How do good ideas spread? Recent New Yorker article written by a health care expert and leader who contemplates why certain useful medical practices get adopted quickly, and why others with obvious benefits in saving large numbers of lives, are very slow to be adopted.

As noted, this theme applies to eLearning revolution as well, in that change is required, but that doesn’t mean change will occur in anything like a straight line to the optimal results.

Also of strong interest in the article is the focus on activation of the human element…how does one achieve needed changes in the individuals who are directly involved. Article talks about carrots and sticks, but finds that “door to door feet on the ground” can be the most effective way to achieve change for a massive group.

Now, it seems to me, that if one can combine more of what occurs in the “door to door” engagements, with the connective and communicative powers of eLearning one might have a recipe for success in many types of “learning”.