Prosci Change Management Methodology

Prosci Change Management odology
Prosci's change management methodology is developed based on

research with over 3,400 participants over the last twenty years. What
is unique about the methodology is that it comes from real project
leaders and teams reflecting on what worked, what did not and what
they would do differently on their next project.
This article is made up of several sections. Jump to:
o The Prosci ADKAR Model
o The Prosci 3-Phase Process
o Connecting Individual and Organizational Change

Management
o Research on change management methodology
At its core, Prosci's methodology is the collective lessons learned by

those implementing change across the globe. Based on this research,
Prosci has developed a methodology that is holistic and easy to use.
The resulting process, tools and assessments have been developed with
one goal in mind: that you can put them to use on your projects while
building your (and your organization's) own internal change
management skill set.
Change Management Requires Both an Individual and an

Organizational Perspective
INDIVIDUAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Individual change management means understanding how one person

successfully makes a change.
Organizations don't change, individuals do. No matter how large of a

project you are taking on, the success of that project ultimately lies
with each employee doing their work differently, multiplied across all of
the employees impacted by the change. Effective change management
requires an understanding for and appreciation of how one person
makes a change successfully. Without an individual perspective, we are
left with activities but no idea of the goal or outcome that we are trying
to achieve.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Organizational change management understands what tools we have to

help individuals make changes successfully.
While change happens one person at a time, there are processes and
tools that can help facilitate this change across groups and
organizations. Without a structured approach, change management
tools can be limited to only communication and training. When there is
an organizational change management perspective, a process emerges
for how to scale change management activities and how to use
the complete set of tools available for project leaders and business
managers.
ADKAR: An Easy-To-Use Model For Individual

Change
The first step in managing any type of organizational change is

understanding how to manage change with a single individual. Prosci's
model of individual change is called the Prosci ADKAR Model, an
acronym for awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement®.
In essence, an individual needs:
 Awareness of the need for change
 Desire to participate in and support the change
 Knowledge on how to change
 Ability to implement required skills and behaviors

 Reinforcement to sustain the change
ADKAR describes successful change at the individual level. When an

organization undertakes an initiative, that change only happens when
the employees who have to do their jobs differently can say with
confidence, "I have the awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and
reinforcement to make this change happen."
Because it outlines the goals or outcomes of successful change, ADKAR

is an effective tool for:
 Planning change management activities
 Diagnosing gaps
 Developing corrective actions
 Supporting managers and supervisors
The 3-Phase Process: A Structure For Organizational

Change
Prosci's organizational change management process was first
introduced in 2002 after the third change management benchmarking
study. This process is built in three phases that a project or change
manager can work through for the changes and initiatives they are
supporting. The methodology includes research-based assessments and
templates to support each phase, as well as guidance for completing
each step most effectively.
Phase 1: Preparing for Change
The first phase in Prosci's methodology helps change and project teams
prepare for designing their change management plans. It answers these
questions:
 "How much change management does this project need?"
 “Who is impacted by this initiative and in what ways?”
 “Who are the sponsors we need to be involved to make this

initiative successful?”
The first phase provides the situational awareness that is critical for
creating effective change management plans. The outputs of this phase
are:
1. CHANGE CHARACTERISTICS PROFILE
This provides insight into the change at hand, its size, scope and impact.
2. ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES PROFILE
This gives a view of the organization and groups that are being
impacted and any specific attributes that may contribute to challenges
when changing.
3. CHANGE MANAGEMENT TEAM STRUCTURE
This structure defines how many change management resources are

needed for the effort and where they are positioned in relationship to
the project team and project sponsor
4. SPONSOR ASSESSMENT, STRUCTURE AND ROLES

This provides an understanding of the leaders across the organization
who will need to act as sponsors of the change. Here we also identify
possible challenges with certain leaders and start to formulate plans to
get those leaders on board and actively sponsoring the change.
5. IMPACT ASSESSMENT
This assessment identifies the groups of individuals being impacted by

the change, in what ways they are being impacted, and unique
challenges you may face with this group in the project.
6. CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Based on the assessments in this phase, a strategy that scales the

change management effort to align with the type and size of the
change is articulated.
Phase 2: Managing Change
The second phase focuses on creating plans that will integrate with the
project plan. These change management plans articulate the steps that
you can take to support the individual people being impacted by the
project. This is what people typically think of when they talk about
change management. Based on Prosci's research, there are five plans
that support help individuals moving through the ADKAR Model:
1. COMMUNICATION PLAN
Communications are a critical part of the change process. This plan

articulates key messages that need to go to various impacted audience.
It also accounts for who will send the messages and when, ensuring
employees are hearing messages about the change from the people
who have credibility with them and at the right time.
2. SPONSOR ROADMAP
The sponsor roadmap outlines the actions needed from the project’s
primary sponsor and the coalition of sponsors across the business. In
order to help executives be active and visible sponsors of the change,
we provide details on when and where we need leaders to be present,
what communications they should send, and which peers across the
coalition they need to align with to support the change.
3. TRAINING PLAN
Training is a required part of most changes, and is critical to help

people build the knowledge and ability they need to work in a new way.
The training plan identifies who will need what training and when. It is
important that the training plan be sequenced in a way that allows for
awareness and desire building before they are sent to training.
4. COACHING PLAN
The coaching plan outlines how you will engage with and equip
managers and people leaders to lead the change with their own teams.
Managers can play a significant role in aiding the change management
efforts, but they need to be engaged as employees themselves first and
allowed to work through their own change process. Then you can give
them the information and tools to lead the same change process with
their own teams.
5. RESISTANCE MANAGEMENT PLAN
The resistance management plan provides a strategy for both

proactively and reactively addressing resistance. At the outset of a
project, anticipated areas of resistance can be identified and
proactively planned for: specific activities targeted at potentially
resistant groups. This can head off resistance before it becomes a
problem. The resistance management plan should also include the
process and plan for identifying, understanding, and addressing
resistance that comes up throughout the life of the project.
Phase 3: Reinforcing Change

Equally critical but most often
overlooked, the third phase helps you create specific action plans for
ensuring that the change is sustained. In this phase, project and change
teams develop measures and mechanisms to measure how well the
change is taking hold, to the see if employees are actually doing their
jobs the new way, to identify and correct gaps and to celebrate success.
This includes:
1. MEASURING CHANGES IN BEHAVIOR
As the change is being implemented and the solution of the project is

going live, it is important to establish measures to see if people are
actually doing their jobs in a new way. These measures will be unique
to each project and based on what new behaviors are required of
employees in the changed state.
2. CORRECTIVE ACTION PLANS
If gaps are identified and people are not fully adopting and using the
new way of working, the change and project team must take action to
correct those gaps. It is important to remember ADKAR in this phase
and identify accurately why people may not be embracing the change
and address the root cause of the gap.
3. REINFORCEMENT MECHANISMS
Because people are physiologically wired for habit, it is common that

even though people may change successfully, they will revert to their
old habits unless there are specific measures in place to prevent them
from doing so. Reinforcement mechanisms can include continued
compliance measuring, ongoing training and coaching.
4. INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP RECOGNITION APPROACHES
It is vitally important to recognize the hard work people have put in to

embracing change. Every person and organization is different, so it is
important to look for means of recognition that will resonate with the
individuals.
5. SUCCESS CELEBRATIONS
In addition to recognizing the achievements of individuals and groups
who have changed successfully, it is important to publically highlight
the success of the initiative and provide opportunity to celebrate the
hard work that went into getting to a new future state.
6. AFTER-ACTION REVIEW
As is common in project management, an after-action review of the

change management efforts helps to identify strengths of the change
effort to be replicated in future projects, as well as areas where
different action should be taken next time to drive a more successful
outcome.
Connecting Individual and Organizational Change

Management
The link between individual change management and organizational

change management is key and is what sets Prosci's approach apart
from other change management methodologies. There are numerous
models available that address individual change. There are also
numerous models available that give guidance and structure to the
project-level activities for the people side of change. The Prosci
methodology uniquely integrates individual change management and
organizational change management to ensure the achievement of
business results.
The image below shows how the change management plans developed
in the organizational change management process contribute to the
progression of individual change described by the ADKAR model. This is
the essence of effective change management and the Prosci
methodology: leverage change management activities to drive
individual transitions.
Research on Change Management Methodology
In all of Prosci’s benchmarking studies, we have asked participants

about the greatest contributors to success of their changes. Applying a
structured approach to change management has remained a top
contributor for over ten years. Below are four research findings on
change management methodology:
1. A Structured Approach Has Remained the 2 or 3 Contributor to
nd rd
Project Success
In three of the last five change management best practices studies, the
use of a structured approach to change management was cited as the
second greatest contributor to success (behind only active and visible
executive sponsorship). A structured approach to change management
moves organizations away from merely reacting to resistance to change
and provides a solid framework for engaging and mobilizing impacted
employees.
2. Seventy Percent of Study Participants Utilized a Structured

Approach
Participants also indicated whether or not they used a structured

approach to change management. The data in the 2017 study showed a
slight decrease in the number of participants following a particular
change management methodology. The percentage of participants
utilizing a methodology more than doubled between 2003 and 2013.
Today, 7 in 10 projects are utilizing a structured change management
methodology, whereas four years ago, in the 2013 study, nearly 8 in 10
did.
Best Practices study Percentage of participants that followed
a particular change management methodology
2003 34%
2013 79%
2017 70%

3. Change Management Methodology is Chosen for Ease of Use
Participants cited a number of factors for selecting a change

management methodology. Overwhelmingly, the main criterion was
the ease of use of the methodology. When change management is
overly complex, it fails to gain traction in the organization and is seen as
more of a hassle than as a tool that delivers value to the organization
and the project. However, methodologies that are easy to use and easy
to explain to others can gain serious traction and become a vital
component of the project activities. Factors for ease of use included:
 Easy to implement
 Easy to understand
 Easy to communicate to others
 Simple
 Practical
 Structured and systematic
 Logical
 Comprehensive and holistic
4. Change Management Activities Began Early
Participants shared data on when they started their change

management activities and when they would start their activities on the
next project. The data shows an overwhelming bias toward initiating
change management early in the project. Change management
activities that are launched at the beginning of a project can be more
proactive in addressing the people side of change. When change
management is brought in as an add-on late in the project, it is typically
to 'fight fires' and help with damage control.
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What is Prosci's change management methodology based on?

What is Prosci's change management methodology based on?

What are the three phases of Prosci's organizational change management process?

What are the three phases of Prosci's organizational change management process?

Prosci Change Management odology

Prosci's change management methodology is developed based on

This article is made up of several sections. Jump to:

o The Prosci ADKAR Model

o The Prosci 3-Phase Process

o Connecting Individual and Organizational Change

o Research on change management methodology

At its core, Prosci's methodology is the collective lessons learned by

Change Management Requires Both an Individual and an

INDIVIDUAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Individual change management means understanding how one person

Organizations don't change, individuals do. No matter how large of a

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Organizational change management understands what tools we have to

ADKAR: An Easy-To-Use Model For Individual

The first step in managing any type of organizational change is

 Awareness of the need for change

 Desire to participate in and support the change

 Knowledge on how to change

 Ability to implement required skills and behaviors

ADKAR describes successful change at the individual level. When an

Because it outlines the goals or outcomes of successful change, ADKAR

 Planning change management activities

 Developing corrective actions

 Supporting managers and supervisors

The 3-Phase Process: A Structure For Organizational

Phase 1: Preparing for Change

 “Who is impacted by this initiative and in what ways?”

 “Who are the sponsors we need to be involved to make this

1. CHANGE CHARACTERISTICS PROFILE

2. ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES PROFILE

3. CHANGE MANAGEMENT TEAM STRUCTURE

This structure defines how many change management resources are

4. SPONSOR ASSESSMENT, STRUCTURE AND ROLES

This assessment identifies the groups of individuals being impacted by

6. CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Based on the assessments in this phase, a strategy that scales the

Communications are a critical part of the change process. This plan

Training is a required part of most changes, and is critical to help

5. RESISTANCE MANAGEMENT PLAN

The resistance management plan provides a strategy for both

Phase 3: Reinforcing Change

1. MEASURING CHANGES IN BEHAVIOR

As the change is being implemented and the solution of the project is

Because people are physiologically wired for habit, it is common that

4. INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP RECOGNITION APPROACHES

It is vitally important to recognize the hard work people have put in to

As is common in project management, an after-action review of the

Connecting Individual and Organizational Change

The link between individual change management and organizational

Research on Change Management Methodology

In all of Prosci’s benchmarking studies, we have asked participants

2. Seventy Percent of Study Participants Utilized a Structured

Participants also indicated whether or not they used a structured

Participants cited a number of factors for selecting a change

 Structured and systematic