New 2025, Third Edition, Now Available!
The Change Agent's Guide
Do you see yourself as a change agent?
As a change agent, you want to turn ideals into reality. But change is a complex, often messy process. When, where, and how can you play a constructive role? Understanding the process of change and adhering to a process model to guide your efforts goes a long way toward making you
Visualizing the 7 stages of change
The Rainbow Logic of Change
The rainbow logic of change is your key to navigating this site. You will see it again and again and it's your key to understanding how the CHANGE process works.
The color scheme of the diagram is intended to have a certain logic.
It starts with red for CARE, think hot, angry, upset but not necessarily thinking too clearly.
Then, as various people get involved in constructive ways, it cools down to orange in RELATE, and then YELLOW, as in “Let’s figure out what the real problem is that we are so upset about.”
As we move toward solutions, (ACQUIRE and TRY) the world becomes greener, and when the solution spreads (EXTEND), we enter the clear blue sky of solution land.
From the blue, we begin again to be concerned with (a) whether we have really done a good job, and (b) whether we should be thinking again about the whole swath of problems that are out there. This brings us to RENEW, blue merging to red as in purple or violet.
The circle keeps turning, and the rainbow follows.
Why use the Change Agent's Guide?
The importance of checklists
When you have a checklist, your success rate goes up. This is true in all kinds of contexts from medicine to aviation to education. The more complexity in the environment, the more checklists matter. Using The Change Agent's Guide as your master checklist for managing change can help ensure your success.