C208 Change Management and Innovation is a Western Governors University graduate course on how leaders guide organizations through change and build the capacity to innovate.
WGU describes it as an overview of change theories and innovation practices, emphasizing leadership's role in influencing and managing change in response to the challenges and opportunities organizations face. It is a three-competency-unit graduate course that appears in WGU's management and human resource management master's programs.
The course feels familiar, since most students have lived through change at work. The difficulty is moving from experience to analysis: choosing a model, applying it to a specific scenario and planning for resistance before it happens.
Course at a Glance
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| University | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Course code | C208 |
| Level | Graduate, competency-based |
| Competency units | 3 |
| Subject area | Organizational change, innovation, leadership |
| Typical work | Change plans, scenario analyses, innovation proposals |
What C208 Covers
| Topic | What students typically examine |
|---|---|
| Change theories | Models that explain how individuals and organizations move through change |
| Innovation practices | How organizations generate, test and scale new ideas |
| Leadership's role | Vision, communication, coalition building and modeling behavior |
| Resistance | Why people resist and how leaders respond constructively |
| Sustaining change | Embedding new practices in structures, measures and culture |
Key Concepts Explained
Lewin's Three-Stage Model
Kurt Lewin described change as unfreezing current behavior, moving to a new state and refreezing it. It is simple, which makes it useful for explaining why change fails when the first or last stage is skipped.
Kotter's Eight Steps
John Kotter's model runs from creating a sense of urgency and building a guiding coalition through communicating a vision and generating short-term wins to anchoring change in culture. It suits larger, leader-driven initiatives.
Example: A hospital moving to electronic records creates urgency by sharing medication-error data, forms a coalition of respected nurses and physicians, pilots on one ward, publicizes the pilot's quicker handovers as a short-term win, then builds the system into training and job descriptions so it sticks.
ADKAR
Prosci's ADKAR model (awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, reinforcement) focuses on individuals. It helps diagnose where a particular group is stuck, for example staff who understand the change but lack the ability to perform it.
Typical Assignments and How to Approach Them
| Task type | What it tests | How to approach it |
|---|---|---|
| Change plan | Applying a model | Choose one model, apply each stage to the case |
| Resistance analysis | Understanding people | Identify groups, causes and responses |
| Innovation proposal | Creative, practical thinking | Problem, idea, test, scale, measure |
| Leadership reflection | Leader's role | Link behaviors to stages of change |
Innovation Practices Leaders Use
The innovation side of C208 asks how organizations create and adopt new ideas, and what leaders do to make that possible. Several practices are widely discussed in management literature:
- Psychological safety: people share ideas and flag problems when they will not be punished for it.
- Small experiments: testing a minimum version of an idea before large investment.
- Open innovation: drawing ideas from customers, partners and outside experts.
- Disruptive innovation: Clayton Christensen's term for simpler, cheaper offerings that start at the low end of a market and move up.
In a task, connect the innovation practice to the change model. A pilot is both an experiment and a short-term win; a culture of safety lowers resistance at the same time as it encourages new ideas.
Choosing Between Models
Lewin suits a short explanation of why change sticks or slips. Kotter suits a large, organization-wide initiative led from the top. ADKAR suits diagnosing where particular individuals or teams are stuck. Some strong plans combine Kotter for the organizational steps with ADKAR for the people side, provided the link between them is explained.
Whichever you choose, justify the choice in a sentence or two. Evaluators look for a reasoned fit between model and scenario, not the most famous name.
Where Students Get Stuck
- Listing model steps without applying them. Each step needs concrete actions for this organization.
- Treating resistance as stubbornness. Resistance often signals real concerns; show how you would listen and respond.
- No measures. Say how you will know the change worked.
- Forgetting innovation. Half the course title is innovation; address it when the task asks.
Study Tips for C208
- Compare two models for your scenario before choosing one, and explain your choice.
- Build a stakeholder map showing influence and likely reaction.
- Use a timeline or table for the plan; it shows sequence clearly.
- Draw on a change you have lived through, but analyze it with the course models.
How We Help with C208
Send the task instructions, rubric, scenario and evaluator comments. A writer with change management expertise prepares a custom plan or analysis, explains how the chosen model fits, or reviews your draft. For larger integrative projects later in your degree, see our business capstone project help guide.
GradeEssays is independent of Western Governors University. Our work is a study and reference aid; submit only your own work under WGU's academic integrity rules. We never log in to student portals. Each order is written from scratch with free revisions within the scope of your original request.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Lewin, Kotter and ADKAR are widely used. Choose what your course materials emphasize and apply it to the scenario.
WGU lists C208 as a three-competency-unit graduate course.
Yes, where the task asks. The course description covers both change theories and innovation practices.
Identify who resists and why, then propose responses such as involvement, communication, training or adjusting the plan.
Yes. We check it against the rubric and suggest improvements for you to make.
No. We are independent of Western Governors University.