I’m not an avid reader of business books, but I’m more than a little aware of the work that has taken place over the years trying to understand how we humans adopt new technologies into our lives. To me, Rodgers’ diffusion of innovation work explains elegantly and logically why it takes so long for new ideas to find their way into mainstream use. As the team responsible for telling the world about TissuePatch and how it can revolutionise surgical practices, we may scratch our heads about why people aren’t falling over themselves to adopt our solution to their problems. Sure we are gaining what I believe is called “traction” at quite a pace as more and more people recognise that for instance in lung surgery it’s a good idea to save patients from suffering post operative prolonged air leaks. But can we expect the technological solution we offer with our self-adhesive surgical “cling-film” to diffuse its way into other procedures on its own? Of course not. And indeed driving diffusion of a disruptive technology is only so possible. So what to do? It’s probably explained best by combining the business theory with Gladwell’s book “Outliers” in which it seems we’ll need 10000 hours in the grinder before we make it. Work hard, keep trying to understand the demands of the product and bang away for 10000hours doing all of the above while shouting about our wonderful technological advancement from the rooftops and we’ll get there. After all, who was using staples and glues twenty five years ago?
