Change Team Roles
Role 6: extension agent
Facilitates the spread of successful innovations from one place to another.
the change agent as extension agent
An innovation can be successful in one place at one time but still have little impact on the system as a whole. "Pilot" projects can be quite successful and promising but still die out and be forgotten unless there is a concernted effort made to extend them in time and place. That is where the change agent as extender becomes important.
Historical Success
One of the original applications of a specialized change agent function was embodied in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s "Cooperative Extension Service." The CES employed a full time "extension agent" in every county of the U.S. The main job of this agent was to encourage farmers to adopt new practices from the flood of innovations proved effective by university-based researchers across the country.
Being an Effective Extension Agent
In the narrowest interpretation, the extension agent is a salesperson. The job is to get a product adopted by as many people as possible by whatever means possible and available. However, the Change Agent's Guide conceives the extension agent in a much broader way.
The Extension Agent’s job is to take innovations that have been successful in one place and spread their use to many other places. From the earliest times, for example, the “demonstration” proved to be an ideal strategy. If farmers could travel to some local spot where the product was in place and see the difference between traditional and new practice, they could be persuaded to try the innovation on their own. However, demonstration is not the only strategy. Every type of medium can be used to convince people to try new practices or products, including demonstrations, workshops, pamphlets, radio, podcasts, television, websites and social media.
Filling the EXTENSION AGENT Role on the Change Team
Here are questions to ask as you consider how to fill the Extension Agent role on the change team:
- Can you define the set of people for whom the change should be a benefit?
- Can you define other relevant specifics of the audience or users or others who are to be affected by this change?
- Can you divide that audience into segments which might represent different viewpoints or resistances to the change?
- Who has the ability to reach these audiences and be persuasive?
- Who has the communications expertise or resources to develop and execute a communications strategy?
Change Team Roles
explore more roles
The Change Agent's Guide identifies 7 role types, each loosely associated with a stage in the change cycle.
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