What is the Knoster model?

The Knoster Model [1] is a simple and powerful tool for those who need to manage important changes – project managers, team leaders, company leaders, etc. The model is useful if you want to understand how people psychologically adapt to change and how they cope with major changes in everyday life.

To be effective, you need at least five components. If any of these components are missing, the implementation of the changes will most likely fail. Why? Here are the reasons.

Why does it work?

VISION

People need to know why they are moving forward.
Otherwise, there will be CONFUSION that arises due to a lack of vision and direction for the future.

SKILLS

Everyone involved must have the skills to become successful. Otherwise, ANXIETY arises in those who feel that they do not have the necessary knowledge or experience to deal with new situations.

INCENTIVES

Humans are naturally resistant to change. You have to find what motivates people internally, otherwise there will be RESISTANCE from those who don’t see anything useful in the changes and can’t find any moral meaning to it.

RESOURCES

All the things that people consider necessary to make changes.
In the absence of these, FRUSTRATION arises because there are no resources to adequately implement the changes.

ACTION PLAN

Great leadership, energy, a lot of money and an inspiring vision are not enough if you don’t have a concrete plan of action.
In the absence of this, there will be FALSE STARTS when we try to do in a new way what we have always done.

How to use it?

I have experienced several organizational changes where some of these elements were not given enough attention (usually vision or incentives) and too often resulted in an arduous pace of change and resistance from many people who did not understand WHY they should implement this change in the first place and (sub)consciously sabotaged all management efforts.

Here are some questions that are worth asking from time to time to see if everyone is in the same boat:

• Vision – Why are we making this change? Why is it good? What will the future look like?
• Skills – Do we have the know-how to implement?
• Incentives – Are we all willing to do this? What benefits do we get from it?
• Resources – Do we have the time, money, and people to do it?
• Action plan – What steps need to be taken? Who does what?

I wish you success in managing change!

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[1] T Knoster, Presentation to TASH Conference, Washington DC, 1991.