How do you know if change is truly taking root?

We have developed the Change Internalization Scale as a practical tool to assess how deeply new practices, ideas, and behaviors are adopted by the people they are intended for. Too often, change is measured through outputs or short-term indicators, without capturing whether it has been genuinely understood, embraced, and integrated into everyday practice.

Our approach is grounded in Change-Oriented Approaches, which prioritize co-construction and meaningful engagement over prescriptive or purely incentive-based methods. We believe that sustainable change only happens when individuals and communities actively make it their own.

The scale maps a progressive pathway—from lack of awareness to the transmission of practices—through several key stages: awareness, interest, knowledge, engagement, legitimization, supported practice, autonomous practice, and finally, dissemination.

Each stage reflects a deeper level of internalization, allowing practitioners to better understand where they stand and how to move forward. More than an evaluation framework, the Change Internalization Scale is a strategic tool. It helps project leaders, practitioners, and organizations:

• identify gaps between exposure and real adoption
• design more effective support mechanisms
• accompany stakeholders through gradual and context-sensitive transitions
• foster inclusive and sustainable transformation processes

By making change visible and measurable in a qualitative and dynamic way, this tool supports a shift from “implementing change” to truly embedding it.

This is the second resource we are sharing as part of our Toolbox, an initiative aimed at opening up our methods and contributing to more reflective, grounded, and effective practices across sectors.

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