Dissemination begins by assessing the ways potential user groups, sometimes referred to as stakeholders, implement an innovation and tailor it to promote scaling in other contexts. Bradley and others who have researched scaling in international contexts recommend:  “[T]ailoring of the innovation to fit target user groups;… [promoting] deep engagement with target user groups to ensure that the innovation is translated, integrated, and replicated effectively; and devolving of efforts to spread the innovation from the initial user groups to additional sets of user groups often through social and professional networks and relationships.”[1]

An ultimate goal of dissemination is to help potential users understand how implementation was carried out in the original context so that they can understand how to adapt and adopt the innovation in the new context. 

Who disseminates innovations in your context? How can they help potential users understand the original context of the innovation so that new users can understand how to implement in the new context?

[1] Bradley, E. H., Curry, L. A, Pérez-Escamilla, R., Berg, D., Bledsoe, S., Ciccone, D. K., Yuan, C. (2011, October). Dissemination, diffusion, and scale up of family health innovations in low income countries. New Haven, CT: Global Health Leadership Institute. Retrieved from https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/Documents/yale-global-health-report.PDF

This is the ninth post in a series about the Transformative Change Initiative (TCI) and is based on the 2014 TCI booklet. This post discusses the sixth guiding principle in the TCI Framework.

Dr. Debra Bragg, OCCRL director and endowed professor at Illinois, researches the transition to college by youth and adults, especially student populations that have not attended college historically.