Diffusion of Innovation
By Justin Powers, USPA Polo Development, LLC
Traveling to clubs across the country allows the USPA Polo Development, LLC team to
Mark Powers, Houston Polo Club’s Lead Polo Instructor for Step Up Program
see the level of passion and commitment of individuals growing the sport at the grassroots level. It is always rewarding to disseminate a polo innovation that worked in one part of the country to another club and see it be replicated successfully. In the 1960’s Everett Rogers [at the time a communications professor at Ohio State University] wrote a book called Diffusion of Innovations in which he analyzed how and why new ideas spread throughout cultures and societies.
One innovation, the “Step-Up Program” model, utilized by the Houston Regional Polo Center and various other clubs across the country, takes an incremental approach to player development [the Houston model develops new players by graduating them from Polo School to Margarita League to 2 Goal to full members of the club]. According to Rogers, as more and more clubs “adopt” this innovation the knowledge of and implementation will spider web across the entire polo society. Rogers work outlines three key factors affecting the spread of an innovation: Communication Channels, Time, and Social Systems. The Instructors Forum, Club Development trips, and Circuit Strategic Planning sessions open up lines of communication among clubs and instructors.
We are building a strong polo development network based on collaboration and group think. New innovations are being identified and labeled as “best practices” and being pushed out through the polo development network. The old saying “It takes a village…” applies not only to raising a child, but also to developing a polo player.
Contact me for more information on polo’s Step Up Teaching Program, powers@uspolo.org