6.6.3 Relationships between Innovators and Adaptors

Problems of fruitful collaboration between innovators and adaptors are not infrequently based on the colored and often inaccurate perceptions which each group has of the other. Innovators tend to be seen by adaptors as abrasive, insensitive and disruptive, unaware of the havoc they are causing. Adaptors are seen by innovators on the other hand, as stuffy and unenterprising, wedded to systems, rules and norms of behavior which (in the opinion of the innovators) are restrictive and ineffectual. Consequently, disagreement and conflict are likely to arise when the more extreme types of innovator and adaptor come into working contact. Innovators are prone to overlook the extent to which the smooth running of any operation depends on a high degree of adaptiveness in the group but will be intensely aware of, and critical of the features of adaptiveness which limit long‑term effectiveness: lack of enterprise, inflexibility of the system and preoccupation with detail.

It must be emphasized that the agent for change may be either an innovator or an adaptor. In a predominantly innovator group the agent of change will be an adaptor, and vice versa. This discovery overthrows traditional assumptions that heralding and initiating change is the prerogative of the type of person to whom the term innovator is now applied. A precipitating event may require either an innovative or an adaptive solution; whether it is generally expected or not depends on the original orientation of the group and the nature of its task. An example in which an adaptor is an agent for change in a team of innovators is provided by the case, in which the precipitating event takes the form of a bank's refusal to extend credit as support to further new enterprise in a company that has cash flow problems. At this point the adaptor, who has been anticipating the event for months, is at hand with facts, figures and a contingency plan neatly worked out, and becomes a potential agent for change. This can be transformed into action if the change‑agent has the personal qualities of competence, status and ability to influence others.