Dan Gilleland posted on August 18, 2009 06:29
You may have heard about learning styles, but have you heard about “change styles”? A Change Style is a description of the way one typically reacts to change. While it’s a generalization and everyone is able to react differently to different changes, I find it interesting to think of these categorizations of how people can react to change.
The Innovator – This is the person who is often at the forefront of change. In fact, it’s not unusual to see them as the instigator of change.
The Embracer – This is the person who quickly “gets on the band wagon” of change. They are quite open to change and are the early adopters of the change.
The Acceptor – These are the people who aren’t early adopters but who eventually accept the change after some time and consideration. They don’t oppose the change, but they aren’t going to “jump on the band wagon” until they have more opportunity to reflect on the change. In general, these are people who are “open” to change, but that’s as far as it goes.
The Resistor – These people don’t like change. They are content with how things were before. They will resist the change for themselves and possibly for others too.
As I said, this is a generalization, and calling them Change “Styles” may be a bit misleading, because most people will adopt each of these responses to change depending on various circumstances.
And it shouldn’t be assumed that any of these are inherently better than the other. Many might assume that being a “resistor” is bad (the very term is often associated with negativity). But resisting “bad changes” is actually quite good. Change for change’s sake is not a good motto.
In fact, the best thing to be aware of is one’s own tendency in how they react to change. That way, with some thought and consideration, it is possible to learn how to respond to change rather than simply reacting.