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Characteristics of Individuals

Noted scholar, Everett M. Rogers, found that there are essentially five types of people involved in the adoption of innovations:

• Innovators — [2.5%]

People who are on the cutting edge — thinking about and planning for the next wave. These are the ones who always know the latest thing and are usually involved in developing it.

• Early Adopters — [13.5%]

These are important opinion leaders who are able to bridge the gap between the innovators (who are often too technical for the majority of people) and the next group — the early majority.

• Early Majority — [34%]

More careful in making changes than the early adopters, these are still people who are open to change. Often, they will adopt the change for more pragmatic reasons.

• Late Majority — [34%]

These are the skeptics. They will only adopt a change when it's clear that this is where the rest of the system is going.

• Laggards — [16%]

This crew must be dragged kicking and screaming into the next phase. Recent change experts question the feasibility of trying to change this group's collective mind.