Diagnosing Individual Barriers to Change with ADKAR

Read more: blog.prosci.com/individual-barriers-to-change-and-…

The Prosci ADKAR Model is a framework for managing and understanding individual change. The model consists of five building blocks that must be achieved for change to be successful: Awareness of the need for change, Desire to participate and engage in the change, Knowledge of the skills and competencies needed to successfully change, the Ability to perform the necessary skills and the Reinforcement to sustain the change.

Transcript:
Because ADKAR describes successful change journeys, it also helps us understand when a change is breaking down, and we use sort of a graphical depiction. And what we define is what we call the barrier point. The barrier point is the first ADKAR element that is insufficient and impedes change progress. It's the first score of what we'd say is a three or below. And the barrier point helps us determine where to focus our energy. So, that first graph, ability is the barrier point. It's the first one below a three or below. Look at the one in the upper right because, as soon as we look at that graph, we're drawn to desire. We say, "Oh, no, there's a really low desire." But I'm gonna circle awareness for you. Awareness, although the score is higher than desire, it is still at a level that is insufficient and impeding change progress. So, the barrier point, there is only one barrier point, well I guess there can be zero if you have all of them, but otherwise, there's only one, and it is the first time we have an element that's low enough that is preventing us from moving forward. This helps us identify where the change is snagging up so that we can help that person move forward. It also helps us prevent focusing on our corrective actions on the wrong ADKAR element because it can be really frustrating for the employees, and it's incredibly ineffective and inefficient for us to focus on the wrong place. And I'll give you an example. The employees have awareness and desire. They would already say, "I know why, and I've decided to." That means they're all waiting for knowledge. And we have a town hall meeting, and a bunch of videos, and a bunch of focus groups, revisiting the why and the why now. We're focusing on awareness when the employees are already past awareness. That's ineffective if we're focusing on the wrong place. It can be ineffective if you go the other direction too. If employees are stuck at awareness and we keep trying to provide coaching opportunities around ability, we've missed the mark. We're not gonna help them move forward.

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