Behavioural Change Toolkit · Frameworks

Diffusion — Who First? — Interactive

You are deciding who to roll out to first, and who to stop arguing with

Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations answers the question every rollout faces: who first? Score your change against the five attributes, list the people others actually go to, and the tool ranks your Early Adopters and sequences the waves.

The rule most rollouts break

Do not start with the loudest sceptic. You spend disproportionate effort, usually fail, and hand them a public platform during the fragile early phase. The sceptic is far more movable when 60% of their peers have already moved and the argument has been settled without them.

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The rollout

Will it spread?

Rogers' five attributes. Score 1–5 — anything at 2 or below is a spread blocker you can design around before launch, usually more cheaply than any comms campaign.

AttributeScore
Relative advantage
Is it visibly better for the user, not just the organisation?
Compatibility
Does it fit existing values and ways of working?
Simplicity
How easy is it to understand and use? (5 = simple)
Trialability
Can people try it without commitment or risk?
Observability
Can others see the results?

Who are your Early Adopters?

Not the org chart. Tick the markers that genuinely apply — the tool ranks by how many each person carries, and three or more puts them in your network.

PersonOthers ask them
before deciding		Respected for
competence		Already frustrated
with the current way		Connected
across teams		Credible to
the sceptics

The two-question sociogram: ask 15 people who they go to when they are not sure how to do something, and whose opinion on this change they would take seriously. The top five to eight are frequently not who leadership expected.

→ Next: Champion Network Playbook · Social Norms and Influence · Pilot Design and Experiment Card

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Last updated: 11 August 2026