Change is unpredictable, your reaction to it ISN’T!

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Change is unpredictable, your reaction to it ISN’T!

While change itself is most of the times unpredictable, your reaction to it ISN’T! We all have basic instinct to survival, and change threatens that instinct and triggers a predictable emotional journey. Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross detailed this journey in what’s called: The change curve. It’s what every human being goes through when facing change. Organizations can better prepare for change when they anticipate the possible reactions by their workforce. If teams and companies lose sight of whom their changes impact the most, then their attempts to make those changes will be for naught. Changing an organization is not like changing a tire; there are human factors to consider.

Created by Jeffrey Hiatt, the ADKAR change model helps facilitate change on an individual level since change is often less about the changes themselves and more about people’s reactions to them. ADKAR is an acronym for:

• Awareness: Awareness of the need to change

• Desire: Desire to participate in and support the change

• Knowledge: Knowledge of how to change

• Ability: Ability to implement the change

• Reinforcement: Reinforcement to sustain the change

Since organizational change is directly dependent upon its employees for successful implementation, it’s critical for individuals to have a clear understanding of what changes are occurring, why they are occurring, and how they affect them personally. Bringing a change to fruition and achieving specific outcomes is tied to people adopting new behaviors. Once you understand this, you can ask the right questions: 

• How many total employees will engage in the change versus how many will opt out or find workarounds (i.e., ultimate utilization)? 

• How quickly will employees get on board with the change (i.e., speed of adoption)?

• How effectively will the change be implemented at an individual level (i.e., proficiency)?

• Because change is an individual phenomenon, these individual factors can drive or constrain the value a change creates.

• Project managers and business leaders sometimes assume that ultimate utilization, speed of adoption, and proficiency—the human factors of change—will automatically reach 100% after being introduced. They fall into the common trap of believing that designing and implementing a business solution is enough to achieve intended results. 

• But without engagement from each employee who must do their job differently, we will not achieve tangible benefits from change.

• The ADKAR model helps individuals process change through clearly defined stages that enable them to both understand and accept the changes at hand.

You just need to ask two questions to understand how important and essential is to manage the change:

1. For your project, what percentage of overall results and outcomes DEPENDS on employee adoption and usage of the change?

2. How much you are INVESTING (budget, people, energy) in driving and supporting employee adoption and usage?