[Dalya’s Note: This guest post was written by Patricia Dines. She is a freelance writer who’s been inspiring constructive eco-action for 20+ years and can be found at www.patriciadines.info or www.askecogirl.info.]

In my conversations with people about eco-action, one common question they have is how to talk with folks who don’t care about their issue, or worse, respond in non-factual and argumentative ways.

Understandably, most of us want to avoid conflict, keep conversations agreeable, and steer clear of the strident activist tone that turns people away.

However, simply skipping these discussions can leave us feeling unsatisfied, because we know that literally life and death is at stake for so many people, animals, ecosystems, and the planet itself.

So how can we communicate about these issues both pleasantly and effectively, and, through that, help our culture cheerfully shift from eco-destruction to eco-sanity?

The Product Diffusion Curve

One technique I’ve developed for doing this is based on the Product Diffusion Curve from Everett Rogers’ book, Diffusion of Innovations. This model describes the five customer stages a new product goes through in being adopted by a population. Marketing folks use it to help tailor their messages — and I realized that we could do the same.

Learning the Five Audience Categories

To understand this model, let’s imagine that we have a gadget we want to introduce.

1) Innovators. The first folks we’ll want to attract are the pioneering innovators who love to make and try new things. To them, uncertainty, difficulty, and the risk of failure are all just part of the adventure. So they’ll wear the newest fashion or use the pre-release software, even if it crashes. If they like our gizmo, we’ll have our cultural toehold.

2) Early Adopters. This next group watches the innovators, looking for the more stable new products to use, show off, and recommend in their expensive “trends” newsletters.

3) Early Majority. Next in line are the folks who watch the early adopters and seek options that meet their tangible needs, fit their values and infrastructure, and are easy to use.

4) Late Majority. This more skeptical group waits until a critical mass of others are happily using an item before they take the leap.

5) Laggards. These folks are the very last to adopt a new device, after nearly everyone else, and only if they must. They value constancy and traditions, and don’t like change.

How You Can Use This Model

1) Connect with this tool by considering which of these roles you play in the different arenas of your life. When do you love new ideas and risk? Where do you prefer to “wait and see” instead? This can help you empathize and connect with others — and notice when your own tendencies are coloring your view.

2) Look for both positive and negative examples of innovators and laggards in your life and our world. Folks in this culture can often prefer the exciting trend-setting innovators, as they tout the latest fun new thing and seem so much more exciting than those foot-dragging laggards! However, innovators can also be too impulsive, ignoring existing structures, having short attention spans, and taking unwise risks that cause serious harm. On the other hand, folks who change more slowly can potentially provide stability and the chance for our culture to “look before we leap.”

3) Explore ways to use this model to better understand and persuade your audience. So, for instance, if you identify someone as an innovator in the arena you’re discussing, you’ll emphasize what’s new and different about your proposal. On the other hand, if they’re a laggard, you might describe how everyone else is already applying these ideas, including someone they know and like. You can also reduce perceived risk by linking your idea with their existing values, activities, or concerns. And sometimes the best you can do is gently plant an idea seed for them to possibly consider later.

This is just a taste of what this model can do. I hope that you’re inspired to explore it more!