The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) for staff development is an empirically-based conceptual framework which outlines the developmental process that individuals experience as they implement a new innovation. The model is based on the assumption that, when persons responsible for implementing change via inservice programs have relevant information about the people experiencing the process, they are better able to provide appropriate and effective support. In diagnosing the individual needs of participants in an educational innovation, two critical concepts are used: the stages of concerns teachers have about the innovation (awareness, informational, personal, management, consequence, collaboration, and refocusing), and the level at which they actually use the innovation in their classrooms. Another concept deemed important in the CBAM focuses upon the innovation itself and the changes it may undergo while being implemented. Interventions possible through the planning of staff development and through the detection of individual needs are also described. A discussion is given of the way in which the CBAM model may be successfully applied in developing an inservice program. (JD)