Speaker 1: In this video, I want to answer the question, what is ADKAR? ADKAR is a five-step model of how people respond to change. It's a handy way to understand how people in your organisation will respond to changes that will allow you to plan the change process more effectively and also to understand what's going on when people respond so that you can adapt appropriately. ADKAR is a copyrighted and protected model so I need to be a little careful and limited in what I say to ensure that I remain both ethically and legally within the guidelines of fair use. However, you can learn a lot about ADKAR both from the website of its owners, the Prosky Organisation or indeed from the book that introduced ADKAR to the world. ADKAR, a model for change in business, government and our community was written by Jeff Hyatt, the founder of Prosky and I will put a link to the book in the description to this video. The name ADKAR comes from the five outcomes that an individual needs to achieve if change is to be successful. ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement.

Speaker 2: Awareness is all about understanding the need for change.

Speaker 1: Desire is then about feeling the wish, the will, the commitment to engage with the need for change and to make a change yourself. Knowledge is not only knowledge of what the changes are but of how I can adapt myself and make my own personal change. Ability is knowing that I can make the change and that I have the support and the guidance around me to help me be successful. And Reinforcement is all about working to sustain the change and thrive through the availability of things like feedback and performance metrics and recognition from the organisation and the people around me. As a result we can see ADKAR as a five step change process not dissimilar from many others but particularly well crafted. It's widely used particularly in US headquartered organisations for training people to understand the delivery of change. Because ADKAR is part of a suite of tools and models that PROSKY offers commercially. They offer both consultancy and also training and certification in their methods and their tools. Incidentally their website also offers a wealth of free resources. Now I have no affiliation with PROSKY. I haven't been trained formally in any of their methodologies so I can't give an endorsement for them. But what I do know is that people I've met who have had the training and have talked about it seem not only excited by what they've learned but to have found it useful. There is however no substitute for doing your own evaluation and I would start with the free materials on their website. You can learn a lot from them and I have done so. What I would say is the fact that this is so widely used particularly in major corporates that it does make it a solid proposition for a number of people. This includes project managers who want a solid training and certification in change management. There are relatively few formal certification programs available. It's also valuable for organisations planning to go through a major change and who want to ensure that a large number of staff are trained to a consistent and high level in understanding change and how it works. And of course learning the ADKAR model and some of the other methodologies around it is going to be very useful for anyone who plans to specialise in change management. As I said in an earlier video I view project management and change management as two ends of one spectrum. Two disciplines that are part of a wider discipline and share a set of tools, models, ideas, resources and processes. You may choose to play at one end of the spectrum or another but in reality understanding both ends of the spectrum needs to be a priority for you if you want to be successful at either end. And of course if you want change management training but with less formality and without any certification and at a significantly lower price do take a look at my course in managing and leading change. It is designed for project managers who want to understand the change management process to a level of depth. You want to know what the underlying psychology is but are not prepared or able to go to the expense and commitment of a formal course. But as a project manager it does pay not just to understand the basics of change management but to know a little bit about some of the principal tools and models and approaches. And ADKAR is without a doubt one of the best and certainly one of the best known and most widely used. Please do give this video a like if you've enjoyed it and you've learned from it. I'll be creating loads more great project management videos for you so please do subscribe to my channel and hit the notification bell so you don't miss any of them. And I'll look forward to seeing you in the next one.