The best way to understand a framework is to apply it to a real-life scenario. Before we dive in, I would like to share one more example briefly.
The first time I was confronted with the ADKAR framework, it was a real “Aha!” moment for me. Ever since then, I’ve been looking at every change situation, even in my personal life, through ADKAR glasses. I break every change down into the five elements: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement.
The story I want to share with you happened when it was time to decide on a high school for my daughter. Developing an encouraging learning style and improving grades would allow her to go to a certain school and be better prepared for the future. I decided to be as organized as possible about this situation and applied the ADKAR framework to make the change. I assessed each element of the situation on the ADKAR scale of one to five:
Awareness
In order to evaluate awareness, I listed the reasons why this change was necessary and rated how relevant they were to my daughter. She was aware that going to a better school would create the base for better opportunities in the future.
On a scale from one to five, I assessed awareness as 3.
Desire
I assessed the positive and negative consequences of this change, and whether one or more of them could motivate my daughter to want to make the change. Her desire to learn more wasn’t very high, and she found no fun in learning. I assessed desire as 2 out of 5.
Knowledge
Here, I asked myself: “does my daughter have the skills and competencies needed during and after the change?” Her reading and math skills at the time were not enough to get the required marks for the desired school.
I assessed knowledge as 2.
Ability
Here, I again considered my daughter’s knowledge, as well as other obstacles, in order to draw conclusions about her ability to perform or act in the new way.
I evaluated ability as 1. In concrete terms, my daughter lacked the knowledge to apply what was required to improve her grades.
Reinforcement
I first listed all the reinforcements that could help my daughter to sustain the change. Then, I reflected on whether her current learning environment provided her with enough incentive to help the change stick.
Although she wasn’t being singled out for bad grades, she probably didn’t get enough credit for getting better grades, either, to see the point in improving her learning style. I evaluated reinforcement as 2.
Here’s how the overall assessment looks:
So, what actions did I undertake following this assessment?
Awareness was sufficient with a score of 3, so there was no urgency to act on this.
Desire, the first element with a score below 3, was the barrier.
I had multiple conversations with my daughter about her ambitions, and about the impact of education on her future. I also talked to her teacher to gain an ally in encouraging her.
Regularly evaluating the elements clearly showed when it made sense to go to the next step and build up the necessary knowledge. My daughter’s teachers also helped here by giving her additional assignments in math and reading to help her with the skills she needed to improve.
The right knowledge then helped her pass tests with better results than before: she demonstrated the ability to apply the knowledge she had acquired, and she noticed the improvements herself.
As she was getting good grades, we celebrated her successes. Praising and celebrating even small steps helped to reinforce a better learning style for the future.
In the end, she finished the year with the required grades for the desired high school. Going forward, her new learning style will help her approach any new project in school or further education.
Your Turn! Apply a Change Management Framework
Now it’s over to you! Let’s see if you can make use of one of the frameworks in your personal life.
On a piece of paper or in a blank text document on your computer, briefly describe a personal change in behavior that you’re trying to help a friend, family member, neighbor, or work associate come through. Pick a person who hasn’t yet implemented the change, despite your best efforts to influence them. Maybe you want to help a family member quit smoking or support a friend who’s moving to a new country…
Let’s try mapping this change to a framework.
Why did you choose this particular framework?
Did you find using such a structural approach helpful for your personal change?
Did you find any new ideas on how to implement this personal change?
Change certainly doesn’t happen overnight. Start with the identified activities and follow your plan to move from the current state to the future state. Make sure you measure success regularly and adjust your strategy if necessary. Implementing change in your next project will take on a whole new dimension.
Look how far you’ve come! You now have many sources to draw from when implementing change. Change is a journey, and you’ll likely find that one approach is more appropriate than another. In the next part, we’ll therefore deal with a generic change project, in which we combine approaches and activities from the various frameworks.
