response 1: Role of Early Adopters and Why it is a Good Idea to Focus your Leadership Attention on These People:  The role of early adopters is to show their commitment to the change needed while building trust and with credibility, find the right people to share the common goal in the hopes of implementing the change.The early adoptershave the power to either push people away or get them to move forward with them which is why it is so important for them to choose the right poeple.  It is a great idea to focus leadership attention on these people because chances are that the earlier they adopt the idea of change, the more likely they are to be passionate about it and genuinely want to see the change happen.  They can use that passion to build confidence in the vision, thus, influencing others to share the passion and want to reach the goal just as badly as they do.  By doing this, they develop the common goal by presenting it in a sensible way but appealing to the heart (Kotter, 2012).  My Experience with a Guiding Coalition  A year ago, I was part of a coalition to help my company work smarter and faster than it was.  My company wanted us to start using tablets in the hospitals to be able to use the technology to take multiple claims per day as opposed to just one or two.  Because my team serves one of the largest hospitals in the Metro Atlanta area and we have a much larger volume than other hospitals, and they knew we often felt overwhelmed, this would be a good thing for us to use.  The immediate coalition were 5 members of IT, the VP of Operations, my Director of Field Operations, Manager of Field Operations, and 6 Healthcare Reps (including myself) that were to pilot the program and give feedback before the company wide launch.  In the first 2 months, we gave constant feedback daily, every other day, or weekly and IT had to fix the 'bugs'.  After the third month, the tablets were launched company wide.  It accomplished what it set out to accomplish, meaning, by being able to use the technology as opposed to doing hand written applications, we were able to take as many as 5 or 6 claims per day.  By doing so, we were able to assist many more patients and had fewer patients that we missed which made us much more effective in pleasing our cusotmer (the hospital).  It cut the number of patients kept on hold by over 2/3 which was amazing as this helped the Healthcare Reps to feel much less overwhelmed and less stressed.  It was truly a win-win.  The major challenges in keeping the coalition intact occurred in the first 2 months while frustrations ran high while having to have the 'bugs' fixed.  Sometimes if felt hard among the Healthcare Reps the IT staff to stay focused on the goal while feedback sometimes became complaining sessions.  In essence, the challenge was for the IT department to not lose credibility with the HCR's by not being able to fix things as fast as we would have liked them to and I'm sure our credibility was questionable ...

1. response 1:
Role of Early Adopters and Why it is a Good Idea to Focus your
Leadership Attention on These People: The role of early
adopters is to show their commitment to the change needed
while building trust and with credibility, find the right people to
share the common goal in the hopes of implementing the
change.The early adoptershave the power to either push people
away or get them to move forward with them which is why it is
so important for them to choose the right poeple. It is a great
idea to focus leadership attention on these people because
chances are that the earlier they adopt the idea of change, the
more likely they are to be passionate about it and genuinely
want to see the change happen. They can use that passion to
build confidence in the vision, thus, influencing others to share
the passion and want to reach the goal just as badly as they do.
By doing this, they develop the common goal by presenting it
in a sensible way but appealing to the heart (Kotter, 2012). My
Experience with a Guiding Coalition A year ago, I was part of
a coalition to help my company work smarter and faster than it
was. My company wanted us to start using tablets in the
hospitals to be able to use the technology to take multiple
claims per day as opposed to just one or two. Because my team
serves one of the largest hospitals in the Metro Atlanta area and
we have a much larger volume than other hospitals, and they
knew we often felt overwhelmed, this would be a good thing for
us to use. The immediate coalition were 5 members of IT, the
VP of Operations, my Director of Field Operations, Manager of
Field Operations, and 6 Healthcare Reps (including myself) that
were to pilot the program and give feedback before the company
wide launch. In the first 2 months, we gave constant feedback
daily, every other day, or weekly and IT had to fix the 'bugs'.
After the third month, the tablets were launched company wide.
It accomplished what it set out to accomplish, meaning, by
being able to use the technology as opposed to doing hand

2. written applications, we were able to take as many as 5 or 6
claims per day. By doing so, we were able to assist many more
patients and had fewer patients that we missed which made us
much more effective in pleasing our cusotmer (the hospital). It
cut the number of patients kept on hold by over 2/3 which was
amazing as this helped the Healthcare Reps to feel much less
overwhelmed and less stressed. It was truly a win-win. The
major challenges in keeping the coalition intact occurred in the
first 2 months while frustrations ran high while having to have
the 'bugs' fixed. Sometimes if felt hard among the Healthcare
Reps the IT staff to stay focused on the goal while feedback
sometimes became complaining sessions. In essence, the
challenge was for the IT department to not lose credibility with
the HCR's by not being able to fix things as fast as we would
have liked them to and I'm sure our credibility was questionable
with IT at times as well regarding our ability to operate the
tablets efficiently. Luckily, the feedback both ways was always
respectful and much was learned between IT and the HCR's and
we worked together to reach and exceed our goal. Thanks,
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response 2:
Early adopters: I view adopters like a church congregation and
the pastor announces he wants to buy the adjacent land to
increase space for a family life center and parking. The pastor is
a strong and trust worthy leader and has tremendous credibility,
is very aware that it will take large amounts of funding to get
this done. And in realizing there is a diverse congregation in
terms of demographics, he will need some early adopters to
plant the seed to help get the elders on board.So, the pastors
sets a year long goal and initially work on the various ministries
to garner support and start a conversation informally outside of
the Church to begin building the coalition. Once a certain level

3. of excitement starts to build, then a formal announcement is
made to begin creating a team. This team will play a role in
getting added support in helping to gain trust and show the
other members what the benefit will be for the Church as a
whole and individual members. If the early adopters initially
buy in they are the virus that expands the pandemic to help the
organization make the needed change behind the enthusiastic
leader. This is why the early adopters are important.
Leadership: "Leaders make sure people not only see the vision,
they live and breathe it" and "Leaders relentlessly upgrade their
team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate,
coach, and build self confidence." Welch (2005). Usually when
change is being whispered about their is a lot of fear,
trepidation and uncertainty. And because of the number of
people opposed to the change can build up quickly. An effective
leader will focus efforts on early adopters because usually they
have strong charming and charismatic personalities that initially
put people at ease based on their credibility and track record.
For example, Warren is not called the oracle of Omaha for
nothing. His success and knowledge and personality will at least
get someones attention, even if only for a short while. Personal
experience: During my military tenure, before the first Gulf
War, we were undergoing a major change. I mentioned earlier in
the semester that we had a Commander who had a vision and
knowledge that we were selected to become apart of a historic
division. Myself and others had a roll in this coming to fruition.
The key five section supervisors had to meet and form the team
who would lead the way. We first drew up a plan and had a
section meeting for each supervisor to share the plan with their
section members. Then we organized a small demonstration
after weeks of training of what would be required of the new
unit and what our new responsibility would be. The end result
is, we became apart of the historic division, and a better and
more efficient unit to boot. The biggest challenge in
accomplishing the task, were shrinking egos, and getting older
supersvisors to see career extension for themselves and

4. promotional opportunities for the younger troops. In the end it
all worked out.