EYN#042: Use This Framework To Drive Change

Getting people to change how they do things is tough. But in tech world we have to get people to change all the time. We might want people to use a new solution. We might want to people to hear some feedback and change their behaviour. We might have a new strategy that people need to adopt. The tech world is full of change.

But most people aren't very good at getting people to change. That means that the people they are trying to affect:

1. Never even attempt to change.
2. Get overwhelmed with the change and struggle to cope.
3. Revert to the old way when things get a bit hard.

Knowing how to persuade people to change and then drive that change is powerful. It's powerful as a leader, it's powerful as a techie and powerful as a human.

So here is my favourite change model. I got taught this many years ago at Microsoft and it's changed the way I thought about getting stuff done ever since.

It's ADKAR. You can read more about in in the book ADKAR by Jeffrey M.Hiatt.

ADKAR. It's easy to remember and stands for:

Awareness
Desire
Knowledge
Ability
Reinforce

ADKAR describes the different phases people go through as they go through change. Each phase happens chronologically, one after the other, in sequence. Let' dig into each.

Awareness

Firstly, people need to be aware of the reason for change. They need to understand the problem or opportunity. What is the pain that needs to be resolved, or the opportunity that needs to be realised? What will happen if they carry on as they are?

People need to understand the issue and why the need for change now.

Desire

There is a difference between knowing that a problem exists, and having a desire to do something about it. To drive change people need to have a desire to take action. People need to create an emotional connection to the change.

They need to understand what's in it if for them.

They need to desire to remove the current pain and desire to achieve the nirvana that the change will bring. This is different to an intellectual knowledge that a problem exists.

Knowledge

Once people desire to change, they need to know how to do it. What steps do they need to take to remove the pain and move towards this brilliant future?

They need access to learning and education on how to do things differently. They need to learn how to do things in a new way. They need new processes to follow, techniques to use and frameworks to build on.

Ability

I also like to think of this as the Action phase. They actually need to apply their new knowledge and do things differently. They need the time, safety and space to put the change into action.

They've got the tools, now they need to do something with it.

Reinforce

It's easy to drift back to the old way. We need to help people stay the course and continue with the change. They need to see the wins, be rewarded for changing behaviour and get encouragement when things get tough.

Now these are set of chronological steps that people go through. They need to move from one phase to another sequentially. There is no point giving people knowledge on how to change if they have no desire to change. The knowledge falls on deaf ears. That's the biggest gotcha I see in tech. People constantly trying to teach people how to do thing differently when those people have no desire to do it differently.

And of course people can move backwards. They can lose the desire to change, or forget how to do thing differently.

Let's step through an example -

Example: Losing some weight and building a healthier body.

• Awareness - Something makes you aware there is a problem. You might jump on the scales and see the number is too high. Some old clothes might not fit. You've become aware you're a bit overweight.
• Desire - There's a difference between knowing you're overweight and doing something about it. It might be a health scare, or kids and struggling to get up and down from the floor with the kids. It might be you want to get better at a sport, or fight the aging process. There is something that triggers that desire to change.
• Knowledge - You need to build a diet plan and an exercise plan. What should you eat and how much? What exercise should you do and when? You need to build a plan that works.
• Ability/Action - You need to buy the right food and cook the right meals. You need to make time to get to the gym, or get out on the bike. You need to take action.
• Reinforce - It's easy to fall off the wagon. Group classes, or a weight chart on the fridge door, or a gym buddy can help you keep going with the change when it's hard.

But that personal example applies equally to the business and tech world.

Whether you're trying to deploy a multimillion dollar tech solution, convince a customer your solution is the answer, or get your team to change the way they operate - ADKAR helps.

ADKAR helps you drive change and ADKAR helps you communicate change. If you understand where people are in the ADKAR sequence you can communicate appropriately. Are people in the Desire phase or the Knowledge phase for example? If you can understand which phase they're in then you can select the right message to help persuade and influence them.

ADKAR is a powerful tool.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

Ben

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