“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” ~Niccolo Machiavelli
Professor Timothy Knoster created a model to help educational institutions navigate and accomplish complex change. The premise is that leaders and change agents need to consider six elements of change management if the reinvention is to be successful. Effective change requires vision, consensus, skills, incentives, resources, and an action plan.
Successful change management isn’t about putting on a smile and making a presentation. Effective change management requires introspective planning.
Reinvention may be possible without the six elements, but it’s not likely. Consider an initiative for a new program curriculum. Without staff consensus, a change management component, the leader can purchase new resources and plan professional development. But missing staff consensus will likely result in poor implementation, angry staff, and extra work hours. A lack of staff buy-in might point to more significant issues as well:
Are staff discouraged by a lack of planning time required for the new curriculum? Would more time or support help them to build new skills?
One missing element may signal the change won’t be successful long-term or may have high staff retention costs. A more practical option is to plan for each of the six elements of change management so that change can be rolled out with a clear strategy and people in mind.
We use change management to pre-plan for change and assess an in-progress or past transition.
Social Impact leaders must make a comprehensive plan for implementing and managing any significant reinvention effort. Examine each change element and create an exhaustive timeline for getting things done. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid in your reinvention implementation planning:
Undervaluing Time: Even if few physical or monetary resources are required, some changes demand significant time from staff or participants. Use your process to build stakeholder consensus, get more information, and validate your ideas to ensure you correctly factor in the time these new behaviors may take to learn.
Assuming Skill: Change requires more than quick skill adjustment. Consider an organization that’s implementing a youth development strategy. Even though staff may already know how to guide participants through the program roadmap, they may not know what to eliminate or replace in their curriculum. The entire change process could stall if the strategy feels like another instead of replacing a less impactful strategy.
Starting Too Big: Social Impact leaders often want to quickly roll out large, organization-wide reinvention initiatives when piloting the reinvented activity in one program or site might be wiser. Narrow pilots allow program leaders and staff to smooth the rough spots and collect feedback to adapt the plan.
Knoster’s Change Model is a helpful reflection tool for analyzing in-process initiatives or past changes. If a change never moved past the pilot stage or stalled out due to sheer frustration, explore which of the six elements was missing.
Complex, organization-wide change is difficult, but intentional planning combined with continual feedback can increase effectiveness, reduce friction, and drive reinvention.
