Initial Publication Date: October 11, 2019

Types of Change Strategies

Diffusion
(Prescribed-Individual)
Innovations created in one location are then adopted or adapted by others in a multi-stage adoption process. Change agent role: Develop a quality innovation and spread the word.
Implementation
(Prescribed-Individual)
A set of purposeful activities are designed to put proven innovations into practice in a new setting. Change agent role: Develop a training program that involves performance evaluation and feedback.
Scholarly teaching
(Emergent-Individual)
Individual faculty reflect critically on their teaching in an effort to improve. Change agent role: Encourage faculty to reflect on and collect data related to their teaching.
Faculty learning communities
(Emergent-Individual)
A group of faculty supports each other to improving teaching. Change agent role: Bring faculty together and scaffold community development.
Organizational development
(Prescribed-Environmental)
Measurable target outcomes are identified and progress towards them is assessed and tracked. Change agent role: Develop new vision. Analyze alignment of parts of the organization with the new vision and identify strategy for creating alignment.
Quality assurance
(Prescribed-Environmental)
Leader develops new vision and plans a strategy for aligning employee attitudes and behaviors with this vision. Change agent role: Develop measurable outcomes, define success, collect evidence.
Kotter's 8-Stage Model
(Prescribed-Environmental)
Leadership team develops vision and plan for building buy-in and implementing vision. Change agent role: 1. Establish a sense of urgency, 2. Create the guiding coalition, 3. Develop a vision and strategy, 4. Communicate the change vision, 5. Empower broad-based action, 6. Generate short-term wins, 7. Consolidate gains and produce still more change, 8. Anchor new approaches in the culture.
Learning organizations
(Emergent-Environmental)
Leader works to develop an organizational culture that supports knowledge creation. Change agent role: Move decision-making further from the top. Invest in developing employees personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning.
Complexity leadership
(Emergent-Environmental)
In a complex system, results are not easily predicted. Change agents can create conditions that increase the likelihood of productive change. Change agent role: Disrupt existing patterns, encourage novelty, and act as sensemakers.

Adapted from Borrego and Henderson (2014)