Are you a change agent?

Last fall I attended a Lean Green Belt certification course put on by IIE. One of the things that it included was this partitioning of people:

• 20% of people who are change agents.
• 60% of people who get on board once they see results.
• 20% of people who don't want to change.

While the exact percentages are obviously made up, the strategy they mentioned based on this partitioning is still useful. You start by getting a group of people together who are excited for positive change. By your combined forces you get some initial results which you can use to convince the middle people. Finally, simply outrun the people who are unwilling to change.

I was talking this idea over with a friend, and we joked about making a survey which asked people to classify themselves. It was a fun idea, but highlights one way new projects get derailed. In a study, 82% of adults say they have done something in the past six months to contribute to positive social change. In an optimistic world where the number is accurate, that matches up nicely with the made-up percentages above if you assume the middle people find something with evidence behind it to pursue. But it still makes it harder to figure out who to include in your initial concept-motivated group, and who to bring on board after you have some success.