Implementing the ADKAR Method into Learning and Development

Mar 4

Written By Christina Toda

Photo by **Christina Morillo** from **Pexels**

By: Rebecca Jones

When were you super excited to begin a new project? To start a new role? To make a change with a group or your team?

Heather of Skill Masters Market tells her story about a recent volunteer experience:

“I had just started volunteering with this amazing group of women.

They were everything I admired. They were smart, strong, caring, and powerful women who were working toward the common goal of developing a leadership program.

I was so excited to jump in, get to know everyone, and begin contributing in a meaningful way.

And I did dive in…

I spent time creating survey questions when asked.

I created focus group questions.

I used my creative energy helping to put together many aspects of the leadership program.

I was excited, ready, and working for my newfound group.

But…

I always felt like I was operating in the dark.

I felt like I was working for and not with my group.

I had so many starts and stops with no explanation.

I would receive a task to complete but with no larger context as to how it fit into the larger overall goal for the project or group

I felt disconnected and ineffective.

Unfortunately, I had given so much of my time, but I never even knew or heard if the program was developed.

Still I wonder, was the program ever finished or even implemented?”

If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re not alone. The enthusiasm at the beginning of a project can be infectious, everyone sitting at the table coming together to work, to get the ball rolling, to make a needed change, or to just completely overhaul a part of your work that isn’t working and implement something new and fresh…

But the project completely falls apart as people go back to their day to day tasks and communication stops. You’re left wondering if the project was completed.

In Heather’s volunteer role, she was missing some major components of the Prosci ADKAR Model for change management.

In order to prevent projects from stalling out, she feels that it is important to embed change management methodology into her learning and development strategies when she works with a team on a project.

As the Prosci ADKAR Method states it can be “a powerful yet simple model for facilitating individual change.”

ADKAR stands for:

Awareness - knowing what is changing

Desire - being willing to change

Knowledge - knowing how to change

Abilities - having the skills to change

Reinforcement - being supported in the change

“If you understand your audience from the ADKAR perspective, then you can design that training keeping the audience in mind,” Heather says.

You have the ability then to understand what motivates them, what gaps they may have, what resources they may already have access to, and what barriers exist.

Based on what you’ve learned about the group or team, you are then able to tailor the learning and development from a learner perspective, she says. This ensures much more success and benefits the entire team and individual learner.

Ultimately, by rooting the ADKAR method into learning and development you are able to give opportunities for the audience to reflect, share, and apply practices making the learning and development process that much more effective. Simply stated, you are able to coach them better, and they are able to thrive and learn more when the ADKAR methodology is implemented.

About the Author