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TOOL: Most Significant Change Stories
Purpose: This tool can be adapted and used to explore primarily qualitative information about people’s
experiences and perceptions of significant change that has arisen through the protocol process.
Resource: Adapted from The ‘Most Significant Change’ Technique: A Guide to its Use (Davies and Dart,
2005) and material provided by Future In Our Hands, Sri Lanka
See Part IV: Section I for a community experience with using Most Significant Change stories in Sri Lanka
A popular tool known as “Most Significant Change” was developed through experiences with documenting
organizational change in Bangladesh and Australia. It focuses on collecting and analyzing stories of
significant change to gain information about how and why change occurs. In contrast with quantitative
data, this tool values each story as a unique
social experience that contains important
What was the change that occurred?
lessons and insights.
Why is it significant to you and others involved?
Where did the story of change take place?
Stories of change generally focus on the
When did the change occur?
storyteller exploring a number of basic
Who was involved in the significant change?
questions (see Box 34). They can be
How did the change occur?
documented in a variety of ways such as
drawings, photographs, and audio or video Box 34: Guiding questions for Most Significant Change
interviews, depending on literacy and stories.
availability of technical equipment and
capacities. Encourage community members, including women and youth, to get involved in documenting
each other’s stories. You might like to gather a small team of people to assist with analyzing the stories of
change and brainstorming ways to share the stories with the broader community and other key
stakeholders such as donors and supporting organizations.