Key Stages for SPEC Projects

No project can start without awareness that something needs to be changed. Thinking about stages of change may help, as Geoff Nelson and Isaac Prilleltensky suggest in their book Community Psychology: In Pursuit of Liberation and Well-Being (Palgrave, 2010).

Starting a SPEC Project

Prochaska and colleagues postulated a theory of predictable and necessary stages of change (Prochaska et al., 1994; Weick & Quinn, 1999). The table below applies concepts of their theory to organizational work. For each step we describe key questions for planning and implementation to help produce change and recruit support for it.

Pre-contemplation - It is possible that nobody, except perhaps you or a few silent others, is aware that something needs to be done about an unsatisfactory situation. Somebody needs to raise consciousness about the problem.
Contemplation - You are planting the seed to move the process forward. Discontent may turn into positive action. But for others to listen to you, you need to stay connected while creating a minor (or major) disturbance to the status quo.
Preparation - The planning and design of innovations or alterations to the current system of work, service delivery, or communication patterns, whatever the case might be.
Action - It is very important to make sure that all stakeholders affected by the new system of work are involved. Not only is this in line with our values, but it is also the most efficacious way of going about change because it creates ownership, commitment and accountability (Dimock, 1992; Goleman, 1998; Johnson & Johnson, 2000).
Maintenance - It is crucial to put in place systems for monitoring accurate implementation of the intended changes. The sustainability and dissemination of innovations depend on a careful plan for making the innovation or new program an integral part of the institution (Dalton et al., 2001). In the absence of maintenance and monitoring systems, change is likely to be weak and short lived.
Evaluation - Although parts of evaluation cannot be undertaken until changes have been introduced, some aspects can be undertaken during the implementation itself. This enables a formative assessment of how things are going. By observing the change process itself, we are able to feed back useful information to improve and refine the innovation while it is being introduced. We call this process action research (Reason & Bradbury, 2001).
Follow-up - An ideal follow up is for the setting to become a learning organization itself, one that constantly evaluates and adjusts its operations in line with its values, goals and changing contexts. The learning organization involves everyone in the process of improving the personal and interpersonal well-being of workers and the collective well-being of the community (Senge, 1990; Senge & Scharmer, 2001). This model has also been called the continuous change process (Weick & Quinn, 1999).

Steps for Organizational Change - Launch and Maintain a SPEC initiative

Steps	Aim: What do we want to achieve?	People: Who should be involved?	Tasks: What needs to be done?	Accountability: Who will do it?	Timetable: When will it be done?
Pre-contemplation	Create awareness	Allies in change	Inform others	Choose effective people	Decide on period of time to raise awareness
Contemplation	Create need for change	Allies and potential allies	Identify specific problems and spread information	People with credibility in organization	Enough time to build momentum for change
Preparation	Choose specific goals and areas of change	People with influence and credibility	Gather data about problem and devise plan	Internal and/or external consultants with representative group	Have clear timelines for preparation phase
Action	Carry out most effective interventions	Everyone affected by the proposed change	Multiple tasks associated with changes	Involve multiple agents of change	Decide ahead of time on schedule as too much time diminishes credibility
Maintenance	Put in place systems for sustainability	Everyone affected by change	Key activities to sustain and institutionalise change	As many people as possible	Offer maintenance activities at regular intervals
Evaluation	Evaluate process and outcomes of change	Consult with as many people affected as possible	Quantitative and qualitative techniques of evaluation	Internal and/or external evaluators	Ideally conduct pre, during and post evaluations
Follow up	Become a learning and empowering organization	As many people affected by intervention as possible	Institutionalise learning circles and cycles	Decentralize responsibility for learning cycles and circles	Continuous cycle of learning

Creating a Transformation Team

Transformation teams or T-teams meet on a regular basis to work on promoting the SPEC philosophy both internally in the organization and externally in the community. T-Team activities might take several forms:

Values Exploration Exercises
Discussions and Presentations about SPEC
Organizational Self-Assessment of
Current Practices in relation to SPEC
Training (e.g., Exploding the Issue)
External Projects

Ensuring an Effective Transformation Team

An effective transformation team depends on certain principles and roles. In a nutshell, the role is to enable the progression from pre-contemplation to maintenance and follow up. But for this to occur, certain skills and roles must be developed. The following tables describe eight roles that must be present every step of the wayin an integrated fashion when working with individuals and groups. A skilled facilitator must invoke the most appropriate role at the most opportune time. The eight roles are summarized by the acronym I VALUE IT:

Inclusive host
Visionary
Asset seeker
Listener and sense maker
Unique solution finder
Evaluator
Implementer
Trendsetter

The tables also specify affective, behavioural, and cognitive (ABC) strategies to reinforce these roles, as elaborated by Prilleltensky and Prilleltensky (2006) . Engaging people in processes of change means involving their emotions, their actions, and their thoughts. Each of the eight roles is also described more fully.

ABC - I VALUE IT: Roles and Strategies for Personal Well-Being in Work with Individuals

Strategy	Affective	Behavioural	Cognitive
Inclusive host	Make person feel safe and welcome to explore sensitive issues and ways of thriving	Help person experiment with new modes of behaviour, including asking for help or admitting insecurity	Encourage exploration of meanings associated with issues
Visionary Process	Ask what processes or ways of working would make person feel comfortable	Find out what behaviours person expects from self and from you in the process	Articulate goals and objectives for process of working together
Outcome	Explore what feelings would person like to have or experience as result of work	Inquire what new behaviours would person like to see in self and others	Help visualize better state of affairs and personal role in it
Asset seeker	Affirm person's unique feelings and abilities	Recognize previous ways of coping and thriving that can be built upon	Identify meaning and meaning making ways that help integrate experiences into life narrative
Listener and sense maker	Collaborate in exploring full range of feelings	Explore how own behaviour impacts self and others, and how others' behaviours impact self	Make connections between feelings, behaviours, thoughts and meanings associated with them
Unique solution finder	Overcome emotional barriers in enacting new behaviours and reward and celebrate new behaviours	Articulate plan of action and break new behaviours into small chunks	Use cognitive strategies such as reframing and challenging cognitive errors
Evaluator
Past efforts	Explore feelings associated with past efforts at change or thriving	Evaluate past behaviours and their successes	Examine interpretation of past efforts
Present efforts	Explore feelings associated with current efforts	Evaluate present behaviours and their successes	Examine interpretation of current efforts
Future efforts	Anticipate feelings associated with future efforts	Identify what behaviours have to occur to explore future actions	Plan evaluation of future actions and explore associated meanings
Implementer	Explore feelings associated with making new behaviour or perceptions part of life	Create a plan to make new behaviour or perceptions part of life and for handling barriers	Develop cognitive strategies for making changes integral part of your life and for anticipating barriers
Trendsetter	Explore feelings associated with taking risks and becoming a leader	Explore steps needed to disseminate changes in other parts of your life or with other significant others	Work on self-perceptions of leadership qualities and opportunities

ABC - I VALUE IT: Roles and Strategies for Personal Well-Being in Work with Groups

	Strategies
Roles	Affective	Behavioural	Cognitive
Inclusive host	Create safe environment for people to express views and emotions	Structure time and space where safe and fun dialogue can occur	Promote sharing of personal narratives and interpretations of events and beliefs
Visionary Process	Foster feelings of affiliation and solidarity in group work	Engage people in activities to devise a vision for working together	Address basic assumptions about working in groups
Outcome	Make the vision alive and foster ownership of it throughout the organization or community	Involve people in the development of a vision for team, unit, organization or community	Analyze gap between actual and desire state of affairs
Asset seeker	Make sure you recognize and affirm people's strengths	Help people develop inventories of own strengths	Reframe life experiences and ways of coping as strengths
Listener and sense maker	Establish processes for people to feel heard and valued	Structure opportunities for people to speak, learn, and problem solve together	Learn how to listen to each other and problem solve in teams
Unique solution finder	Small wins keep people engaged and energized	Assign specific actions in line with goals and objectives	Identify what values, beliefs and assumptions either promote or inhibit new actions
Evaluator Past efforts	Make it safe to explore past failures and successes	Get people involved in evaluation criteria that is meaningful to them	Analyze links between sites, signs, sources and strategies of well-being
Present efforts	Reward people for sharing sources of stress	Use empowerment-based evaluation and appreciative inquiry to evaluate efforts	If change is needed, create cognitive dissonance between aspirations and actual actions
Future efforts	Build trust by showing your own personal commitment to act	Institutionalize mechanisms to monitor well-being of staff and community members	Create narrative of ongoing growth and development
Implementer	Celebrate attempts to implement new behaviours and attitudes into life of organization or community	Build structures that support new behaviours and attitudes and foster sustainability	Tell stories of success and how they have helped other people improve well-being
Trendsetter	Generate enthusiasm among peers about being leaders in a field	Have a participatory plan for disseminating lessons learned	Spread the message across organizations and communities in compelling ways

Establishing SPEC Goals

Each organization has unique goals to pursue depending on their unique context. In general, organizations choose between two general targets of change:SPEC internal or SPEC external.

SPEC internal refers to changes required to improve the internal operations of the organization.
SPEC external refers to changes the organizations wishes to enact in the community it serves.

We recommend the following principles in setting goals: