Social factors affecting innovation

In researching the S of PEST - social factors - I noticed a shift in thinking. Whereas political and economic factors largely affected what drives innovation, social factors seem to be more about adoption of innovation. This makes social factors quite interesting to me because I want to know how to ensure maximum adoption of my 'innovation' or project, when it is ready for use.

There are plenty of resources out there, which go into detail about this. I have looked at three:

Innovation Excellence

This article cites the work of Professor Robert Cialdini, who talks about human behaviour in terms of

• reciprocity - this is basically the 'you scratch my back; I'll scratch yours' theory. People are more likely to do something for you if you've done something for them.
• consistency - once we make a choice, we feel pressure to be consistent and to commit to that choice.
• social proof - the believe that the more people agree with something, the more likely it is to be right or have value.
• liking - we prefer to say yes to people that we like.
• authority - people have a deep need to obey authority.
• scarcity - if something is rare, it is more valuable.

Once I have got an eILP up and running, I want my tutors to adopt and use it. So what can I be doing to enable this? Some of the things, I hope I already do, like doing favours for them, being the kind of line manager that they want to say yes to, and being an authority that they want to obey. These last two could run contrary to each other but I have always tried to get a balance between being 'the boss' and therefore having some clout when it comes to giving out things that need doing, and being reasonable, helpful and kind so that tutors buy-in to what I want them to do.

Social proof could be a big factor in adopting my eILP but I can start now getting the early adopters to connect with the concept and then they will help me sell it to the others. Also, the fact that we will be doing something that seems to be quite rare, might help too.

Instructional Technology Research Online

I won't go into this one in detail, but it is well worth a read. I like this diagram...

Managing Innovation Adoption

I haven't read this yet but a quick glance through got my interest and I've bookmarked it for later.