Andrea Jones breaks down the Knowledge phase of the ADKAR change-management framework. When desire is already there, training becomes straightforward, but it needs multiple formats: video, hands-on practice, instructor-led sessions. Delays in delivering knowledge or explaining those delays can kill desire and tank adoption.
Hi, I'm Andrea Jones and today we are going to talk about knowledge in the Adkar methodology of change management. We've already talked about awareness, knowing that a change is coming or that it's going to be a transition happening, desire, getting all of the people who are affected by this change to be on board with the change and open to trying it or being willing to do whatever it takes to get it. There's. And now we're talking about knowledge. Knowledge can go back and forth a little bit with desire. Sometimes people need to understand a little bit more about what they're going to be doing in the change state or how they're going to operate in the changed state in order to want it. Most people want to feel competent when they go to work. They want to know that they can be successful. So part of this is a little bit of a blend with desire. But the rest of it, I have three main things to share about knowledge. The first is if you really, truly have a group of people who for the most part are willing to accept that a change is going to happen, then knowledge can be a bit mechanical. And I use that in air quotes because what I mean by that is let's say a system implementation, for example. Okay, I get it. We need a new erp. Our old system crashes all the time. We're always having to manually enter data. We can't get the reports out that we want, whatever it might be. I'm fine, I'm good with that. What do I need to do? How am I going to perform in this new system? So giving to somebody training can be mechanical, right? Here's the course that you go through, here's what you need to know, etc. Etc. So the first takeaway is knowledge can be mechanical. However, there's two nuances to that that are also takeaways. One is everybody does learn in different ways. Some people like to watch videos and try things on their own or maybe read some sort of manual and again try on their own. Some people need to test things out on their own. They need to be in the sandbox instant or they need to practice or they need to visualize or create their own space in a location, getting themselves there, right? So that's a little bit different than reading a manual, just practicing and trying. And some people need to be trained by a person. They need instructor led training. They want somebody showing them how to do something they're going to follow and adopt there. I'm sure there's other training styles as well. So even if the Knowledge or the training or whatever it is you're going to do to get people ready to perform in this change state is relatively mechanical. There are different approaches that you can remember for different groups of people. Okay, so that's takeaway number two. Consider. Consider the different types of people. The third takeaway, though, is what I would consider to be the most important, which is if you have a group of people that desires a change and you don't give them the knowledge in a timely fashion, or something shifts and there's a really long delay and you do not communicate about that, that desire and being in the knowledge state can backfire. You can either have people skeptical of your change. Hey, you said we were going to change. I was all on board, and then I haven't heard anything for weeks, months even. I don't know that I believe it anymore. Right. And so they're kind of hesitant. Carol, you're going to have to do more to convince them that you're credible or even worse, they no longer want the change. You said this was going to happen. Now it's not happening, or I haven't heard anything. And you know what? I just, I don't want to do it, change my mind, don't want it anymore. And I'll give you an example of that. My mother's family is an immigrant family from Portugal. And when they came here, my oldest aunt, she had a family and kids and her husband was off working and she didn't have her driver's license and she decided she wanted her driver's license. However, she, at the time, English wasn't her first language, didn't have any resources. You know, this is years ago. At some point she didn't learn. Nobody gave her the training or the knowledge, and she changed her mind about wanting it. And by the time I came along, I remember hearing that my TT had just did not want her license. There was no way she was ever going to get it. And to this day, she still doesn't have it. So that moving from awareness, desire, really wanting something and not having the knowledge, not being given the opportunity to really try, backfired into no longer wanting it at all. Okay, that's pretty extreme. Another situation, I have a colleague who's been doing an implementation of an erp, their self implementing. It's taking literally years. Okay, so the group knows this is coming. They're all on board with it. They know they need to change. The old system's not being supported. It's not working for them anymore. But it's taken so long that they're pretty skeptical, and they've put out so many tentative go like dates over the last few years that people just don't really believe it. So they're going to have to do more when they're really ready to go to get people back to this state of really wanting something and giving them the knowledge and making sure that, you know, even if they have trained them before they retrain them, it's just extra effort. Okay, so again, the three takeaways about the knowledge state are, one, if you move from desire into knowledge in a timely fashion and you're running along, it can be relatively mechanical. However, people do learn in different ways, so be considerate of that when you're training. All right? And the third one is, if there's any kind of delay or anything, you. If you can't train people well or you don't have the resources to do that, you need to find a way to communicate with them and to get over that so that you can give them training, you can give them the knowledge in a timely fashion, or at least the information to keep them moving. Or it could backfire on you into reversing their desire or a lot of skepticism about the change and your credibility to really affect it. Okay, thanks so much for listening, and we will talk about adoption next time.
