Author: Tim Creasey

As I explained in part one, the Prosci ADKAR Model is one of the most widely used frameworks for managing change. Practitioners say that it makes sense, is easy to explain to others and helps them see and unlock numerous and various types of change. Whether a change is impacting five, 50, 500 or 5,000 employees, it will deliver better results when each employee has awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement. Since ADKAR describes the outcomes of a successful individual transition, the five building blocks can be considered the milestones of successful change at the individual level. So what can a project team do to support impacted employees through their own individual journeys? This article is an excerpt from Eric Verzuh’s latest book, The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, courtesy of The Versatile Company. Actions Required: Organizational Change Management Whereas individual change management and ADKAR describe the “outcomes desired” for change, organizational change management describes the “actions required.” Over the past two decades, change management has evolved from primarily conceptual frameworks toward a rigorous, structured and documented process with formal deliverables and tools to support its application. While there are numerous approaches available, here we’ll be exploring the Prosci “Three-Phase Process” at a high level, and I’ll call out specific activities and deliverables in each of the phases: Preparing for change; Managing change; and Reinforcing Change. Phase 1: Preparing for Change A “one size fits all” solution for change management is ineffective. The type and nature of change will be unique, and so will the people side impact and people side challenges. Phase 1 focuses on building the strategy and situational awareness and supporting structures dictated by the change you’re working to manage. Key activities of phase one include: Defining the individual level change required by the project; Assessing the nature and type of project (the change characteristics); Assessing the individuals and groups being impacted by the change (organizational attributes); Evaluating overall people side risk; Developing risk mitigation tactics; Anticipating resistance and developing mitigation tactics; Creating a customized change management strategy; Designing the sponsorship model needed to support realization; and Equipping the change team and project team. The outputs of building situational awareness in this first phase guide the development of the specific activities and deliverables in phases two and three. Phase 2: Managing Change The second phase in the process covers the outward, employee-facing activities of change management. Based on the analysis in phase one, including the risk profile and customization based on situational awareness, the team creates five specific plans for supporting individual adoption and usage during the course of the project. These five plans are aligned to the ADKAR elements and integrated into a project plan for greatest impact. The five plans are: Communications plan: A “telling plan” merely informs employees about what the project team is doing; a communication plan answers the questions employees have and is delivered by preferred senders through preferred mediums. Sponsor roadmap: This provides specific direction and actions needed by senior leaders to fulfill their role as sponsor — namely, active and visible participation, building a healthy coalition and communicating directly to employees. Coaching plan: This presents the actions needed by front-line managers and supervisors throughout the organization to support their direct reports in times of change; their proximity to impacted employees makes them crucial allies. Training plan: This plan details the efforts to build sufficient knowledge during and after the change, documenting requirements and positioning efforts within context. Resistance management plan: This plan lays out the approach for both proactive and reactive resistance management, including who the key players are for identifying and managing resistance. Each of the five plans supports specific building blocks of the Prosci ADKAR Model. For example, you can’t train awareness, and you can’t communicate ability. ADKAR provides guidance that enables the team to leverage the right plans and tools at the right time during the change lifecycle. Formal deliverables are created for each of the five plans and they’re integrated into the project timeline to ensure that affected employees have ability when it is time for “be live” on the project. Phase 3: Reinforcing Change The final “action required” in organizational change management is reinforcement of the change. As it is with individuals, the natural tendency of organizations is to revert. Specific, deliberate activities and mechanisms must be leveraged to ensure the change sticks and results are sustained. Key activities in this third phase include: Proactively collecting feedback; Listening to employees; Auditing compliance; Measuring performance; Diagnosing gaps; Identifying and managing resistance, particularly pockets of resistance; Implementing corrective actions; Celebrating successes; and Transitioning the change to the operational owner. Many times, the project team is disbanded once the project ends, but reinforcement activities are still required to ensure sustainment. This requires a well-designed approach that transfers ownership and accountability for reinforcement into the organization. While projects come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, the universal constant is the affected employees who must change how they do their jobs. A significant portion of your project’s expected results and outcomes rely on and depend on individuals making their own personal transitions successfully (even more so for strategic, critical and integration-oriented projects). As a project manager your ability to support and catalyze those individual transitions is a key part of creating project value and your own success. Change management provides the structured discipline, milestones and deliverables you need to manage the “harder” side of projects and initiatives. To learn more about change management, visit https://www.prosci.com to access blogs, webinars, tutorials and tools. Prosci provides role-based solutions for project managers, change management leaders and business leaders and managers based on decades of research. Its popular book series includes ADKAR: A Model for Change, Change Management: The People Side of Change, and Best Practices in Change Management. Copyright Prosci. Used by Permission. Have your change management efforts used this framework? Share your experiences with the MPUG community in the comments below. Image Source

Projects come in all shapes and sizes. Some impact the entire enterprise while others may affect a single workshop. Some are disruptive while others are incremental. Projects can aim to improve processes, systems, tools and structures. But despite all the wonderful variety in the project world, there is one universal constant in terms of both impact and contribution to success: the people whose jobs will be affected and changed as a result of the project implementation. The people side of change sits squarely along the critical path to delivering value above and beyond specifications. Unfortunately, the people side of change is often the most overlooked, underserved, under-resourced and underfunded. This article is an excerpt from Eric Verzuh’s latest book, The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, courtesy of The Versatile Company. But there is a solution. Change management is the discipline focused on the people aspects of your projects. It is ultimately about applying structure and rigor to support the “soft” side of change, which, in reality, is often the harder side of change. As a working definition of change management, I use this: “Catalyzing individual transitions to deliver organizational results.” This brief two-part introduction provides an overview of change management, its desired outcomes, its required actions and how you can be more successful as a project manager if you integrate project management and change management. Why the People Side Matters The people side of change matters because, when projects are implemented, organizations don’t change, people do. Consider the question: How much of my project’s expected results and outcomes depend on employees adopting and using the solution? When I have asked this question, even at large technology-focused conferences, the answers are routinely in the 70 to 100 percent range. Employees embracing, adopting and using a solution is what bridges the gap between an effectively managed project and truly delivering expected improvement and meaningful results to the organization. Data from nearly a decade of research by Prosci shows that projects with excellent change management are six times more likely to meet or exceed objectives than those with poor change management (and even moving from “poor” to “fair” yields a threefold increase). There are also tangible costs and risks for ignoring the people side of change, such as resistance, delays, attrition and loss of productivity. One of the largest costs of ignoring the people side of change is the RE cost — like redo, revisit, re-scope, redesign, rework, retrain, and ,in some cases, retreat. When adoption and usage are only addressed at the end of a project, these RE costs are significant and prevalent. Although the people side of change is often underestimated and underserved, it’s one of the largest and most critical steps along the project value chain. The Differences and Similarities of PM and CM Project management and change management are related but distinct disciplines. Some of the primary differences include these: One focuses on the technical side of implementing change; the other focuses on the people side of implementing change; They have slightly different definitions of “done” and measures of progress; They require different mindsets, competencies, and skill sets; and They have different histories in terms of length (60-plus years vs. 20-plus) and origin. While they do have some differences, project management and change management also share similarities that create a prime opportunity for a collaborative partnership: Both are disciplines’ Both are process driven and tool rich; Both are applied to specific, discrete undertakings (in other words, projects); Both need skilled practitioners; and Both share the ultimate objective of delivering successful change outcomes and value to the organization by helping it perform in a new, improved way. Projects and initiatives are more successful when they apply both project management and change management, a phenomenon we describe as the “unified value proposition.” The Unified Value Proposition of an Integrated Approach The unified value proposition is what happens when change management and project management are applied together, in unison, in an integrated manner. The solution is BOTH designed, developed and delivered effectively AND embraced, adopted and used by employees who are being impacted. Organizational results and value come from solving both the technical side and people side of the puzzle through this unified value proposition. But what does it really mean to “apply” change management on a project? Effective change management requires two perspectives: 1) individual change management, which aims to answer how one person makes a change successfully; and 2) organizational change management, which provides the structure, process and toolset for the project team to apply in order to support the individual transitions caused by and required for the project to yield value. Outcomes Desired: Individual Change Management “The secret to successful change lies beyond the visible and busy activities that surround change. Successful change, at its core, is rooted in something much simpler: How to facilitate change with one person.” — Jeff Hiatt, founder of Prosci, ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and Our Community The first step in applying change management is to understand how a single individual makes a change successfully, because, in the end, it is through individual employee adoption and usage that project and organizational value is created. Here, we will introduce the Prosci ADKAR Model, developed by Prosci Founder, Jeff Hiatt. ADKAR describes the five building blocks of a successful individual change, whether that change is happening at home, in the community, or at work: Awareness of the need for change Desire to participate and support the change Knowledge on how to change Ability to implement required skills and behaviors Reinforcement to sustain the change Whether your project requires employees to follow new processes, use new tools or interact with new systems, those affected employees need each of the ADKAR building blocks to be successful in their personal transition, which is what ultimately contributes to project and organizational success. Let’s explore each of the ADKAR building blocks, along with specific “how to” suggestions for building and fostering each one. Awareness Awareness is the first building block. It’s important to note that this is not awareness that a change is happening, but rather a true understanding of the motivations and triggers for the change. In today’s environment, where engagement and ownership have replaced predictability and control, employees being affected by a change expect an answer to “Why?” Prosci research indicates that the lack of a compelling case for change — that is, a lack of awareness — is the greatest source of employee resistance. As a practitioner, you can begin by answering four simple but often neglected questions: What is the nature of the change? Why? Why now? What if we don’t? Awareness of the need for change is created through effective and well-crafted communication and sponsor messaging early in the project lifecycle. Examples of awareness-building activities include: Ensuring effective sponsor messaging; Empowering manager conversations; Communicating, communicating, communicating; Providing access to readily available information; Kicking off the project with an event; Presenting data in a visual and compelling way; and Highlighting observable conditions or catastrophic events. You know you have built sufficient awareness when an impacted employee would say, “I understand why…” Desire The second step in ADKAR is desire to participate and support the change. Desire is ultimately the personal decision by an individual to take part in the change. Because desire is a personal feeling, it can’t be forced. However, desire can be motivated and encouraged. Building desire is founded upon the ability to highlight and make clear the personal and organizational motivating factors for the change, including: Expected gain or achievement (both personal and organizational); Fear of consequences of not changing (both personal and organizational); Importance of being part of something; and Importance of following a trusted leader. Building desire is tricky because it is so personal. However, there are specific actions that can be taken to help build desire, including: Ensuring active and visible support by sponsors; Building a strong sponsor coalition; Ensuring personal engagement by managers and supervisors; Anticipating and proactively managing resistance; Involving employees in the change process; Providing opportunities for input and feedback; and Aligning incentive programs with the change. You know you have built sufficient desire when an impacted employee says, “I have decided to…” Knowledge Knowledge on how to change is the third building block, but is often the de facto and default that project teams jump to. When changes impact employees, the first response is often, “Let’s send them to training.” Knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient if the foundational awareness and desire are not in place. When thinking about knowledge, it’s important for project teams to account for: Knowledge requirements during the change; and Knowledge requirements after the change. Knowledge is often the least challenging of the five building blocks, given the history and prevalence of training and training departments as part of change efforts. However, there are several more tactics to consider when building knowledge, including: Delivering formal training; Providing web-based educational materials; Establishing mentoring relationships and opportunities; Providing coaching in a one-on-one setting; Leveraging experience; Creating user groups and forums; Making job aids readily available and accessible; and Providing specific troubleshooting guidance. You know you have built sufficient knowledge when an impacted employee says, “I know how to…” Ability After awareness, desire, and knowledge comes ability — when the change actually happens. Employees can demonstrate the capability to do their jobs in the new way. Knowledge doesn’t ensure ability (see my golf game as an example), but project teams can provide specific support in creating ability, including: Providing opportunities to practice; Creating the necessary time to commit to the change; Coaching by managers or peers; Accessing subject-matter experts; Role modeling of the new behavior; Delivering effective and timely feedback; and Providing support resources. You know you have built sufficient ability when an impacted employee says, “I am able to…” Reinforcement Reinforcement is the final building block of the ADKAR Model. As human beings, it’s our natural, psychological, and physiological tendency to revert back to what we know. Without concrete measures and mechanisms to reinforce change, employees can slip back into old ways and the change won’t stick. To be effective, reinforcement must be meaningful to employees. As a project team, reinforcement can take many different flavors, including: Celebrating successes; Rewarding new ways of working; Recognizing successful change; Providing feedback; Implementing corrective actions; Sharing performance measurements; Implementing accountability mechanisms; and Saying “Thank you” and “Job well done.” You know you’ve built sufficient reinforcement when an impacted employee says, “I will continue to…” In part two of this article, I explain what a project team can do to support affected employees through their own individual journeys. Have your change management efforts used this framework? Share your experiences with the MPUG community in the comments below. Copyright Prosci. Used by Permission. Image Source