Two change frameworks dominate this unit. Kotter tells you the order of moves a change leader makes. ADKAR tells you where an individual is stuck. Exam items give you a symptom and ask you to name the step or element.
Kotter's eight steps, in order
- Create a sense of urgency
- Build a guiding coalition
- Form a strategic vision
- Enlist a volunteer army
- Enable action by removing barriers
- Generate short-term wins
- Sustain acceleration
- Institute change
Urgency is first, even though organizations habitually start by naming a team or drafting a vision. In the back half, barriers come out before wins are generated, and sustain acceleration precedes institute change; the wins must exist before there is momentum to sustain, and change is anchored in the culture only after new behaviors are working.
Read the symptom: strong sponsorship and a clear vision, but approval workflows and old performance targets make the new process impossible to follow. That is step 5, enable action by removing barriers — structures, processes and measures blocking people who are already willing.
ADKAR
Prosci's five elements:
- Awareness: understanding why the change is needed.
- Desire: choosing to participate in and support the change.
- Knowledge: knowing how to change and what success requires.
- Ability: putting new skills and behaviors into practice.
- Reinforcement: sustaining the new way and preventing backsliding.
The heavily tested gap is Ability. People who understand why, want it to work, attended the training, can explain the system, and still cannot complete the task without help have Knowledge but not Ability. Knowledge is knowing how; Ability is doing it. That pair is the most missed distinction in the model.
Reinforcement is the answer only after performance was achieved and is now drifting back — six months on, metrics show teams returning to the old workflow. Regression after success is not an original buy-in failure and not a skills deficit.
Carry this: can't explain it yet is Knowledge, can't do it is Ability, could do it and stopped is Reinforcement.