The growing importance of people-centric change leadership is turning into a responsible core trait for leaders. CEOs and business owners are using the ADKAR model, wherein a leader can move beyond simply announcing a “new direction” and start architecting the human conditions necessary for that direction to take hold. For a C-suite executive, ADKAR means shifting focus from the what of the change to the who.
It helps in building ‘Awareness’ of the business, which sparks a genuine Desire to participate in the future state, and ensures the organization has the Knowledge and Ability to operate in a new reality. Also, it demands a commitment to ‘reinforcement’ to ensure the company doesn’t snap back to old habits the moment the pressure eases.
How CEOs Can Apply ADKAR?
Developed by Prosci, at its core, the ADKAR model provides a framework that outlines the five essential stages, which we talked about at the start of the article. According to research from McKinsey, 70% of all transformations fail due to a lack of employee engagement and resistance to change. By focusing on an individual’s journey, the model equips leaders with tools to foster buy-in and participation from the onset. CEOs can adopt the model in the following way:
- Awareness: Setting the Case for Change
When CEOs communicate the ‘why’ behind the change, individuals will start getting a clearer picture. It is necessary at an enterprise level. It helps in connecting change to market realities, risk, and future vision. CEOs can also leverage storytelling and transparency as credibility drivers. Describing the very cause of change helps the employees understand the reason behind adopting the change model. Spreading the word creates an atmosphere that makes the employees mentally prepared.
- Desire: Building Executive and Employee Buy-In
A lot of employees carry fear, uncertainty, and a resistance to change in their psyche. The need to address these issues is also why the model needs to be adopted in organizations. It needs a holistic approach. The role of leadership alignment and middle-manager influence helps employees interact with the top-level management if any issues prevail. These issues can be about incentives, engagement, or emotional commitment, etc.
- Knowledge: Enabling the Organisation to Change
In the ADKAR model, the CEOs ensure that the right training, information, and guidance are being passed on to the employees.
A picture of “training equals change” is often created in front of the employees. It is often believed to be a trap that keeps on going like a vicious cycle. Via the ADKAR framework, equal and actual opportunity is given to all. At times, CEOs also arrange sponsorship initiatives of capability-building activities for employees to help them adapt to new skills.
- Ability: Turning Strategy into Action
The model teaches employees to remove organizational barriers and legacy constraints. This model trains them to look beyond these barriers and helps them acquire newer skills. It helps in empowering teams to apply new skills in real work scenarios. It also helps the employees to measure behavioural change, not just completion metrics. It gives them deeper insights into their own skills and capabilities.
- Reinforcement: Making Change Stick
Reinforcement is where change either becomes part of everyday work or quietly disappears. Once the rollout ends, people instinctively fall back on what feels familiar. That’s normal. What makes the difference is what leaders do next. When CEOs and senior leaders keep talking about the change, reflect it in KPIs, and hold themselves accountable, it sends a clear signal that this is not a passing initiative. Recognising teams who adopt new behaviours, addressing gaps early, and reinforcing expectations through performance conversations keeps momentum alive. Consistent leadership attention is what turns a temporary effort into a lasting habit.
Why CEOs Should Use ADKAR for Large-Scale Change?
The ADKAR model is an easy-to-grasp blueprint for change management planning. It supports the ability to bring in organizational change in the right size, planning for small changes while customizing it differently for diversely impacted groups. Here we mention 4 ways to use the change adoption model:
- As an individual guide:
The model is the only plan one needs for a low-risk change. It can be a small incremental change that impacts a change-accepting group. One can have around 12 activities in the model’s blueprint or 100 activities. It can be customized as per the requirements of the group.
- It can also accommodate differently impacted groups:
When one has a change for which the impacts are similar across a range of groups, a single ADKAR blueprint is probably a good place to start. At times, there can be a big difference in how people are impacted. Not all models work for an organization, and additional ADKAR blueprints are needed for each impacted group. One can leverage this way and incrementally increase the number of activities using these ADAKR blueprints.
- A simplified plan for amateur followers:
In the case of amateur practitioners, they find it difficult to know when and how to initiate developing change management plans. When discussed with practitioners, they depicted simplified versions of the change management plans they used. These were creating pared-down plans to get started on their own.
- A guide for full change management plans
The Prosci Methodology thrives on a simple, human truth: successful change only happens one person at a time. While massive shifts often require complex strategies, the ADKAR Blueprint remains your North Star, ensuring every plan you build is anchored in the individual experience. By treating this blueprint as your foundation, you move beyond cold, clinical project management and focus on the human transitions that actually drive results.
Conclusion
Transformation on a large scale does not fail for the lack of vision on the part of the leadership; it fails when people are left behind. The ADKAR process provides CEOs with a powerful tool to keep in touch with the human side of transformation and understand what employees need at each stage of the process. The ADKAR process helps CEOs in change initiatives move from announcements and timelines to actual behavior change. When CEOs sponsor employees through the stages of awareness, desire, capability, and action, change ceases to be imposed and becomes owned.
