Implementing change in an organization can be intimidating for employees.  They have to move from established, well-known activities to new work that is uncertain and unfamiliar. Change projects success is often determined by how well the individual employees embrace, adopt, and use new processes, tools, or techniques. To help teams improve the success with change projects, we will explore merging a leadership approach using the ADKAR model with a quality support approach using organizational knowledge.

ADKAR Model

The ADKAR model is a widely used framework that promotes change management by understanding change on the individual level. The Prosci ADKAR Model was developed by Jeff Hiatt in 1996 to inspire team members to become change leaders. ADKAR is an acronym for a framework with five phases on guiding employees to work through their resistance to process changes: (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement).

Quality Support

Quality support involves providing the team a support resource to the organizational knowledge necessary for the operations of processes. The quality system maintains the integrity of the process knowledge and keeps the content accessible throughout all stages of the change management projects. Quality support focuses on using organizational knowledge to build employee confidence about the process changes.

Merge Quality Support with ADKAR

ADKAR and quality support provide two different viewpoints to change management. ADKAR’s view is about preparing employees for the process changes while the quality support viewpoint is about preparing the process changes for the employees. To merge these two viewpoints, we will explore using organizational knowledge to provide quality support during the five ADKAR phases (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement).

Awareness

Awareness is the first ADKAR element for working on resistance. This initial step is for developing awareness of the need for change. This element answers the question of why change is essential and communicates the risks for not changing.

During this awareness phase, introduce the team to the organizational knowledge quality system for the current state.  The information provides both the employees and the change team a common knowledge foundation for launching the change project.  The quality system also supports awareness about how the updated organizational knowledge containing the changes will operate at the end of the project.

Desire

Desire is the second element of the ADKAR model. This element is about building individual interest and motivation for the change. This phase reviews the nature of change and explores the benefits for employees and the business.

During this phase, the change team can start identifying the portions of the business process involved with the changes. Identifying the parts helps with employee acceptance by demonstrating that only subsets of the organizational knowledge will need changes while the rest remains untouched.

Knowledge

The knowledge element of ADKAR focuses on preparing employees for change with training. This phase is about employees learning the knowledge they need to perform the changes.

With quality support, this phase involves preparing organizational knowledge with the necessary details to transition it from the pre-change version to the post-change version. The preparation starts with identifying the list of job tasks procedures involved with the change. Then the team can determine and record the process details required for the change updates. After preparing the new knowledge version, the team can plan and deliver the necessary training. The training can focus the instructing the affected employees on the modified process portions.

Ability

The ability phase refers to the learning curve period where employees are developing their skills and mastery of the new changes. During this period, employees will need support to help them improve their productivity with the updated process.

The updated organizational knowledge provides employees with on-the-job support to be productive while still learning the new changes. Having quick access to the job role knowledge enables employees to be self-sufficient in improving and sustaining their performance.

Reinforcement

The ADKAR model’s final phase is about reinforcing employees’ momentum with learning and adopting the process changes. The model suggests a series of tactics to sustain the progress of the changes and keep employees from resisting the change and reverting to old practices.

Reinforcement for quality support is about reinforcing the integrity of the knowledge in the quality system. Business teams can take ownership of the quality system and maintain knowledge accuracy as they continue to improve the process with fine-tune adjustments. With the quality system, they can administer turn-key process changes with the knowledge necessary training and support.

Conclusion

Although these two change management approaches have different viewpoints, they compliment each other by providing employees internal and company support. With business changes, individuals will go through their challenges of trying to accept the modifications.  ADKAR provides leadership guidance on supporting individuals through the phases of adopting changes.  Quality support addresses the employee’s confidence in the business environment. The integrity of the knowledge demonstrates that changes are part of the stable process on how the business grows and evolves.  With a quality system, employees can rely on the company for knowledge support while adapting to the new changes.

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