Stop Managing Change. Start Enabling It.
Mark Rogers
Business Process Improvement | Change Enablement | Learning Experience Design
“Why shouldn’t I manage Change? What does enabling it even mean?”
Liz duToit, MBA, Prosci/ADKAR, CLBB, CPHQ Thank you for bringing your perspective to the conversation—it’s both insightful and appreciated.
Creation Story
I can share the abbreviated context: Insights Without Borders (IWB) has been pioneering this since 2015 through its IP workflows and workstreams, SIGs, and COPs, driving Change Enablement with a cross-functional, multi-industry lens.
But the truth is, this journey began long before that—back in the early 80s when I started navigating transformation by bridging strategy, operations, and workforce development to drive agile, sustainable Change.
Empowering Clarity, Driving Collaboration, Delivering Excellence.
Change Enablement isn’t just about challenging the status quo—it’s about rewriting the narrative.
Liz duToit’s point about “how” balancing flexibility and structure is—center of gravity (COG) for Change Enablement is spot-on, especially from someone well-versed in Prosci/ADKAR.
Change Enablement doesn’t just tweak, as you say, the mindset (it’s much more than that tiresome buzzword)—it rewrites the playbook entirely. While Prosci/ADKAR lays a solid foundation in project-centric change management, it remains anchored in a legacy model Agency Theory, built for control, Compliance, and predictability (transactional versus relational).
Change Enablement operates in an entirely different dimension—human-centric one—work and organizational life: where human-centric agency, co-creation, adaptability, disruption are not just “encouraged” but built into the very DNA of Change, Clarity, Innovation, and Transformation.
Where Prosci/ADKAR focuses on managing resistance through Compliance, sequential steps, and tick-the-box exercises (waterfall), Change Enablement flips the script. It maximizes agency and creates ecosystems where teams and the workforce co-create the path forward. It isn’t about just controlling and managing people through Change; it’s about empowering them to own it and lead it themselves.
Change Enablement achieves this by using adaptive approaches and frameworks. Methodologies and toolsets that evolve in real-time are driven by insights from those experiencing the Change firsthand (they have the answers, and the processes help them find and act with and on them). It’s less about predefined stages and tick-the-box exercises and more about dynamic alignment—ensuring critical business issues (CBIs) and critical success factors (CSFs)—strategic intent and operational execution target the variables directly impacting organizational performance.
It’s not just disruption for the sake of innovation—it’s about creating agile systems and processes that are inherently adaptive, continuously evolving to survive and thrive amid complexity and uncertainty.
Balancing Flexibility and Structure in Change Enablement
Change Enablement is backed by hybrid-robust approaches, frameworks, methodologies, and toolsets (some of which are below) that support sustainable Change.
Mindscapes and Mindshare: Aligning Behavior Beyond Resistance Management
Prosci/ADKAR is built on managing resistance and securing buy-in, but that approach is inherently reactive—it fights the inertia without addressing the authentic root cause(s).
In contrast, Change Enablement empowers Mindscapes and Mindshare—cognitive frameworks that influence behavior and decision-making proactively. It’s not about controlling and managing resistance; it’s about empowering perspectives that foster ownership and commitment at every level, turning Change from an obligation into a shared vision.
This isn’t just about gaining Compliance; it’s about unearthing the deeper organizational psychodynamics that influence how people react to Change. Most traditional change models, including Prosci/ADKAR, assume that resistance is merely a surface (behavioral) issue, failing to recognize the complex adaptive (maladaptive) systems at play. They focus on external behaviors, missing the hidden dynamics of individual motivation, leadership, and organizational culture that truly (Mokita—the elephant in the room) drives resistance.
This depth is why Change Enablement is fundamentally different. It doesn’t just navigate resistance; it anticipates and transforms it by crafting Mindscapes and Mindshare that align behavior through shared Purpose ecosystems (human-centric work models) instead (preferentially) of control and management through Compliance (agency theory).
Change Enablement enables people to see themselves in the Change, not just to (comply) follow it.
Change Enablement isn’t just about controlling and managing reactions; it’s about empowering Mindscapes and Mindshare, making the outdated resistance management narrative (Agency theory and more) of Prosci/ADKAR obsolete.
Change Enablement empowers Identity and Purpose, ensuring that Change is adopted and owned.
Why Leadership Should Care: It Shows Them the Money
Change Enablement goes beyond securing buy-in to foster ownership that drives performance, productivity, and profitability. In the language of leadership, it shows them the money.
By aligning individual motivations with organizational goals, Change Enablement unlocks discretionary effort—the willingness of people to go above and beyond, not because they’re told to, but because they believe in the vision.
Prosci/ADKAR can’t compete here. It focuses on managing resistance rather than unleashing potential. It views people as obstacles being managed rather than assets to be enabled. This limits its impact to compliance metrics rather than CBIs / CSFs, performance indicators directly influencing shareholder value.
Change Enablement changes that equation. Cultivating Mindscapes and Mindshare that empower people to see themselves in the Change doesn’t just secure adoption—it drives engagement, innovation, and execution excellence. It turns Change from an obligation into a shared vision where people feel included and essential. And when people feel essential, they perform exceptionally.
That’s the ROI leaders are looking for.
Why This Matters: From Leadership to Frontline Employees
Change Enablement impacts every level of the organization, from the C-suite to the frontline. It’s not just about leading (controlling, managing) Change; it’s about enabling (empowering) leadership at every level. Here’s how:
Prosci/ADKAR stops at Compliance. Change Enablement drives performance. It transforms organizations from change-resistant to change-ready by creating cultures that anticipate, embrace, and lead Change.
The Real Bottom Line: Shareholder Value and Competitive Advantage
Change Enablement shows the money. It aligns individual efforts with strategic outcomes, driving productivity, performance, and profitability. It transforms organizational agility into a competitive advantage, ensuring that Change isn’t just implemented but leveraged for growth.
By focusing on Sensemaking, Mindscapes, and Mindshare, Change Enablement creates ownership and commitment that drive execution excellence, impacting the bottom line and maximizing shareholder value.
Prosci/ADKAR can’t match this. It sees people as objects to be controlled and managed (Agency theory) rather than agents of Change. It controls Compliance but fails to inspire commitment. It measures adoption but misses performance.
Change Enablement wins because it’s not just about controlling and managing Change; it’s about leading, owning, and leveraging it for strategic advantage.
It’s about creating the future, not just surviving the present.
And that’s why Change Enablement isn’t just different. It’s indispensable.