Models of Organizational Change

This closes Part 2. Unit 9 told you to select two models — a process model for how evidence becomes practice, and an organizational model for how a system changes. This unit is that second half. It opens on a claim the rest of the unit depends on: change is experienced emotionally before it is evaluated rationally. Which means a good explanation, delivered to someone who feels threatened by what you are explaining, accomplishes very little — and that is why so many well-reasoned rollouts fail in ways their authors find baffling. By the end you can say why both kinds of model are needed; say what makes the preparation stage dangerous; state the critical mass figure and what it means for a rollout that looks stalled; say why targeting the sceptics first inverts the evidence; and name what has to be in place before a change starts at all.

Five videos. Change models describe how people move through a change; EBP models describe how evidence becomes practice. Unit 9 told you to select both, and this is the half it did not cover.

The distinction the unit opens on.

EBP 2401 Change Models Are Not EBP Models

Change models describe how people move through a change. EBP models describe how evidence becomes practice. Unit 9 said to select both.

The premise everything rests on.

EBP 2402 Change Is an Emotional Process

Change is experienced emotionally before it is evaluated rationally, which is why explaining it well is not sufficient.

The precondition.

EBP 2403 No Change Without Strong Leadership

The chapter states flatly that change does not happen without strong leadership behind it.

The first thing that scales difficulty.

EBP 2404 Bigger Change, Harder Change

The larger the change, the harder it is to carry — which sounds obvious and is routinely ignored in planning.

The second.

EBP 2405 More People, Tougher Change

The more people affected, the tougher it gets, because each one brings their own reaction to it.

Five videos on the emotional stages. The warning worth keeping is about duration — a preparation stage that runs long lets anxiety accumulate with nothing yet to attach to.

The first named model.

EBP 2406 The Change Curve Model

A model describing the emotional stages people move through during a change.

Its first stage.

EBP 2407 Stage One — Preparation

The period before the change lands, when it is known about and not yet real.

The warning about that stage.

EBP 2408 The Danger Is the Length

A preparation stage that runs long lets anxiety accumulate with nothing to attach to. The danger is duration rather than the stage itself.

The second stage.

EBP 2409 Stage Two — Implementation

When the change actually arrives and people meet it in their own work. Stages beyond this are not legible in the source — flag A-41.

What determines the reaction.

EBP 2410 Emotion Attached to the Reason

How people feel about a change attaches to why they were told it is happening, which makes the stated reason load-bearing.

Seven videos. Steps six to eight are not legible in the source, so the course covers the five that transcribed and says so rather than inventing three.

The second named model.

EBP 2411 Kotter and Cohen's Eight Steps

An eight-step model of organizational change. Steps six to eight are not legible in the transcript, so the course covers what transcribed and says so.

Its first step.

EBP 2412 Step — Urgency

Establishing why this matters now rather than eventually.

The second.

EBP 2413 Step — Team Selection

Choosing who carries the change, which is a selection decision rather than a volunteering one.

Why the selection matters.

EBP 2414 Enthusiasm Is Contagious

Enthusiasm spreads through a team, and so does its absence.

The third.

EBP 2415 Step — Communicating the Vision

Making the destination clear enough that people can act toward it without asking.

How that communication works.

EBP 2416 Examples That Carry

Concrete examples travel where abstract statements do not.

The fourth.

EBP 2417 Step — Empowerment

Removing what stops people acting, which is unit 12's barrier-navigation from the change side.

Five videos, and one of them supplies a number the course has been using since unit 9 without a source. A critical mass of fifteen to twenty percent is where a change either carries itself or does not.

The third model.

EBP 2418 Diffusion of Innovations

A model describing how an innovation spreads through a population over time.

The number to remember.

EBP 2419 Fifteen to Twenty Percent

A critical mass of roughly fifteen to twenty percent, after which a change tends to carry itself. This supplies the number unit 9 asserted without one.

What to do with that.

EBP 2420 Expect the Pattern

The adoption curve has a known shape, so slow early uptake is the expected pattern rather than a warning sign.

The strategy that follows.

EBP 2421 Target the Receptive

Work with the people who are ready, because they are what carries the change to everyone else.

The fourth model.

EBP 2422 The Transtheoretical Model

A model of individual behaviour change through stages of readiness.

Three videos, and the third is an inversion — winning over the sceptics first is precisely backwards from what the diffusion evidence says.

The first error.

EBP 2423 Misconception: Explaining It Is Enough

Change is emotional before it is rational, so a good explanation delivered to someone who feels threatened accomplishes little.

The second.

EBP 2424 Misconception: Slow Adoption Means Failure

Slow early adoption is the shape of the curve. What would justify concern is a curve that has stopped moving.

The third, and the inversion.

EBP 2425 Misconception: Win Over the Sceptics First

Effort spent converting sceptics is effort not spent consolidating the receptive, which inverts what the diffusion evidence says.

One procedure leading a change through its stages.

The first strand assembled.

EBP 2426 Leading a Change Through Its Stages

One change led through its emotional stages, with the team selected, the vision communicated and the receptive targeted first.

Nine videos, and this strand exists because an objectives sweep found the unit short. Vision comes first — a plan without a destination is activity, and top-down dictates fail, which is the third time Part 2 has told you so.

The preconditions strand opens.

EBP 2431 Essential Elements for Successful Change

The elements that have to be in place before a change begins — this strand is the chapter's second objective.

The first element.

EBP 2432 Vision Comes First

A vision precedes goals and plans, because a plan without a destination is activity.

What it actually does.

EBP 2433 What a Vision Is For

A vision lets people decide without asking, because they know what the change is for.

How it gets made.

EBP 2434 Build the Vision With the Team

The vision is built with the people who will carry it rather than delivered to them.

The finding that follows.

EBP 2435 Top-Down Dictates Fail

A change issued as an instruction from above fails, and this is the third unit in Part 2 to say so.

The second element.

EBP 2436 Belief

People have to believe the change is possible here, which is unit 16's lever appearing again.

The third.

EBP 2437 Goals and a Written Strategic Plan

Goals and a plan, written rather than held in the room.

What goes in it.

EBP 2438 What the Plan Contains

What the plan has to name to be usable rather than aspirational.

The failure mode.

EBP 2439 A Goal Without a Strategy

A goal with no strategy attached is a wish with a number on it.

Five videos. The last is flagged inside the entry itself — the written-goals claim is widely repeated and its evidence base is less firm than its popularity.

The named instrument.

EBP 2440 The SCOT Analysis

A structured look at strengths, character-builders, opportunities and threats before starting.

Its first two elements.

EBP 2441 Strengths and Character-Builders

What the team is good at, and what has tested it.

Its other two.

EBP 2442 Opportunities and Threats

What the situation offers, and what could stop it.

The format for the goals.

EBP 2443 SMART Goals

Goals specific and measurable enough that you could tell whether you reached them.

A claim the course flags in-entry.

EBP 2444 Written Goals Are Reached More Often

Written goals are reached more often than unwritten ones. The entry flags this as widely repeated with an evidence base less firm than its popularity.

One procedure, and the last video of Part 2 — a change set up properly before it begins.

The last video of Part 2.

EBP 2445 Setting Up a Change Before It Starts

One change set up before it begins — vision built with the team, belief addressed, plan written, SCOT run and goals made checkable.

That closes Part 2. Against the outcomes. Both models are needed because they answer different questions. A process model sequences how evidence becomes practice; a change model describes how people move through what you are asking of them. The preparation stage is dangerous because of its length. People know the change is coming and it is not yet real, so anxiety accumulates with nothing to attach to. A long run-up is not caution, it is exposure. Fifteen to twenty percent is the critical mass — and it supplies the number unit 9 asserted without one. A rollout sitting at fifteen percent is at the threshold rather than at the ceiling, which is a completely different conversation with a sponsor. Targeting sceptics first inverts the evidence. Effort spent converting them is effort not spent consolidating the receptive, who are what carries the change to everyone else. And laggards usually have reasons, often about workload the plan ignored. Before a change starts: a vision built with the team rather than delivered to them, belief that it is possible here, and goals with a written strategy attached. A goal with no strategy is a wish with a number on it, and top-down dictates fail — which is now the third unit in Part 2 to tell you so. That is Part 2. Nine units on why good evidence does not implement itself, and what does. Part 3 takes up everything downstream — teaching it, funding it, publishing it, carrying it into policy, and finally why any of it is owed.