Stages of Digital Adoption

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

The four stages of organizational maturity

The four stages of organizational maturity are:

• Stage 1: Grassroots
• Stage 2: Rationalization
• Stage 3: Operationalization
• Stage 4: Widespread Adoption

In Stage 1, the grassroots are those innovators, those early adopters who know that they want to do something. Maybe they want to do the same thing as you, maybe they want to do something a little bit different, but you might be able to get them aligned with your strategy if you talk to them and get them on-side.

Stage 2 is about rationalization, and that goes back to having an evidence-based way of rationalizing, and selling the idea that: “This is what we want to do. This is why we want to do it. And this is going to be the impact on you.”

Stage 3 of organizational maturity is Operationalization. What that really means is getting things up and running. There’s quite a big step from doing your original plan, getting the buy-in to be able to launch it, and then actually putting it into practice. And that’s what we really mean by that third stage.

Stage 4 is Widespread Adoption. Often, there is an even bigger jump between Stages 3 and 4 than there is between Stages 2 and 3. Sometimes, if you’ve got a few supporters on-side, you can get things started. But getting widespread adoption can be far more difficult, and that’s when you might need to bring in some executive support.