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In my last blog, I introduced the notion of the five phases of human transition. These phases have been codified and abbreviated by Prosci as ADKAR®. In this blog, I want to apply the ADKAR model to a real-life example.
I mentioned in the previous blog and elsewhere on my site that, unlike hardware or software or things, people do not change at a point in time; rather they transition, over a period of time. And we know that this is a critical difference in understanding how people can successfully navigate changes in their lives.
Now, we might understand this theoretically, but we may be challenged to think of exactly how that might look in real life.
Well, I can help with that! I recall an incident that will highlight the importance of the various stages of human transition, and why we must negotiate them in sequence.
A few years ago, after a pick-up hockey game with ‘the guys’, we were all in the dressing room taking off our equipment and generally yakking about whatever was going on in our lives. One of us, let’s call him Dan, said, “Guys, my doctor says I need to lose ten pounds. Who the heck needs to lose ten pounds?”
Now, to my ears that didn’t sound too strange a request from a doctor, but then Dan continued…
“I mean, usually people are either obviously overweight and need to lose some substantial pounds or they are close enough to a healthy weight that they don’t really need to take any action.”
I started to see what Dan meant. If Dan’s ideal weight is 170 pounds, and he’s around 180, why be too worried? But if he’s 200 pounds, sure, his doctor would be concerned. So Dan’s point was well-taken. He didn’t look or feel overweight and he played hockey and went for brisk walks pretty regularly.
We asked Dan why his doctor recommended that he lose the ten pounds. “Well, I asked him,” Dan explained, “and he said that because of a few other factors in my health profile, I was at risk for contracting a particular heart issue. And this heart issue can be easily triggered by being just a bit overweight.” We understood. (And also our appreciation of doctors grew further!)
Now, I’m happy to report that Dan took his doctor’s advice to heart (if you will), lost the ten pounds, and is just fine today. He made the changes he needed to make. But the transition coach in me could not help but view this situation through the lens of the phases of human transition…
Imagine if Dan’s doctor had brought him into his office, sat him down and said right off, “Dan, you want to be ten pounds lighter, don’t you? You want to live a long, healthy life, right? See your kids get married? You don’t want to die early, do you?”, Dan might have been a bit confused (not to mention scared).
Similarly, if Dan’s doctor had opened with, “Dan, here’s an instruction sheet on how to use the treadmill and all the weight machines at the gym. And here’s a cookbook for healthy dinner choices”, Dan might have been equally confused. (“Um, OK, but where is this coming from?”)
Or, what if Dan’s doctor had begun with, “Dan, you should get a gym membership and clear your schedule to go. And you should make sure your kitchen is equipped to cook the foods on this list and that you are not allergic to any of them.”
Well, Dan would have said, “What the heck are you talking about?”
This is because, in each of the scenarios above, the doctor would have been trying to move Dan through the natural phases of human transition OUT OF SEQUENCE. That does not work!
As I have noted in earlier blogs, people must move through the phases of transition more or less in their natural sequence for them to successfully navigate their life-change.
Here’s what I mean…
Before anything, Dan needs to be Aware of the need for him to change; i.e. to lose those ten pounds. Without Awareness, he cannot move through the subsequent phases of transition. He needs to understand why this change is so important, the reasons he needs to make the change, and the risks of not changing.
Dan’s doctor was sharp enough to respond to Dan’s question by first making Dan Aware of his particular medical condition, the change he needed to make in order to avoid it (losing ten pounds) and the risks of not making the change (running a high risk of contracting the condition, and all its dangerous side-effects).
Trying to appeal to Dan’s wanting to live a long, healthy life is an appeal to Dan’s Desire. While this is of course important, it is not fully effective unless Dan is first Aware of why he needs to make the change and what the risks are of not changing.
Similarly, teaching Dan how to use gym equipment and how to cook certain foods will certainly give Dan the Knowledge to lose ten pounds, but again, without first making him Aware of the need to change (and the risks of not changing), and then supporting and building Dan’s Desire to change, Knowledge would be at best confusing, and at worst, just about useless.
Finally, talking to Dan about getting a gym membership and equipping a kitchen are examples of Ability. Ensuring Dan has the Ability to implement his life-change is pointless and counter-productive without him first having the Awareness, the Desire and Knowledge to do so.
For human transition to be most effective and long-lasting, we need to ensure we move ourselves (and help others to move) through each of the phases of change, and in their natural sequence.*
***
Take a moment to reflect on a recent change in your own life. If you feel that it went well, are you able to look back and see if you moved more or less through the phases of transition in sequence? Similarly, if you feel the change might have gone a bit better, could any aspect of that be attributed to the fact that you did not move through the phases in sequence? Or that you perhaps missed a phase?
Going forward, be sure to have the notion of the natural phases of transition top-of-mind as you prepare to move through your next life change, or help someone else through theirs.
Until next time…
David
* More about Reinforcement, the final phase, in a future blog.