Description of the Sensible Model

Logical steps

Like in any process model, you follow a series of logical steps in the Sensible Model for Change, one leading to another. Unlike some other approaches, the Sensible Model is looser with iteration encouraged throughout.
 

Sensible Advantages

Stasis

For a time everyone is happy, goals are met and there are no concerns in management - organisational status is green. Then one day the organisation finds itself blown out of its steady state by a defining event. Up till that crisis event management, staff and other stakeholders felt that the organisation was in equilibrium and that nothing would need to change much, if at all - ever.

Defining event

Suddenly a single defining event forces a reassessment of the organisation.  This is the hammer-blow which upsets the equilibrium, stopping everyone in their tracks.  Examples are re-structuring, new technology and acquisition.  When this happens, the true picture emerges of a string of influences and cautionary past events which have been pushing the organisation steadily to the brink.  Everything coalesces around the single defining event. Having this starting point is important.  People have a target, a 'straw man', something to blame.  This is the focus for anger because it pointedly explains the necessity and urgency for change.

Demand

In the demand step, momentum to do something different grows like pressure in a safety valve.  Context and timing become clear, leading to the vision for the new state.  Sponsors appear who establish how the change will benefit the organisation, creating value for most stakeholders and minimising damage to the rest.  It is a necessary holding stage, permitting ideas gradually to crystallise into ambition and determination to change. Crucially during this breathing space, the initial conditions of the change are set. These set change scope and method ensuring that the organisation knows what to expect, when the change is complete and whether it is successful.

Assessment

This step recognises that change is a slippery concept for most people to grasp. The dynamics of organisational change are complex, interrelated and difficult to pinpoint.  Causal and situational analysis marks the drivers for change as significant or to be discarded as well as nailing down the characteristics of the change required and what has to change.  Assessing both the capability and capacity of the organisation to complete the change is an essential deliverable. Without this step, calls for change remain strident but without authority and direction. A climate of purpose and trust forms as people begin to identify with the change and the goals – now the organisation is ready for change. Sponsors and doers show themselves as well as adversaries.  All stakeholders see the wisdom of the change through newly gathered information.  Caution is the feeling but overall the mood is to go for actions designed to remove the pain as the mood of the organisation switches profoundly from complacency to fear of imminent failure.

Plan

Now is the time to plan, to determine the how of the change in relation to the situation. The main change managers appointed by the sponsors set the overall methodology, taking time to stand back from the turmoil engulfing the organisation. In several iterations, they choose techniques and tools which must match the findings of the assessment step. Conventional programme and project management may only have started at this step or at best towards the end of assessment. Here is the opportunity to consider what counterintuitive strategies might work in the situation. The journey to sustainable change is planned in detail with activities such as risk management.  This step includes creating projects, setting low-level targets and producing schedules. It emphasises activities which are often neglected in existing approaches, such as selecting project team members, communicating and gaining commitment. Finally the waiting is over and resources are committed to execute the change programme.

Action

The action step is the busiest and most critical.  It is here that the resolve to change weakens.  You may think that it has taken too long to get here but, as in all successful projects, preparation is the key. On multiple fronts, tasks and projects move to completion.  Building and maintaining momentum is important as is using skills and resources effectively and at the right pace.  Control and reviews show how well the chosen approach with its techniques is performing. Everything gets into the open; at project meetings, people speak the unspeakable about the organisation and what they are doing. Sponsors listen, ready to pull the plug on actions which are not delivering against the goals. This step is the usually the longest in terms of time and is understandably a nervous period for everybody, made worse by fear gripping the rest of the organisation - especially in those parts not directly involved in the action.

Results

As actions and projects complete, results are reported - favourable or otherwise.  It is unlikely that the desired and actual results will be a single goal or single-valued objective - everything is complex and uncertain.  Programme and project managers work to realise the planned benefits.  Individual achievements are paraded around the organisation as progress; any shortfalls against expected results or organisational problems are recorded for investigation in the feedback step which follows. The expected general reaction is re-alignment of the organisation behind the change programme. Key parameters such as process improvement and motivation are measured and monitored to determine effectiveness of the change plans.  Sponsors remain alert to lack of improvement, ready to signal that a change action needs attention - sometimes swiftly terminating actions which destabilise crucial processes and behaviour too much.

Feedback

This step ensures the correct responses as results are recorded. Analysing results, checking progress, comparing to plan and reporting back against the original reasons for change are major elements of this step.   Not all results will be show a successful conclusion to an action or project.   A feature of the feedback is the intensity of communication throughout the organisation to reflect the difficulty of situations. The programme team adjusts the techniques and the overall approach in the reality of results being reported by organisation. Decisions about change initiatives are made: continue, stop, wither, redefine, restart and repeat. There is an honest review of the approach and the techniques use - how effective and efficient.  Stakeholders review organisational health and motivation and ask if benefits are or will be worth the effort invested in the change.  If the approach is working, these parameters will show improvement early on before quantitative measures such as productivity increase, better quality and higher profits.

Stasis

When the majority of change objectives are achieved, the organisation returns to stasis.  It is in equilibrium again, with itself and with the environment. The programme and project teams are disbanded when it is clear that further actions will deliver no more benefits - usually because the organisation itself is taking the actions as it assimilates the changes and reforms.  Programme managers and sponsors their performance and pass on lessons learned. For many organisations, the period of stasis is short, a brief interlude before the next changes get underway. But the organisation should have learnt a new capability for executing change and improving its performance when the next defining event occurs.