DESCRIPTION
The Satir Model is a systemic change framework, coming originally from family therapy, that describes how individuals or systems respond emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally when confronted by change. It predicts stages, from a stable status quo, through resistance and chaos, then toward integration, and finally a new status quo, each with characteristic impacts on performance, feelings, thinking, and physiology.
Its Power lies in its recognition that change processes carry emotional as well as performance dips and by anticipating those, leaders or change managers can guide through storm rather than be surprised by it. In business storytelling, this model helps craft narratives about transformation (showing what normal was, what disruption hit, what the struggle was, how one emerged, etc.), and helps empathize with stakeholders, reduce resistance, and align efforts. It’s especially useful in communicating change internally, during transformations, culture shifts, restructuring, or when introducing new initiatives.
ORIGIN
Virginia Satir (1916-1988), an American family therapist and pioneer in family systems therapy. First uses: in her work from the mid-20th century, in family therapy, growth and systemic change. The model has been adapted to coaching, organizational change etc…
USED BY
Organizational developers, change managers, coaches and management implementing changes to n existing organization or structure. Affected departments going through new system adoption, restructuring and process changes.
Approximately needed time
- Step 1: 1 hours
- Step 2: 2 hours
- Step 3: 1 hours
- Step 4: 2 hours
- Step 5: 2 hours
- TOTAL: 8 hours
METHOD
MATERIAL YOU COULD NEED: Flipcharts or whiteboards and large sheets to map the stages (Status Quo, Resistance, Chaos, Integration, New Status Quo), markers, sticky notes, participant cards to express feelings, obstacles, ideas. Data or examples of current state, metrics, anecdotes of “how things are now” and stories or testimonials of past change (successful or difficult) to model resistance and chaos, etc. and surveys or emotional mappings to capture how people are feeling.
STAKEHOLDER GOOD TO KNOW: Change leader(s) and Sponsor(s) as there is a must of support on that management level to introduce and support change and affected team(s) and individuals as they will be the ones going thru change. Their feedback and emotional state are crucial.
STEPS
INTRODUCE THE NEED
People need clarity on what the stable baseline is and why it is insufficient and without that, change seems unnecessary or arbitrary. The “intruding element” triggers the change process. In storytelling, this gives your narrative a “before” and a disruption which captures interest. Describe how things work currently: routines, performance, comfort zones, known problems that are tolerated and introduce the trigger or change. What is the foreign element (new technology, market demand, policy, disruptive competitor, etc.) forcing you to change. Make it vivid in your narrative as this establishes stakes: what people will lose if nothing changes and why there’s urgency.
Example: “For years our customer service team used manual logs: Responses were slow but familiar but then competitors introduced AI-chat support. We saw declining satisfaction scores, costs rising,so we needed to catch up.”
RESISTANCE
Resistance is natural and if ignored, it sabotages every change. Storytelling that acknowledges resistance builds credibility and trust and allows people to feel seen rather than alienated. Ask participants AND stakeholders: what fears, objections, concerns do they have? What will they miss about the old way? What comfort or safety is lost? Capture both voiced and unvoiced resistance (sometimes people avoid stating what they’re worried about). Embed parts where you speak directly to resistance (“yes, people may worry about X, we understand…”).
Example: “Some staff feared AI support would make their jobs redundant, others worried about losing personal touch with customers, but many were apprehensive about learning new tools.”
CHAOS & STRUGLE → IDENTIFICATION OF IDEAS
After resistance comes chaos and the period of uncertainty, drop in performance, confusion, emotional disturbance. A transformative idea (or insight) can help guide out of chaos. In narrative, this gives tension and then turning point(s).
Facilitate spaces to allow experimentation, trial & error and allow people to express frustrations. Identify what experiments or ideas are emerging, what is working and what insights are being discovered and capture one or more of them as this could be a new way of working, a vision, strategy, policy that helps reorient in dynamic times.
Example: “In pilot runs of the AI chatbot, we realized certain human follow-ups were essential and we designed a hybrid support model combining AI + personal agents as we saw early wins in response time and then adapted workflows.”
NEW BEHAVIORS
Without integration, change is fragile and people need support, reinforcement, repeated practice to get used to it. Storytelling here helps affirm what’s changing, how people are adapting, what’s getting better; this builds legitimacy of the new norm.
Provide training, coaching, feedback loops and share early success stories fast to keep motivation high in times of hard changes. Recognize people showing new behaviors and adjust processes, systems and resource allocations accordingly to support the new way. Remove all upcoming barriers to underline the mutual interest in this change. Monitor performance, emotional wellbeing and adjust if needed.
Example: “Weekly check-ins showed which workflows needed tweaking, we provided workshops on the AI-tool UI, team leaders celebrated small wins, metrics of customer satisfaction went up and staff reported feeling more confident.”
ESTABLISH
Finally, the change needs to settle into a new normal. Reflecting and articulating the story of what’s happened helps consolidate identity, learning, ensures people understand how their efforts contributed. In storytelling, this gives closure and inspiration: the “after” picture, what’s different now.
Define what the new stable state looks like: how behaviors, systems, norms differ. Communicate the change story: from status quo, resistance, chaos, integration and new status quo. Use narratives and all storytelling techniques fitting to the purpose to normalize the journey. Reflect on what worked, what was hard and identify potential lessons for future change. And almost most important: celebrate successes!
Example: “Now customer support response time is cut by 50%, staff feels more empowered, workflows are smoother and we now use hybrid support model as standard. We share the story in our internal newsletter: how the chaos was navigated, what we learned, what it looks like now and whom we thank for the delivery.”
Emotions and psychological states in each stage can affect performance: resistance tends to reduce performance temporarily, but chaos often dips performance further before recovery in integration.
The model does not provide a prescriptive plan of what to do in each stage, it often needs complementary tools like communication plan, incentives, leadership behavior, feedback loops etc.). Good to monitor both observable performance metrics and emotional and cultural indicators (attitude, stress, motivation, guiding principles, etc.).
This model is often misused if people assume all change will necessarily end better without effort, but also here, be aware that the “new status quo” stage requires sustaining effort not only for implementation but also to continuously work.
The model’s roots are therapeutic and in business storytelling contexts, sensitivity to people’s experiences (change fatigue, psychological safety) is important and crucial.
ANECDOTES:
One popular anecdote: a hospital moving to a new patient-management software used the Satir Change Model to explain the dip in staff performance (“chaos” stage) to leadership, which helped prevent frustration or blame during early implementation. The storytelling of “we are past chaos now, integration underway” helped restore morale.
