Manage The People Dimension of Change With ADKAR

“When the winds of change blow, some build walls, others build windmills.”

— Chinese Proverb

The Elegance methodology piggybacks PROSCI’s ADKAR framework to propose assets for the People dimension of innovation.

In a project plan, you must organize three categories of assets: people, process, and technology. Unless your organization has a formal Change Management workstream or team, you risk neglecting the People dimension. Change Management is not solely “do some training.” The ADKAR methodology prescribes that for every go-live event, product launch, software release, etc., your ensemble executes five phases:

• Awareness

• Desire

• Knowledge

• Ability

• Reinforcement

The Elegance methodology prescribes the following assets. Each asset references the corresponding phase of ADKAR.

1. Awareness Blast (A)

2. Elevator Pitch (D)

3. Training Approach (K)

4. Training Materials (K) (highly unique to your project)

5. Go-Live Announcement (A)

6. Closure Report (R)

Execution’s two best friends are simplicity and transparency. These assets accomplish both so that you minimize surprises for your impacted stakeholders.