Here is a reason why I love the ADKAR model because it truly focuses on the human behaviour within the change journey and it can be applied to any situation, whether professional or personal.
Throughout my journey in the field of change management, I noticed that delivering a successful change can be made provided that the project team is well equipped with the right knowledge and expertise, and an appropriate plan is put in place. However, reinforcing the change was and still is the most intriguing part to me. I always keep asking myself: How can we guarantee adoption continuity once change is applied? Please, allow me to take you with me on this quest using the following example.
With the new year approaching, most of us will have the “I want to get in shape” item on their new year’s resolution list. Now let’s imagine how this journey would look like.
Phase 1: I don’t feel fit thus I am aware that I need to get in shape.
Phase 2: My goal is clear; I need to lose X number of kilograms by Y date.
Phase 3: I learn how many calories I need to eat to lose weight, how to cook healthy and what type of workouts I need to follow.
Phase 4: I sign up at the gym. I purchase healthy food items. Buy a Fitbit to track my 10k steps a day.
Phase 5: I start working out five times a week. I start walking 10k steps a day and every day I cook healthy meals.
Six weeks later; I am tired, and I have no time, so I quit!
What do you think went wrong here? I bet you got it right: Motivation is lost and lack of desire to continue going through the new processes. But why is that? Again, allow me to explain to you by using a personal example.
Throughout the past years I have been trying to obtain a certain physique level. I followed different diets, experimented with different training styles, and even changed my daily habits completely to obtain my goal. It always started with a burst of enthusiasm and full determination, and it ended with a total disappointment and back to square one.
The reason why my change journeys failed in the past is due to multiple reasons, and these are:
1. Too many changes at once. Embracing a complete change of habits is difficult. You cannot undo habits learnt in years by relying on sheer motivation or willpower. They will exhaust at some point. Better start small by introducing one change at a time and build up the process.
2. Poor preparations. My environment was not set to embrace the change. Better prepare the environment to facilitate the change. Making the changes visible, ready, and easy to follow.
3. Lack of support. I wasn’t aware of my weak spots and lack of knowledge in some areas. It is important to have a coach, a buddy, or a support group to support you throughout the journey.
To sum up, the better my environment was set up, the closer I got to my goal, and I started booking cumulative successes over time.
If we want to translate the above when it comes to introducing Information Governance (IG) and meeting the GDPR compliance requirements, we need to make sure to provide the right environment for users enable them to continue performing the new ways of working, and we can do that by:
1. Automating the organisation’s retention and record management configurations to minimise glitches and increase adoption.
2. Continue informing users by holding regular short webinars about Microsoft new features for IG.
3. Engaging users through a periodically short survey or Walk-In sessions about their IG adoption journey and collect feedback on the challenges they face.
4. Establishing Information Management Champions/Subject Matter Experts network in different organisation’s departments to support users and increase trust in the system.
5. Setting up a close collaboration between the support team and the Business As Usual team to ensure support is always provided timely.
6. Last but not least, if you are interested in learning more about Information Governance, how to introduce it in your organisation and how Infotechtion can help you throughout the journey, please feel free to reach out to us!
