ADKAR

November 4th, 2014

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved..

ADKAR: Overview

• Why do some changes fail while

others succeed?

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 2

ADKAR: Overview

The ADKAR Model

A Awareness of the need for change

D Desire to support and participate in the

change

K Knowledge of how to change

A Ability to implement required skills and

behaviors

R Reinforcement to sustain the change

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 3

 The ADKAR Model
• Awareness represent a person’s understanding of the nature of the change, why the
change is being made and the risk of not changing. Awareness also includes
information about the internal and external drivers that created the need for change as
well as “what’s is in it for me.”
• Desire represents the willingness to support and engage in a change. Desire is
ultimately about personal choice, influenced by the nature of the change, by an
individual’s personal situation.
• Knowledge represents the information, training and education necessary to know how
to change. Knowledge includes information about behaviors, processes, tools, systems,
skills, job roles and techniques that are needed to implement a change.
• Ability represents the realization or execution of the change. Ability is turning knowledge
into action. Ability is achieved when a person or group has the demonstrated capability
to implement the change at the required performance level.
• Reinforcement represents those internal and external factors that sustain a change.
External reinforcement could include recognition and rewards. Internal reinforcement
could be a person’s internal satisfaction with his or her achievement.

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 4

 Awareness

• Why is this change necessary?

• Why is this change is happening now?
• What is wrong with what we are doing
today?
• What will happen if we don’t change?

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 5

 Awareness

• The number one reason for resistance to change in

companies undergoing major changes projects was lack
of awareness of why the change was being made.

• The most important to share with employees:

“Communicate the business need for change and explain
why the change is necessary: provide the reason for the
change and emphasize the risk of not changing”

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 6

 Influence on how people recognize the
need for change:

• Is awareness-building just a matter of

effective communication?

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 7

Building Awareness ≠ communication
sharing information

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 8

 Influence on how people recognize the
need for change:
• Factor 1 – A person’s view of the current state
• How people react to awareness messages, and the amount of
resistance they ultimately express, is strongly related to how they
feel about their current situation.
• Factor 2 – How a person perceives problems
• Employees whose style is more adaptive are more aware of
internal threats. Employees whose style is more innovative are
more aware of external drivers for changes.
• Factor 3 – The credibility of the sender
• Factor 4 – Circulation of misinformation or rumors
• Factor 5 – Contestability of the reasons for change

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 9

Change Management Tactics

• Tactic 1 - Effective communications

• Tactic 2 – Executive sponsorship
• Tactic 3 – Coaching by Managers and
Supervisors
• Tactic 4 – Ready access to business
information

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 10

Effective communications
• Face to face meetings
• Group meetings
• Ono on one communications
• Email
• Newsletters
• Magazines
• Intranet
• Training and workshops
• Project team presentations
• Memos and letters
• Videotapes and plasmas screen display boards

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 11

Communication Strategy

• Identify and segment audience groups.

• Determine the appropriate messages for
each audience.
• Develop the most effective packaging,
timing and channel for these
communications.
• Identify the preferred senders for each
audience.

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 12

Building Awareness
• Awareness message
• The overall nature of the change and how to change aligns with
the vision for the organization
• The reasons this change is necessary or important ( why this
change is need now)
• The risk of not changing
• The market changes, competitor threats or customer issues that
contribute to the need for change
• When the change needs to be implemented
• Who will be most impacted by the change

• The only way you can measure awareness is through interactions and
feedback.

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 13

 Desire

• A common mistake made by many

business leaders is to assume that by
building awareness of the need for change
they have also created desire. Resistance
to change from employees take them by
surprise and they find themselves
unprepared to manage this resistance.

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 14

Factors that influence an individual’s desire
to change
• Factor 1 – The nature of the change ( what
the change is and how it will impact them )
• Factor 2 – The organizational or
environmental context for the change ( their
perception of the organization)
• Factor 3 – An individual’s personal situation
• Factor 4 – What motivates them

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 15

Change Management Tactics that influence
factors for creating desire
• Tactic 1 – Enable business leaders to effectively
sponsor the change.
• Tactic 2 – Managers and supervisors to be effective
change agents.
• Tactic 3 – Assess the risk associated with the change
and design special tactics to address those risks.
• Tactic 4 – Engage employees in the change process at
the earliest possible stages of the change.
• Tactic 5 – Align incentive and performance
management system to support the change.

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 16

Knowledge

• Training and education on the skills and

behaviors needed to change
• Detailed information on how to use new
processes, systems and tools
• Understanding of the new roles and
responsibilities associated with the change

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 17

Factors that will impact the successful
achievement of the knowledge
• Factor 1 – The current knowledge level
• Factor 2 – Our capacity to learn
• Factor 3 – The availability of resources
• Factor 4 – The access to needed
information

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 18

Most commonly used tactics for developing
knowledge

• Tactic 1 – Implement effective training

and education programs.
• Tactic 2 – Use Job aides that assist
employees in the learning process.
• Tactic 3 – Provide one on one coaching.
• Tactic 4 – Create user groups and forums
to share problems and lessons learned
between peer groups.
© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 19
Factors that can impact a person’s ability to
implement change
• Factor 1 – Psychological blocks
• Factor 2 – Physical abilities
• Strength, physical agility, manual dexterity, physical
size, hand-eye coordination, etc
• Factor 3 – Intellectual capability
• Factor 4 – The time available to develop the needed skills
• Factor 5 – The availability of resources to support the
development of new abilities.
• Financial support, Proper tools and materials, Personal
coaching, Access to mentors and subject matter
experts.
© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 20
Tactics to develop the abilities of employees
in a changing environment

• Tactic 1 – Day to day involvement of

supervisors.
• Tactic 2 – Provide access to subject-
matter experts.
• Tactic 3 – Implement programs for
performance monitoring.
• Tactic 4 – Hands on exercises during
training.
© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 21
Factors that contribute to the effectiveness of
reinforcements
• Factor 1 – Meaningful reinforcements
• The recognition or reward applies to the person being recognized
• The person providing the recognition or rewards is someone the
individual respects
• The reward is relevant or valuable to the person being
recognized.
• Factor 2 – Association of the reinforcement with accomplishment
• Factor 3 – Absence of negative consequences
• Factor 4 – Accountability systems.
• Often tied to job performance and measurements.

• The greatest risk associated with lack of reinforcement is a person or

group that reverts to old behaviors.

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 22

Building Reinforcement

• Tactic 1 – Celebrate successes and implement

recognition programs.
• Tactic 2 – Give rewards for the successful
implementation of the change.
• Tactic 3 – Gather feedback from employees.
• Tactic 4 – Conduct audits and develop
performance measurement systems; identify root
causes for low adoption and implement corrective
actions.
• Tactic 5 – Build accountability mechanisms into
normal day to day business operations.
© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 23
The ADKAR Model

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 24

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 25
© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 26
© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 27
© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 28
© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 29
ADKAR Assessment

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 30

© 2014 Eaton. All Rights Reserved.. 31