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DEI Toolkit

New York State Office of Cultural Education

Managing Complex Change [3]

Beginning or continuing diversity, equity, inclusion, antiracism, accessibility, and justice work in our organizations requires us to manage complex change. The Lippitt-Knoster model4 of complex change includes five key components: vision, incentives, skills, resources, and an action plan. When each of these ingredients is present, sustainable complex change is more likely to occur. When one or more of these ingredients is missing, it is unlikely that an organization can affect sustainable complex change. Providing a clear vision is necessary at the outset of managing complex change in order to get all project partners aligned to the same desired outcome. Without a clear and shared vision, confusion increases and stagnates the project.

Understanding which skills are necessary to complete the project, which skills are present, and which skills are missing affects the level of anxiety in project partners. As necessary skills are absent, anxiety on the project team and about the project increases.

In this context, incentives are about what encouragement and motivation project partners require to stay engaged and active in pursuit of the shared vision. Without incentives, project partners’ enthusiastic participation wanes and they may become resistant to the goals and vision of the project.

Resources include funding, people, means, materials, will, and whatever else is required to complete the project. Lack of sufficient resources causes individuals and project teams to feel frustrated with the project.

A firmly executed plan is the best path to sustainable complex change. Action plans require intention and forethought about the vision of the project, its goals, meaningful benchmarks, the tactics and activities required to meet benchmarks, reach goals and realize the project vision, along with clear and realistic accountability for each tactic, activity, benchmark and goal. When organizations address these areas of action planning, they prevent false starts, and create a path toward implementation.

In order to implement sustainable complex change, organizations need to ensure that all aspects of complex change are in place: vision, incentives, skills, resources, and an action plan.

Table 1: This graphic visualizes the Lippitt-Knoster Model for Managing Complex Change. The Lippitt-Knoster Model posits that in order to be successful, change must meet four criteria: Vision, Skills, Incentives, Resources, and an Action Plan. If Vision is absent, there is confusion. If skills are absent, there is anxiety. If incentives are absent, there is resistance. If resources are absent, there is frustration. If an action plan is absent, there are false starts. This graphic was retrieved from Making Complex Change Happen. Profit Circles Blog. Igor Pistalek.

3 Special gratitude to Christopher Camaione-Lind for his input on this section.

4 Knoster, T., Villa, R., & Thousand, J. (2000). Restructuring for caring and effective education: Piecing the puzzle together, and Lippitt, M. (1987). The Managing Complex Change Model.

Complex Change Planner

In order to help practitioners and their organizations address each of these key components, we encourage you to use this planning document to set the course of future DEI projects.

Address the following questions at the outset of your project or to get your project back on track:

  • What is the organization trying to accomplish?
  • Who are the project partners?
  • What is their shared vision?
  • What skills are needed to implement sustainable complex change in this project?
  • What skills do the project partners bring to the project?
  • Are any necessary skills missing?
  • What motivates and encourages project partners’ enthusiastic participation in working toward our shared vision or goals?
  • What gets in the way of project partners’ motivation or discourages them?
  • How can we repair or work around the things that discourage them or demotivate them?
  • If a project partner becomes resistant, how will we address their concerns and balance that with the needs of the group to reach our vision and meet our shared goals?
  • What resources do we need in order to fully execute our project and develop sustainable complex change?
  • Which of those resources do we already have?
  • Which resources are missing?
  • What is the action plan?
  • What is the project vision?
  • What are the project goals?
  • What meaningful benchmarks will help our project team reach the goals?
  • What tactics and activities are required to meet the benchmarks?
  • Who is accountable for this work?
  • How will we keep the work moving forward if and when we encounter challenges?
  • How will we celebrate our successes?
  • What other benefits does the project team have that will aid in sustainable complex change?
  • What are barriers to success or challenges we may encounter as the project team works to implement sustainable complex change?
  • When will we know we’ve reached our goals and realized the project vision?

Sources

Nanfito, M. (2015). Get a Grip on Managing Change: Deploying the Knoster Model for Successful Implementation. Retrieved from: http://nebula.wsimg.com/90f9e490329402583fea599cad009bb0?AccessKeyId=8AAC8D005153628DDDFA&disposition=0&alloworigin=1