ADKAR model: This article explains Jeff Hiatt ‘s ADKAR model in a practical way. After reading you will understand the fundamentals of this powerful change management tool.
What is the ADKAR model?
Change in organizations usually provokes resistance among employees. The ADKAR model offers a solution to identify why changes are difficult to achieve and do not always work well.
Change management is successfully achieved on the basis of five elements, which together form the acronym ADKAR. The letters stand for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement .
This model was developed by Jeff Hiatt in 2006 and was introduced into practice by Prosci , a recognized change management consultancy and training firm.
The ADKAR model is primarily intended as a coaching tool to help and assist employees during change processes within organizations.
Awareness
All five elements of this model can be applied sequentially as well as stacked. When changing, it is important that everyone is aware of the reason.
Employees naturally resist when it comes to change. It is therefore necessary to make them aware of the need for change.
Good and extensive knowledge is a precondition for implementing the change. Learning new skills and managing different behavior is part of this.
After implementation, it is necessary that the change is reinforced in order to prevent relapse to old behavior.
The five building blocks of the ADKAR model
In the model, five building blocks serve as a basis for successful change management:
Consciousness (Awareness)
Employees must become aware of the necessity of the change.
The first building block revolves around possibly the most important question: why is change necessary and desired? Without a clear answer to this question including motivation, staff will have great difficulty accepting the change and joining the movement.
Effectively communicating these reasons, from different perspectives, is necessary to create awareness. Preferably, the communication consists of practical examples about why employees will find the planned initiatives useful and why it will benefit their work.
An important method of achieving this is by opening an open dialogue between employees and management. It is important to make them think about the change, ask questions and share their own experiences and examples.
It is also possible to conduct interviews with customers or employees in which they explain their perspectives and make a plea for the change. These interviews can be filmed and shown to larger groups of employees.
Desire
Employees must be given the desire to participate in the change and fully support it.
The second building block revolves around motivating employees. Companies can’t tell their employees how they should feel about something, but they can motivate them. There are a number of specific reasons why people feel resistance to change. For example, studies show that some employees can embrace change if they feel heard and treated well throughout the change process.
A common mistake is therefore to invite employees for a dialogue about change and then not organize anything anymore. In many cases, employees find it useless to write down ideas on paper that they don’t hear about later.
It is therefore essential to organize regular communication and feedback moments. In this way involvement is stimulated, which helps to accept change.
Realization (Knowledge)
Knowledge of the change process makes it clear to employees what the (end) goal of the change is.
Learning does not happen in a closed space. Whatever knowledge employees have, it is important that they share knowledge and reflect knowledge in an organized learning process. In this way they give meaning to what has been learned and help each other to benefit from newly acquired knowledge.
This is also known as social learning. Social learning is the key to spreading knowledge in a natural way. Organizations should not just send their employees on a course, but should actively let them deal with new knowledge.
Power (Ability)
The ability to learn new skills and manage different behavior makes the change more acceptable.
What prevents employees from contributing to change? Sometimes it is because they feel they are not part of the change. By listening to employees, companies can identify and remove barriers. Ask them how things are going and how they experience their position.
Encourage people to believe in their own abilities and give them recognition. Even when they fail, because then it is more likely that they will learn from their mistakes. It’s hard for employees to show their weaknesses in the workplace, so remind them not to be ashamed of seeking help.
Reinforcement
By ratifying the change, it is clear to all employees that there is no going back.
To support the change, an organization must encourage employees and managers to keep talking about the progress of the initiatives, celebrate milestones and continue to share success stories. Provide employees with a platform to easily share stories.
ADKAR model : two dimensions
Every change takes place on two dimensions; the organization and the employees. Change is only successful when change takes place on both dimensions simultaneously.
If it appears that stagnation is taking place in the model at one of the building blocks, it is good to take action very specifically on this element. This goal-oriented approach focuses on that element with the highest chance of success.
The model not only helps to determine in advance which steps must be taken to achieve the right goal, but also to identify afterwards why changes do not work well. This evaluation moment is especially valuable in order to make the change successful.
Advantages of the ADKAR model
There are many benefits associated with using the ADKAR model. Some of these benefits are listed below.
- The ADKAR model offers a practical and simple approach to change management. Many change models only prescribe change in group dynamics or organizational change, but are difficult to apply.
- ADKAR is an out-of-the-box approach, but it doesn’t require companies to reinvent the wheel. It is a turnkey solution for companies that want change.
- ADKAR has been around for a long time and has been extensively tested. It is one of the most widely used and popular change management models.
- ADKAR comes with a lot of explanation, training and support. The company behind ADKAR, Prosci, offers good and comprehensive training for reasonable prices.
Disadvantages of the ADKAR model
Obviously, there are also some drawbacks associated with using the ADKAR model.
- The ADKAR model ignores the need for companies to develop a vision for the long-term development of their change plans.
- The ADKAR model is better suited for smaller change proposals because it focuses only on the human aspect of change. This is not enough to achieve large-scale change.
Now it’s your turn
What do you think? How do you apply the ADKAR model? Do you recognize the building blocks for a good elaboration of the ADKAR model or are there more / others? What do you think are other success criteria or factors that can contribute to the application of the ADKAR model?
Share your knowledge and experience via the comment box at the bottom of this article.
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