the existing situation and determining how best to facilitate change. As clientele progress in the change process, change agents should apply stage-specific activities (HAVELOCK & ZLOTOLOW, 1995 (P.19) Based on these acceptance stages Rogers identified five categories of technology adopters: • innovators, who see technology’s potential and take risks to incorporate it • early adopters, who model successful integration of technology • early majority, who think carefully before incorporating technology, and usually do not collaborate • late majority, who are influenced by peers and external incentives • laggards, who resist change and have few resources to support change. (P. 23) Rogers Stages of Innovation Rogers describes five stages in the adoption process by individuals: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and finally, adoption or rejection (Fahy, p. 161). In Rogers approach, the type and form of information must match the stage in the process and communication with involved individuals must reflect the information needs implicit in each stag A typical or common response to innovation can be represented by an S-curve: High initial interest and enthusiasm for change becomes declining interest and disillusionment in the trough of the curve as the individual realizes the inherent challenges and the need to change personal practice, followed by new interest based on “more realistic expectations” reflected in the rise of the curve again (Fahy, p. 162). Schwandt describes a role for evaluators “in helping practitioners to ‘cultivate critical intelligence’” (AS CITED IN FITZPATRICK, JODY JAMES R. SANDERS, AND BLAINE R. WORTHERN, 2011, P. 6) and this intelligence will be critical in determining questions such as who the laggards, champions and change agents and what they are saying, doing and thinking. As well, evaluation can match communications with the stage of innovation, and provide critical intelligence about past barriers, and where the plan needs modification. Disruptive Change The reality is that our settlement language training sector is facing similar disruptive change to what the taxi industry faces with Uber. Those who don’t innovate, face the same reality as the taxi driver holding the near worthless license taxi plate he was going to retire on. Innovation with information technology is not a choice but a necessity in a world where IT is threaded through our lives. Caidi and Allard have researched and demonstrated the central