Driving change

I believe strongly in personal change and continuous improvement. I’m always looking for ways to improve myself and doing things better.

What I’ve never really done was work to change people. And it’s hard as heck.

I’ve tried on many occasions to work with persons to explain why they should change, what are the benefits of changing and the risk of not doing so. But this does not work.

I’ve been told that I need to appeal to their emotions, but that does not work for me at all.

I’ve been familiar with Kotter’s 8 step change model:

1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Build a guiding team
3. Create a vision for the change
4. Communicate the vision
5. Empower action by removing obstacles to the vision
6. Create short-term wins that provide momentum
7. Build on the change and maintain momentum
8. Make change stick

But I’ve never been able to get this to work effectively. Or at least, not to my satisfaction.

To be fair, I’ve never had much of an opportunity to practice it. I may be missing a few pieces in getting it done right.

Now I’m being introduced to a new model — ADKAR.

The ADKAR model was developed by Jeff Hiatt and founded the company Prosci with the model as a core component of the strategy.

ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement.

1. Awareness – of the need for change.
2. Desire – to participate and fully support the change.
3. Knowledge – knowledge of how to change.
4. Ability – to learn new skills and implement the change.
5. Reinforcement – to sustain the change and make it clear that there is no turning back.

From what I see, there are a lot of tools available to help manage and implement the process. Looks interesting.

Most interesting is the business model of Prosci where this change model is their main selling point, around which they’ve developed all these tools and services — including subscription services — to drive sustained revenue.

I don’t know if the change management process will work, but I am anxious to try it out.

For me, I continue to change and change for the better. I can only guide people, but it’s up to them to accept it.

Change your thoughts and you change your world. — Norman Vincent Peale