Using ADKAR® to Assess the Change
Prosci is the global industry standard for change management practitioners worldwide. Their ADKAR® model is a proven framework for individual change and can be used early and often to help you assess and reassess the impact of change, as well as guide individuals through change.
There are many organizational change management techniques rooted in ADKAR® methodology, including creating a change story to create awareness, and conducting a stakeholder analysis to build desire.
Smooth, successful change is not instantaneous – it takes time for individuals to work through the phases of change. Starting with early awareness to build general knowledge and spreading the Why message early and often will lead to higher levels of commitment.
What is ADKAR®?
Why the ADKAR® model works for evaluating software adoption
Personal and scalable: it’s easy to understand! The model evaluates adoption from a personal side, and can be applied at an individual, team, or organizational level. Proactive: the framework helps identify and address adoption barriers early in the process to develop appropriate responses. Proven: it’s an industry model widely-adopted by enterprise organizations to manage technology adoption, as demonstrated in the Microsoft ADKAR® case study. |
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Building awareness through a project change story
The first building block of ADKAR®is awareness. Building awareness early and having the message come from senior leadership is key to your implementation success. A simple change story is a great starting point for every change.
You must communicate clearly not just what is changing, but why the change is needed. You need to win the hearts and minds of those you’re asking to change.
Think about the why:
- Why should they take time awar from their day jobs to learn something new?
- Why should they learn about what is hapening in your next product release?
- Why should they care?
- Why? Why? Why?
Think about what metric inspires your audiences to say Wow, OK, I get it now! and puts the change into perspective. Compelling metrics track progress or costs and highlight what you have to win or lose if you resist change.
Actionable steps to create awareness:
- Start engaging: talk, share, and prepare with individuals at your organization
- Analyze your current state: use data to show inefficiencies in the current state
- Make the business case: outline the benefits, success criteria, and OKRs aligned with business strategies and outcomes. You likely developed a strong business case to purchase Planview; now is the time to engage leadership and dust off that business case. Share the story early on in the change of Why the organization bought Planview, and continue to reiterate on that messaging.
- Communicate your plan: raise awareness across stakeholders
- Elevate your awareness communications with our project change story template.
- Start by asking what, why, how, and who. This exercise will help you clearly articulate what is about to change and help create a quick script that your change champions can utilize.
- It’s important to remember that your change story is holistic and not just focused on the technical changes.
Being transparent and consistent in your messaging will increase the comfort of your audience and help you build that trust. Each team member needs to understand the reasons behind the change. Building desire and knowing the Why are crucial.
Recommended reading |
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The next key change management tool is the change impact assessment or change roster – an inventory of key changes across the program and recommended interventions to address them. The intent is to identify the key messages and delivery methods to utilize for each stakeholder group.
A change impact assessment may be conducted alongside a stakeholder analysis or separately. It is highly recommended to start this exercise early during configuration and maintain on an on-going basis. The list of changes will continue to grow and change, as will your audiences’ desire to change.
Creating the Why message and building the What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) at a role-based level are key to the Desire building block of ADKAR®®.
If you ran into a stakeholder on the elevator, could you present an effective elevator pitch for Planview and the overall change, tailored to their role? Do you have a compelling Why message that you could communicate?
If you’re uncertain, it’s time to start looking at the changes from the lens of the individual. Start by capturing all of the changes on a change roster to identify which roles are impacted. Then, use that information to create your role-based change story to share the why and build desire at an individual level.
Here’s how to get started!
- Download our change roster template.
List all the changes that will occur before, during, and after your Planview implementation, including Planview releases or updates. It’s important to include net new processes, as well as changes to key process steps, such as approvals or governance stages, organization structures, reporting, and time reporting expectations. The change roster should be a holistic view of all changes associated with the adoption, not just technical changes.
- Identify who is affected by the changes to complete your column headers. We commonly see individuals grouped into roles or personas based on how and why they are interacting with the platform.
Common roles include:
- Project manager: responsible for the planning, procurement, and execution of work and projects for an organization or business unit.
- Resource manager: responsible for scheduling and allocating individual or team resources for an organization or business unit.
- Time reporter: someone who will use the software to view their assignments and for time reporting purposes only.
- Portfolio manager: responsible for long-range planning and investment decisions for an organization or business unit.
- Program manager: responsible for overseeing and managing programs for an organization.
- Product manager: responsible for long-range product planning on behalf of their organization or business unit.
- Administrator: responsible for maintaining the application and data and the creation and maintenance of the business processes.
3. Note the degree of change for each user group, and start by using a simple high, medium, or low scoring model. If you’re faced with a long list of changes, consider assigning a numerical score. We recommend using a version of Fibonacci scoring for this exercise. The higher the score, the more attention (OCM, training) they will most likely need.
High / medium / low scoring example:
5 points = High degree of change
è This change will significantly impact the way I currently work and I need to know why this is happening.
3 points = Medium degree of change
è This change might affect the way I work now, but it won't result in significant disruption.
1 point = Low degree of change
è I need to be aware of the change, but it has little to no direct impact on the way I work or my expectations.
Once you complete this exercise you’ll be able to visualize where you need to lean in first with change management, and identify focus areas for training.
Creating a detailed change roster is time well spent. We suggest starting this list early in the project and keeping it on hand, especially during configuration. It’s much easier to track changes incrementally, rather than trying to recall all of when it’s time to deliver training. Use your change roster to inform your communications, job aids, internal process training, and to identify potential risks to adoption.
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