Five Steps for Creating Lasting and Meaningful Change

"The secret to successful change lies beyond the visible and busy activities that surround change. Successful change, at it's core, is rooted in something much simpler: How to faciliate change with one person" - Jeff Hiatt, Prosci Founder

In the rapidly evolving landscape of education and technology, integrating new solutions and embracing change is a daily but challenging reality.?

Plans to cut costs or improve processes are easy to explore or announce, but when it comes time to make decisions or implement new solutions, the often-overlooked and always-dreaded process of change management can stop a project in its tracks.?

Effective change management becomes essential for any organization to progress, and working closely with school boards through hundreds of implementations has given us a unique opportunity to learn from many teams and frameworks.

One approach that sums up our experience and observations quite well is the ADKAR model. In a never-ending quest to acquire cool acronyms (developers and educators have a lot of them!) and to share a few valuable tips and tricks for your next project, we thought we'd break it down.

ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. Developed by Prosci, a leading change management research and training organization, ADKAR emphasizes the importance of specific needs and concerns during periods of change.

Awareness

The awareness stage is all about transparency and selling the big idea to those who will be affected by the change.

Here, your team will need to clearly communicate the advantages of implementing a new solution, such as improving student engagement, streamlining administrative tasks, or enhancing teaching effectiveness.

The need for change is often rooted in pain points, barriers or restrictions that those in your organization may (or may not) be fully aware of. Awareness ensures that your peers see the need for change and understand the vision behind the incoming solution, including benefits and potential areas of resistance or concern.?

Desire

Once awareness is established, the next step is to create the enthusiasm and ownership required to make the change happen!

Building desire requires collaboration and an "open-door policy" to ideas.?

Sincerely engaging in discussion with teachers, administrators, support staff, senior leadership, or anyone who may be impacted by a change fosters a sense of purpose and responsibility.

Ultimately, finding ways to instill a sense of collective desire or understanding can shift the idea of change from something that is simply happening to something mutually beneficial and worth the effort.

Knowledge

The knowledge stage is all about providing the support and resources your team needs to be successful.

Providing opportunities for training and workshops or creating resources like tutorials and guides are great ways to develop the required knowledge and skills.?How knowledge is shared and prepared will vary significantly from both project to project and person to person, so success here requires a carefully tailored approach.

As a side note, when it comes to choosing new technology solutions or providers, you can also give your team a head start by carefully vetting the availability of support and training resources. Overlooking a vendor's culture or business practices could be a slippery slope toward a difficult implementation—so be careful!?

Ability

With a fired-up and well-trained team, effective change agents should next consider ways to empower people to act and apply their knowledge. This is where the rubber meets the road and where the work really starts to pay off.?

The goal here is to create an atmosphere of experimentation and learning from mistakes (because there will be many!) to build confidence in using the new solution.

Sustaining change and adjusting to real-world situations requires ongoing support, mentorship, and coaching. If done right, it continues to build desire and knowledge!

Reinforcement

For a change to take hold, it needs to be reinforced by staying open to feedback and the ability to drive continuous improvement.

To set the tone here, it's important to clearly recognize and celebrate all forms of success or achievement that the new solution has brought to the team. Change agents excel at surrounding change in positivity and reinforcing the "why" uncovered in the awareness stage.

However, it's equally important to openly and promptly address areas of challenge or concern. Learning from what isn't going well or looking for areas of improvement drives and informs the ongoing support and enhancement of a solution to ensure longevity and overall effectiveness.?

The most important part of any change process is people.

Frameworks like ADKAR help guide projects by reminding us that aspects like exceptional communication, transparency, honesty and respect are crucial to success.?

These concepts also instill the fact that effective leaders and change agents lead by example and aren't afraid to be on the front lines!?

"The only way change comes is when you lead by example." - Anne Wojcicki

We hope that this information helps you and your team embrace change management from a new perspective when preparing for your next project.

If you've found this helpful, have experience with the ADKAR model, or have other ideas for helping school board teams navigate change, be sure to let us know.

Wouldn't it be nice to have more people on your side??

With school districts coming together around common goals, we've been excited to facilitate the growth of a dynamic, solutions-focused community.?

Learn more at www.imagineeverything.com?