Building Your Team the Smart Way - First Followers and the Art of Creating a Movement

This is the Technology Adoption Curve applied to Lean projects. Every team has innovators and early adopters - the colleagues who are curious, frustrated enough to want change, and influential enough that when they join, others pay attention. These are your people. They exist in every job group, every branch, every department. The ability to identify them, bring them in early, and let them do the selling for you is crucial - because their endorsement is worth ten times yours as an outsider or project lead.

Why does this matter so much? Because the wrong approach wastes months. You chase the skeptics, try to overcome objections, schedule more meetings, and end up exhausted before the real improvement work has even started. The right approach builds momentum quietly and then suddenly - and when it tips, it tips fast.

In government, where mandated change often triggers defensiveness and where the words “Lean project” can make people reach for their resistance hat, this distinction between pushing adoption and attracting it is not a nice-to-have. It is the difference between a successful project and a shelf-ware report.

If you've ever felt like you're dragging people toward a better process while they dig their heels in, this module will change how you work. You'll leave knowing exactly who your first follower is - and how to find them in every project you run from here forward.