2 ADKAR Awareness Ebook
2 ADKAR Awareness Ebook
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CONTENTS
BUILDING AWARENESS 5
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS 5
EFFECTIVE SPONSORSHIP 7
NEXT STEPS 12
A WARENESS D ESIRE K NOWLEDGE A BILITY R EINFORCEMENT ®
Any successful change begins by answering one of the most basic questions about change:
Why? It is human nature to want to understand the reasoning behind an action or a required
change.
The five parts of the Prosci ADKAR ® Model show the milestones an individual must achieve
Awareness represents a person’s understanding of the nature of the change, why the change
is being made and the risk of not changing. Awareness includes information about the internal
and external drivers that created the need for change, as well as “what’s in it for me?” This first
goal is defined as “awareness of the need for change,” not simply “awareness that a change is
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WHY BUILD AWARENESS?
Lack of awareness of the reason for change was cited as the primary source of employee
resistance in the Best Practices in Change Management - 2016 Edition. This lack is caused
unable to answer “what’s in it for me?” resistance is likely to occur, and when awareness is
overlooked or ignored, projects face increased resistance, slow progress and reduced return
work, but rather they resisted change because no one made a clear and
The elements of the Prosci ADKAR Model fall into a natural order of how one person
experiences change. It is tempting to skip awareness and jump straight ahead to desire and
knowledge. Building awareness establishes the groundwork upon which individuals can make
personal choices about change. Desire or knowledge cannot come before awareness, because
it is the awareness of the need for change that stimulates our desire or triggers our resistance
to change.
will be relatively easy. In contrast, it is often more difficult to build awareness when an
organization is already succeeding. Change leaders will need to create a very compelling case
and make the reasons for change blatantly evident. If they are responding to an opportunity,
they will need to be clear in communicating this and sharing the reasons for change.
Building awareness as defined within ADKAR means sharing both the nature of the change and
communicating why this change is necessary. It means clearly explaining the business drivers
or opportunities that have resulted in the need for change. It also means addressing why a
Meeting the human need to know “why” is a critical factor in managing and enabling change.
People begin to seek this information at the first signs of change. In an organizational setting,
employees and managers alike will be eager to know the business or organizational reasons
for the change, so they can better understand the change and align themselves with the
organization’s direction.
Many will assume that the act of sharing information is enough to produce awareness. This
is not the case. The effectiveness of your communication depends on how the messages are
received and internalized. When an employee says, “I understand the nature of the change and
why this change is needed,” you have succeeded at building awareness. The only way you can
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS
Awareness-building will be most effective when the message is set in the proper context for
each audience and designed with them in mind. This begins with identifying and segmenting
audience groups, determining the appropriate messages and the preferred senders for each,
then developing the most effective packaging, timing and channels for these communications.
change initiative.
• Face-to-face meetings
• Group meetings
• One-on-one communications
• Newsletters
• Intranet
• Executive presentations
• Update bulletins
• Video conferencing
• Demonstrations
For employees, the executive sponsor of change is the best spokesperson for communicating
why a change is needed and the risk of not changing. To be effective the executive sponsor
must be active and visible throughout the entire change process, engaging with the project
team and collecting feedback from employees. This direct communication with employees
will increase adoption of the change. The executive sponsor must also build a coalition that
reinforces the awareness messages at all levels - enabling peers, managers and direct reports
to communicate the reasons for change through multiple communication channels and
change initiative.
Part of awareness-building for employees is learning what the change will mean for them
help employees understand the reasons for change in meaningful terms and to evaluate how
the change will impact them at the individual level. To be effective in this role, managers and
supervisors must have the opportunity to build awareness of the need for change themselves
- and must therefore have accurate and complete messages relating to the change and basic
If they don’t understand the need for the change themselves or don’t have the support to
participate in the change, they will experience resistance themselves. It is critical to plan
activities to build awareness of the need for change with managers before expecting them to
Managers and supervisors have the greatest challenge as they are in charge of translating
the change message from the top to their employees. Once a manager is onboard and has
received the appropriate training and coaching, they will be able to conduct effective sessions
with their employees. Face-to-face communications with employees about the change has
been cited in all of our longitudinal benchmarking studies as the most effective form of
communication. Honest, straightforward and confidential discussions also help to correct any
misunderstandings and provide an opportunity to collect feedback from employees, which will
help leadership better understand the background conversation. While group meetings are
more convenient and useful for initiating communications, one-on-one conversations that offer
details of the change on a personal level are best at answering “what’s in it for me?”
Many companies underestimate the power of readily accessible information about company
business priorities. Transparency builds awareness on an ongoing basis and supports not
only the current change but also future changes. Increasing visibility and creating a culture
that values open sharing of information about the company, market and business direction
translates directly to increased awareness of the need for change among employees.
There are many factors that influence how readily people recognize the need for change. As a
leader of change, you will need to understand not only the activities that drive awareness, but
also the resisting factors or restraining forces that may prevent the awareness message from
taking hold with your audiences. In some cases the resisting factors are so strong that even
the best communications plan will not be sufficient. Effective change management plans are
Below we list potential resisting factors and suggestions for overcoming these barriers:
Individuals who are comfortable with or strongly invested in the current state may discredit or
deny the reasons for change in favor of maintaining the status quo. Take the time to listen to
and understand their point of view. One-on-one conversations will be most effective for this.
People have different cognitive styles and this will impact how an individual approaches a
problem, internalizes an awareness message and perceives the need for change. While some
individuals will already see the need for change, others may be completely caught off-guard.
For this reason, broad and general communications to create awareness of the need for
change may not be effective. Individualized messages and one-on-one communications will
once again be more effective, along with providing the time and opportunity for people to
Recipients of the awareness message will view the sender either as a credible source or
someone not to be believed, depending on their level of trust and respect for the sender. The
Employees will also weigh the message against the backdrop of the organization’s track record
disregard the new information. Credible awareness messages must be designed specifically for
each group, informed by their unique context, the access they have to information on a regular
basis, and their specific pain points regarding the proposed change. Key messages must be
If business managers have withheld information from employees about the change, rumors
may have spread and clouded the facts - and employees may prefer to listen to the rumors.
supervisors will now need to spend extra time correcting misinformation, and employees will
communicate the right information from the start. Even if all information is not yet solidified, it
is better to start clearly communicating what is known and what is not yet known rather than
If the reasons for change are unclear, subjective or open to debate, extra time will be needed
to build awareness. While some changes have external and observable reasons that are
difficult to dispute (like new industry regulations that require compliance) other changes
have reasons that are internally oriented and not immediately obvious to employees. When
employees question the credibility of the reasons for change, they are more likely to resist.
Once the first objective of the ADKAR Model has been achieved, we can shift our focus to
the next milestone. In Desire: How to Positively Influence a Person’s Desire to Embrace
Change, we explore the importance of creating desire, typical challenges and many tactics that
can be used to influence and create the desire to support and participate in a change.
Gain the knowledge, skills and tools to drive successful change initiatives. This three-
day experiential learning program teaches you to apply a holistic change management
methodology and toolset, including the Prosci ADKAR Model, to a real project.
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