You must develop a project to accomplish a meaningful, worthwhile change. The project should be designed to create a significant change in a process, system, or structure within the community, a business or nonprofit organization, government institution, or some other organization.

Project Criteria

1. Must show promise of being a worthwhile learning experience, and

2. Must have some societal value.

Projects will
not be approved if they will be only disruptive or if they are trivial.

You are encouraged to select a project that you personally value and a goal for which you have a genuine concern that goes beyond a simple need to fulfill a course requirement. Don’t waste your time on something you don’t care about! You are encouraged to talk to the instructor about your project ideas as early as possible if you are not sure about your project’s suitability.

The Proposal

No later than the end of Lesson 2

, you must submit a one-page proposal which shares:

1. A concise statement of what the change project is and why it is important.

2. A brief plan of what you think has to be done to achieve the change.

3. A statement of how you will measure whether the change has been accomplished.

Projects or an agreed-upon segment of the project (should your project be extensive) should be completed by the end of the course. Key criteria used to evaluate the project will be its prospects for success and the learning exhibited as a result of the project. This learning includes an integrated, comprehensive understanding of the course materials.

Interim Reports of the Project

There are OPTIONAL interim change project reports for this assignment. All will be included in your final report but are optional for submission as we go along if you’d like feedback in advance:

1. Choice of change model report
(Lesson 3)

2. Need for change and vision statement
(Lesson 5)

3. Stakeholder, force field and power analysis
(Lesson 7)

4. A description of your proposed action plan
(Lesson 9)

I recommend that you complete these as we cover the topics in class, and I strongly recommend you undertake them sequentially. I also understand time is tight for some folks, so you might need to work on an alternate timeline and not submit these drafts. If you do, I will provide you with feedback
provided they are submitted by their due dates on the schedule. You can then incorporate this feedback into your final report.

The Final Report

Your final report should be a narrative of what you have learned by analyzing certain aspects of the issue and considering certain components of change. While the information within the Interim Reports will make up a lot of the information for the Final Report, you will also include the following within for the Final Report.

5. Using your chosen change model and your Interim Reports,
discuss how your change project might alter things over time as well as how you’d
evaluate your successes and assess your challenges
. Incorporate relevant learnings/insights from the course materials in this discussion. Demonstrate your understanding of the course material (cite it!) with this description.

6.
Reflect on what you,
personally, have learned from undertaking the project
. Specify what lessons you have learned to apply to future change activities and what this project has taught you about yourself as a change agent. Relate your learnings/insights to both the change model and the course readings. This section is critical to your grade.

Note: Most of the emphasis in the report should be on demonstrating your knowledge of change management and discussing the learning from the project.

Basic Outline for the Final Report

Your text (and other relevant sources) should be cited in support of ideas in every section of this paper, with all cited sources appearing on a References page at the end of the paper. I encourage you to use
APA Style Headings (found online at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/headings) to help structure and format your report.

The outline below shows what sections should be present, what to include in each section, and how much each section is worth.

A.

OVERVIEW (10%)

1. Introduce the organization and the change you will be preparing for and/or implementing.

2. Discuss the key aspects of the change that you propose to undertake.

B.

CHOICE OF CHANGE MODEL (15%)

1. Describe the model or models you feel would be most appropriate for this change. This model may be one of those offered in the course readings, or one discussed or developed in class. Alternatively, you may combine a number of models into one that is uniquely your own.

2. You must give a rationale for your preference of the model and exhibit an understanding of it. (You are
not expected to discuss the model in deep detail
.)

C.

NEED FOR CHANGE AND VISION STATEMENT (10%)

Need for change

1. Discuss the sources of need for change

Environmental? Personal?

2. Discuss the consequences of change

Concrete & tangible

Values-based & intangible

3. Discuss the degree to which the belief of the need for change is accepted. How widespread is the understanding of the need for change?

Share your Vision Statement for this change. (Not the organizational one!)

Is it:

1. Clear?

2. Concise?

3. Memorable?

4. Inspiring?

5. Challenging?

6. Related to project?

D.

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS, POWER ANALYSIS, FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS (20%)

Include a narrative of each of three types of analysis. The bullets below should guide this discussion.

Stakeholder analysis

1. Identify and describe all the stakeholders

2. Analyze stakeholder needs

3. Analyze stakeholder support of change project

4. Identify and describe those who influence the stakeholders?

5. Analyze influence

Power analysis

1. What types of power are to be considered?

2. Consider and discuss the possibility of coalitions

Force field analysis

1. Identify and describe forces for and against change

2. Discuss how these forces could be increased or decreased?

3. Discuss what new forces could be created?

4. Brainstorm and discuss “dumb moves” which could cause resistance?

E.

ACTION PLANNING (20%)

Discuss which tools for action planning were useful? Why or why not?

1. Goal setting: end goal; next goal.

2. Critical path considered.

3. Contingency planning done.

4. Decision tree analysis done.

5. Responsibility charting (who does what, when, where, how).

6. Others you considered and used.

How do you propose to assess/evaluate the validity of your action plan and its prospects for success?

1. Does the timed sequenced of activities flow in logical order?

2. Were metrics of success and success probabilities considered?

3. Is the plan realistic?

4. Do you have the personal competence to implement and if not, how will you develop needed competencies or make up for shortcomings in some other way?

F.

LESSONS LEARNED (15%)

1. Discuss what you have learned—either from success or from missteps or failure—about change through the lens of this project.

2. How will you apply what you’ve learned in this course and through this project to future changes?

You will also be graded on the report’s OVERALL IMPRESSION (10%)

1. APA Style (paper set up, citations, writing style)

2. Writing Skills

·
Referencing throughout the assignment is very important and should be according to APA Style.

·
Length: the body of the assignment will vary; most students submit 6-10 pages of (not including cover page/References).