ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and our Community

In his first complete text on the ADKAR model, Jeff Hiatt explains the origin of the model and explores what drives each building block of ADKAR. Learn how to build awareness, create desire, develop knowledge, foster ability and reinforce changes in your organization. The ADKAR Model is changing how we think about managing the people side of change, and provides a powerful foundation to help you succeed at change.After more than 14 years of research with corporate change, the ADKAR model has emerged as a holistic approach that brings together the collection of change management work into a simple, results oriented model. This model ties together all aspects of change management including readiness assessments, sponsorship, communications, coaching, training and resistance management. All of these activities are placed into a framework that is oriented on the required phases for realizing change with individuals and the organization.The ADKAR perspective can help you develop a “new lens” through which to observe and influence change. You may be working for change in your public school system or in a small city council. You may be sponsoring change in your department at work. You may be observing large changes that are being attempted at the highest levels of government or you may be leading an enterprise-wide change initiative. The perspective enabled by the ADKAR model allows you to view change in a new way. You can begin to see the barrier points and understand the levers that can move your changes forward. ADKAR allows you to understand why some changes succeed while others fail. Most importantly, ADKAR can help your changes be a success. Based on research with more than 900 companies from 59 countries, ADKAR is a simple and holistic way to manage change.

Jeff Hiatt is the president of Prosci Research and founder of the Change Management Learning Center. He is the author of the book Employee's Survival Guide to Change and co-author of Change Management: the people side of change. Jeff was a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories from 1985 to 1995 where he co-authored Winning with Quality, a story of business and quality improvement for one of AT&T's product divisions. After founding Prosci in 1996, he has led research in change management with more than 900 companies from 59 countries. He is also a frequent guest speaker for executive leadership teams and conferences.