Everyone loves change… or do they?

Change… one of the constant things in life we experience but that doesn’t mean we all love it, embrace it, and ride the waves easily.

How many times have you experienced something significant, not only in your personal life but in your professional life and thought, this was a disaster, I will never do that again.

And how many times have you thought; Why do people think that by just dropping something on me without any warning, will make me think…. yes… amazing, I am getting on that change train and I’m going to enjoy the journey. I bet at least more than once!

Now you may think, what on earth does a picture of a shark have to do with this article? Well, I will let you know at the end….

I am going to stick to looking at this more from a professional angle because throughout my working years I have seen some amazing examples of how change has been managed incredibly well and how…. well…. It’s been managed incredibly badly (and full disclosure, I have contributed to poorly executed change and the only way to learn how to do it better is to learn from your mistakes because we all make mistakes, it’s a way of life!).

People always talk about how to ‘execute’ projects successfully but often this tends to focus on the systematic execution of change whether it be the development of a new application, process, or product feature. What gets forgotten on many occasions is how to ensure you focus on how this change will affect people and the way they work moving forward. Not only people inside your organisation, but customers too!  

There are many change models out there but one that I refer to time and time again is ADKAR. For me it’s common sense and an easy-to-follow model.  

So, I wanted to share a high-level description of the model with you. For anyone who is just about to embark on their next piece of work and is passionate about delivering great change then this might help a little or a lot. I hope it does both!

Awareness - Communicate the reason for change. Why is change necessary? Never assume that people will just get it and love it, remember you are asking individuals to potentially change from a way they have been working for years to a different way of working. Get them on board with engaging communication and build their passion to want to change.

Desire – It is important to empower and engage individuals. This is a difficult one because you just can’t tell people how to feel about something but what you can do is put all the correct actions in place to ensure regular, open, and transparent communication. This is a constant circle of communication. Ensure you set up a proper cadence to keep all individuals impacted by change updated and engaged regularly but get the balance right. Too much means people get tired of hearing it and can just switch off from it.

Knowledge – We know we need to change but how do we change? Evaluating what additional skills, tools and people’s duties will be are key. Never rush this bit, remember we never run before we can walk so plan this bit well to ensure you build the capabilities needed to successfully change. And finally, bitesize chunks are key, information delivered in one chunk can be overwhelming and have an adverse effect.

Ability - Never assume that even if people know how to do something, they will just do it. Everyone needs structure in their day-to-day work. Ensure you have a strong enablement plan in place to train and upskill. Feedback is key, so ensure you put a mechanism in place to allow this to happen.

Reinforcement - Always reinforce why the change has happened because otherwise things have a habit of reverting to how they were. Mix that with new ways of working and you have an even more complex outcome to manage. Always recognise the right behaviours and results to keep building on your change journey. It doesn’t always mean carving out huge chunks of budget for this, but messages of thanks and appreciation go a long way.

So why a picture of a shark? I recently visited the Maldives where I got the opportunity to do a lot of snorkeling and scuba diving. I was adamant that I would NOT be getting into the open water to snorkel and dive knowing that sharks were swimming around. I then had a quiet word with myself and there is the fact that reef sharks are just not interested in me! So, I did a little ADKAR on myself and well needless to say I got into the water and witnessed the most incredible things our oceans have. Simply breathtaking. So, whilst it might be scary, embrace it. You never know, you might enjoy it! 

#change #ADKAR #goforit #transformation #improve