In this ever-changing era, if your business cannot keep up with the times, you will definitely lag behind. However, many people fall into the dilemma of “if you initiate change, you will die immediately; if you don’t change, you will die sooner or later”. So how can we change to be successful? Nokia’s failure is typical. It was intoxicated with the glorious achievements of the past and failed to understand the changes of the times. In the end, it could only close its business. Under the leadership of its new leader, Microsoft has shifted its focus from operating systems to cloud services, reshaped its corporate culture, and returned to be the key market player, demonstrating how companies can turn around and create greater success.
I tend to use relevant management models to explain to business owners in class or when conducting business consultations. The reason is of course not to “show off”, but to help business owners systematically understand the situation, conduct analysis, and propose solutions. When implementing recommendations, the most important thing is to review the success and failure in the future. Next, I will introduce different management models in a series of articles in a simple and easy-to-understand manner.
What is the ADKAR Change Model?
Change is complex and difficult, but it is also inevitable. The ADKAR change model can be applied to all forms of change to drive successful change initiatives. Created by Prosci founder Jeff Hiatt, the ADKAR change model consists of five initials representing the five stages of change that must be achieved to be successful.
Awareness
Whether participants are aware of the changes and the necessity and importance of the changes. From the ADKAR analysis, the key driver of change is “conscious perception”, if participants are unable to perceive why they have to change and what the reasons are for the change. Then change cannot happen. Cognitive building is the key to change, and the sources of participants’ cognition are internal and external influences. External influences generally come from the opinions of people around you, such as herd mentality.
Desire
Whether participants have a desire to change, what their expectations are for change, and whether they support or oppose it. After awareness is established, change actions begin, and the key to influencing action is WIIFM (What In It For Me). At this time, the motivation for change will change from external influence to self-expectation, expecting the change to come true.
Knowledge
Whether participants have the necessary knowledge to implement the change. After having the desire for change, participants need to have relevant knowledge to successfully implement the change.
Ability
Whether participants have the ability to lead, implement and complete the change. The key to success in implementing changes is the “ability” of business leaders, including IQ, physical fitness, experience, etc. This depends on the conditions of the business leaders themselves. At this stage, a coaching program can be introduced for one-on-one coaching to help business leaders stimulate their potential and make a breakthrough, which will help to smoothly implement changes and achieve the goals.
Reinforcement
Whether participants have appropriate measures in place to solidify changed states, habits, and outcomes. Using incentives to reinforce positive results and complete changes, forming habits, becomes an important goal of this process.
Case study – McDonald’s automated ordering system
After understanding the five stages of ADKAR’s transformation, the introduction of the automatic ordering system in a McDonald’s was used as a case to explain in detail.
Awareness – McDonald has launched an automated ordering system that allows customers to place orders without having to interact directly with staff. In response to employees’ concerns about unemployment, the company hired leaders with excellent communication skills to lead changes and make employees realize that customers increasingly need self-service, which is an unavoidable trend.
Desire – While employees understand that self-service is good for business, most are still resistant to adopting the new system, so inspiring change by outlining its benefits is key. The automatic ordering system will also increase the time customers spend in the restaurant and provide an excellent dining experience. Employees also realize that the automated ordering system frees up their time for cleaning and table service. The new system can improve the operational efficiency, increase the sales, and eventually help to increase employees’ salaries and bonuses.
Knowledge – Design agile workflows and help employees learn and become familiar with the new system, while understanding the steep initial learning curve, accepting the inconveniences that short-term changes may bring, and focusing on the long-term benefits.
Ability – Company leaders communicate closely with employees to determine whether new processes are understood and implemented correctly, identify common roadblocks, and provide one-on-one support.
Reinforcement – After the change is implemented, schedule weekly meetings where employees can share the positive and negative impacts of the change. Once you finally improve productivity, you may consider increasing employee salaries and bonuses to solidify the changes and make them a habit.
Communication is the key to successful change
As the case demonstrated, communication is the key to successful change. Changes initiated from the top down probably come with good intentions, but many details during implementation may make employees think that they are “not realistic ” or may be mistaken by employees as risking their jobs. Therefore, most of the time, the policies initiated by the management and the implementation by the employees are totally disconnected. True communication is the process of “sending” and “receiving” messages, it must be a two-way direction that can reach consensus internally and externally, and work together towards the overall benefit of the company.