Another factor is whether the tide is going in or out :-) If you are trying to ride your wave to shore and the tide is going out, it is a much harder job (sound familiar :-) I did my master's research on diffusion of innovations - how fast we pick up on a new thing and use it (this was as it applies to nurses). The theory I used was developed by Everett M. Rogers. He talked about the adoption of new ideas happening on an "S" curve. (I always envisioned it in my mind as that curve you see that illustrates the progress of labor :-) He talked about innovators - (the venturesome) who use the idea first, early adopters (respectable), early majority (deliberate), late majority (skeptical) and laggards (traditional). With lots of neat characteristics about the people in each group. Has a lot to do with change theory and how people adapt to change. Then Kay Hoover introduced me to a book by Joel Arthur Barker called Future Edge. He's the paradigm shift guy. He talks about paradigm shifts and I would liken his concept to the same idea as the waves. He says that Pioneers are on the forefront of using a new idea, they are on the horizon, looking forward to see what else there is to see ( the LCs :-), Settlers are the ones comfortable in the old routine (the pp staff nurses :-), they want to know if it safe to move towards the horizon, they don't really want to move out of their comfort zone. Pioneers are the people who stand at the top of that s shaped curve -peak of wave that then crashes (the sliding back-burnout stage) and say this isn't working anymore, we need to move on and they begin a new curve or wave. I also think personality type fits into all this too. And the theories about how things become institutionalized (settled). Lots of neat stuff. When I was doing my research in 93-94 I was so amazed at how I saw the development of ILCA and our profession fit so neatly into Dr. Rogers theory. fascinating stuff. When you are involved in it, you think it is all new, but we are really just repeating patterns that have happened over and over since the beginning of time! Sincerely, Pat in SNJ PS: Diane isn't this what you wrote about in Clinical Issues in Lactation 2000? Have any more volumes come out? *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html