You’re looking to make a change? And you want to ensure that your employees are ready and willing to make that jump with you? Don’t know the Adkar model? Then read on. It’s a surefire way to help you lower resistance to change and speed up implementation and acceptance of it.
What is Adkar?
Created in 1994 by Jeff Hiatt, founder of Prosci, the Adkar model was devised to help employees process and engage with change. It does this by providing managers with a roadmap for bringing strategic changes to the workfloor, while aiding them in recognising employees’ needs and level of engagement as they do so.
The Adkar model of change is totally employee-focused, so it’s particularly well suited for incremental change, that can be iterated on and brought in over several adkar cycles. Used effectively it should help company leaders discuss the various stages of implementing change, and employees to understand and commit to the actions needed for those changes to work.
It’s based on the following acronym:
- A – awareness, of the need to change on an individual level, as part of an organisation.
- D – desire, to change (become supportive of and actively engaged in affecting change)
- K – knowledge, of what needs changing and how to do it
- A – ability, to learn and practice the skills and behaviours needed
- R – reinforcement, the practice needed to maintain the changes and stop staff falling back into old habits.
How does it work?
First tackle the what – once the strategic decisions have been made, make sure that your internal communication is clear and no one has been left out of the loop. This is the Awareness part: don’t pull any surprises on staff which might make them defensive. Flagging imminent changes and posting updates on your intranet or MobieTrain news feed, might be a good place to start.
The why? Next instil a sense of desire in staff by making sure that they understand the changes, their part in them, and why these are useful/essential to both themselves and the company. You might do this via a team training or by using your digital training platform to introduce the subject. Make it fun and enjoyable, perhaps using a video, followed by a game or quiz; all options in MobieTrain’s content creation area.
And the how? By equipping employees with the right tools, training and knowledge (Ability), and by acknowledging that change takes time (Reinforcement), managers can help employees make the switch.
By creating individual learning paths, different employees can train at their own pace. Plus, as MobieTrain is a mobile-first platform, they can do that whenever and wherever they want. Our data dashboard gives you actionable insights into each team members’ progress. So, Adkar analysis can easily be included in your MobieTrain content as you create it.
How can Adkar help you?
When used well the Adkar change methodology can increase employee engagement and knowledge retention helping you make organisational changes more quickly, effectively and enjoyably than you, or your staff, could have anticipated.
Do you want to chat over just how that might work? Give us a call!
