Change practitioners often tell us they struggle with building Desire in sponsors. It’s a common challenge cited in our research. But you can tap into sponsor beliefs to help them build Desire to participate and support a change. Here’s how.
Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) is useful when applied in change management because it helps you become a better listener and communicator. By understanding people’s belief systems, you can present information about a change in a way that aligns with the way they think. It may sound manipulative, but your goal is simply to listen, observe, and try to understand people better, so you can help them move through their ADKAR barriers and be successful during change.
Neurological Levels Overview
All people have belief systems. They’re part of the Neurological Levels framework created by Robert Dilts, which help you understand how people view and interpret situations. The levels appear in a pyramid or hierarchy, with each level impacting and relating to those below it.
The top level is Purpose orSpirituality, but some people don’t know their life’s purpose or feel spiritual, so it’s an optional level. If you do have purpose or spirituality, it informs your identity, which is in the next layer of the hierarchy.
Everyone has an Identity that represents who they think they are. If I ask you who you are, you'll respond quickly with a description of the things that are important to you, such as your name, job title, family role and key interests.
Your Identity creates your Beliefs and Values. These are your life experiences. Your upbringing and journey so far create certain views and principles that you live by.
Those values and beliefs give you the Capabilities either to do something or not do something. An empowering belief gives you the capability to do it. A disempowering belief stops you being able to demonstrate that capability.
You exhibit the capabilities in the form of Behaviors. These behaviors are how you act, react and go about carrying out your life in the world.
Behaviors create the Environment around you. Think of this like an aura you create around yourself. A consequence of your behaviors, this environment can be positive or negative.
How does this apply to change management sponsorship? During an organizational change, a person will say, “I (identity) can (the belief and value) do (the capability) X (the behavior you want me to exhibit) here (the environment it needs to happen in). This translates into “I can do X here” or “I cannot do X here” as you come down the triangle, and the can or cannot is determined by the beliefs you have around yourself.
ADKAR and the Logical Levels of Change
Now, let’s consider how aspects of this framework align with the ADKAR Model and how it can help you build Desire for change in change management sponsors and others. Note that we typically avoid starting with Purpose or Spirituality because it is dodgy in an organizational setting. Instead, we start with Identity:
Identity aligns with Awareness. This is the level you need to achieve first for meaningful change to take place. “I have the need to change.”
Beliefs and Values align with Desire to participate and support the change. “I have the belief that I need to change.”
Capabilities aligns with Knowledge of how to change. “I know how to change or have the capability to learn how to.”
Behavior aligns with the Ability to demonstrate the desired skills and behaviors. “I have the skills to demonstrate changed behaviors.”
So, when you work to build Desire to participate and support a change, people must first believe that it’s right for them. If they don’t, they will experience a barrier to the change at Desire.
Here’s a basic example to illustrate:
Your partner wants you to play golf with them, but your past experiences with golf have not been enjoyable. To motivate you to play, your partner buys you a set of clubs. They show you how to hold and swing the driver. They give you lessons with best golf pro in town, too. But you may never learn to play or demonstrate the right behaviors because deep down, your belief is that, golf is a waste of your time.
The same thing happens during organizational changes with people who must change the way they do their jobs every day. Without the right beliefs, they won’t have the Desire they need before they can start building Knowledge and then Ability. They get stuck at Desire.
This also happens when executives and senior leaders don’t have the Desire to fulfill their critical role as sponsors in change management.
Building Desire in Change Management Sponsors
Prosci Best Practices in Change Management research reveals several common sponsor challenges, some of which are directly related to Desire to participate and support the change:
To build Desire in sponsors, you must first uncover their beliefs about the change, so you can help them reposition or adopt a new mindset. Ask them to tell you what’s going on, what’s happening, and then listen actively. Once you uncover their belief systems and what they're based upon, you need to discern whether those beliefs are based on facts or assumptions they have made.
For example:
You: “Tell me about the project you're sponsoring. What’s going on?”
Sponsor: “Oh, well, it's big. It's really complex. We're bringing an ERP. It isn’t going to be popular. It’s going to be a tough battle to win and a lot of work.”
That's a negative belief system around what they're trying to achieve, which is going to impact their capability to be a good sponsor. The disempowering belief is going to come across as timid behavior when they're talking about the change to the organization. They’re not convinced, therefore they are not able to be convincing. They don’t have the correct level of Desire to be an effective sponsor.
But if you work with the sponsor to identify the initiative’s success criteria and help them appreciate the value to the organization, its people and how that aligns with their own Values and Beliefs. it can help a sponsor change their belief system about what they're doing. This then makes the effort and investment worthwhile for them.
They move from “I cannot be a good sponsor for the ERP system implementation” to “I can be a good sponsor for the ERP system implementation.”
Now the sponsor has the capability to be an active and visible sponsor in a convincing way. Now they want to be the sponsor. They believe it’s the right thing to do. They have achieved Desire and are willing to acquire the Knowledge and Ability needed to be a successful sponsor during change.
Sponsorship has been cited as the #1 contributor to successful change for 25 years.
Help Change Management Sponsors Overcome ADKAR Barriers
Sponsors get stuck at Desire for several common reasons. They may have had a prior experience as an unsuccessful sponsor. They might feel they are at the wrong level and lack the authority they need. Some are asked to sponsor changes without having been involved in the business case, so they lack ownership. Others simply don’t understand what a sponsor is supposed to do, or they believe they don’t have the time.
Building Desire in a sponsor who doesn’t believe in the change itself is a bit more challenging because you need to understand and address their objections. In such a case, you may ultimately appeal to the sponsor’s loyalty and duty as a leader in the organization. The sponsor can have robust debates with other leaders, but if the change moves ahead, they need to support the decision because it’s their job to be a cohesive leadership team.
If a sponsor can’t overcome their lack of Desire, they may not be the right sponsor. They will come across as negative, unsupportive, timid. They will make unconvincing arguments. It may be cliché’, but a timid request invites refusal. You've got to be convinced to be convincing.
In the Prosci Methodology, the most important behavior of sponsors is to be active and visible. They've got to believe that is the right thing to do. That belief drives the capability for them to stand up at a town hall and deliver a convincing argument and business case for the change.
Resolve Sponsor Barriers to Desire in Change Management
Not all barriers to Desire are due to belief and values. Some are due to a true lack of capability to perform the role of a sponsor. If you face these circumstances, the best move may be to work with the leadership team to find a more effective sponsor. But in many cases, sponsors only need the right conversations to get unstuck and move forward in their ADKAR journeys. A change practitioner who actively listens and works to understand a person’s beliefs around sponsorship can help sponsors be successful in their roles and with the changes they support.
Ian Croft
Ian Croft is a Prosci Senior Change Advisor with two decades of experience leading change in Fortune 500 companies. A former executive leader and management consultant, Ian has led changes in several industries, including healthcare, banking and finance, and aerospace. To help Prosci clients build the capabilities they need to thrive during change, Ian combines the Prosci Methodology with complementary frameworks, from Neuro-Linguistic Programming and MBTI to Six Sigma and Agile project management. Born and raised in the U.K., he has served clients across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.
The level of disruptive change and uncertainty we face today has made Agile and other iterative solution development approaches more popular than ever. Even before the pandemic, the need to respond to the accelerating pace of change had prompted many organizations to adopt iterative approaches to developing and implementing solutions. Aligning the ADKAR Model to support iterative solution development approaches is a logical and effective way to use what you already know to help people adopt and use changes with the flexibility and speed everyone needs today. The Difference Between Sequential and Iterative Change Before understanding alignment, it is important to distinguish between common solution development approaches: Sequential changes typically refer to the traditional Waterfall project management approach to solution design, development and delivery. Sequential changes are made through a series of discrete phases and steps that progress over time and culminate in a big outcome at the end. Iterative changes result from repeated cycles or “sprints” of change, with each cycle contributing to the cumulative outcome. This approach emphasizes doing over planning and enables you to respond quickly to new or changing customer requirements. Many people associate iterative change with Agile approaches to solution design, development and delivery methods. Lean, PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and Design Thinking are also popular iterative approaches. Aligning ADKAR to Solution Development Approaches To effectively manage change, the approach to solution development you are using must align with the change management approach you are using—in this case, the Prosci ADKAR Model. The ADKAR Model describes the transitions individuals go through when they are impacted by a change. It also defines the five outcomes that must be achieved at an individual level to ensure that a change is adopted and the organizational benefits are realized. Whether you are using a sequential or iterative solution development approach, it is essential to align each ADKAR element to specific points in the project lifecycle. When adjusting change management to development approaches, remember that time and place matter, and that the timeline differs for every approach. How to align ADKAR with sequential changes Most people associate sequential solution development ith Waterfall project management, which is implemented in discrete phases: initiate, plan, design, develop, deploy, sustain. The term “Waterfall” comes from the analogy that each phase cascades into the next one, like water flowing down a waterfall. Project managers often choose the Waterfall approach when the solution requirements are well understood at the initiation of the project and will remain stable throughout the project lifecycle. Sequential Approach To align AKDAR outcomes with a sequential or Waterfall approach, you should start by asking the question, “What dates do you already know for your project?” Typically, the key project milestone dates should be defined for the kickoff, go live and outcomes (i.e., when outcomes are expected to be achieved). You then align Ability with the go-live date. We do this to ensure that people will have the ability to adopt and use the solution when it is implemented. Then, you map out when the other four elements need to be achieved with respect to the project timeline. Aligning ADKAR outcomes to specific dates enables you to establish a timeline for the change management activities required to prepare, equip and support impacted individuals and groups to adopt and use the solution. To measure individual performance for sequential changes, you begin to assess adoption, utilization, and proficiency in applying the change following the go-live date and continue measuring until the desired outcomes are achieved. Full adoption and proficient use lead to achieving project objectives and realizing organizational benefits. How to align ADKAR with Agile or other iterative changes With iterative approaches, the process of aligning ADKAR becomes cyclical. You begin by aligning Awareness and Desire at the project or initiative level. We do this because Awareness of the need for change and Desire to participate and support the change affect the overall initiative, and these two elements need to be sustained through all the sprints and releases that comprise the project lifecycle. Next, you align Knowledge and Ability with the release dates associated with each sprint, to ensure that impacted individuals have the ability to adopt and use the new changes implemented with every release. Instead of beginning to measure adoption, utilization and proficiency following the go-live date as we would do with a sequential approach, iterative approaches require measurement after every release. Organizational benefits will accumulate after every release. Iterative Approach How to align ADKAR with hybrid approaches More often than not, solution development processes aren’t exclusively sequential or iterative. They tend to be a mix of both approaches. You can adapt the guidance provided above to align ADKAR to the project lifecycle for a hybrid approach. Prosci’s Change Management and Agile benchmarking research reveals several adaptations change practitioners make when supporting iterative and hybrid change management approaches: Ensure that sponsors embrace the Agile mindset Use a structured approach that aligns to solution development process phases Engage and integrate with project management teams earlier in the project Communicate more precisely and more often, while being conscious of the potential for overload Ensure that people managers are prepared and equipped to execute their CLARC roles (Communicator, Liaison, Advocate, Resistance Manager and Coach) in an Agile environment Deliver training more often and in a focused, more concise, just-in-time manner Begin reinforcement early and more often to align with your chosen iterative approach These are just some of the insights change practitioners shared in the research. You can get in-depth insights and data in Prosci’s Change Management and Agile Executive Summary or the full, 74-page digital report. Flexibility Through Agile and ADKAR As the pace of change today continues to accelerate, an iterative approach to designing and implementing solutions becomes increasingly necessary. We are seeing this need more than ever as organizations continue to adopt new technologies and new ways of working. Fortunately, you can learn to adapt the ADKAR Model to work with iterative approaches and continue to manage the people side of change effectively.
Each month, Prosci delivers dozens of Change Management Certification Programs. To participate, attendees must bring a change they are currently working on in their organization, and then apply the process and tools learned during the class to a real change. The changes attendees bring to the Prosci Change Management Certification Program come in all shapes and sizes: a technology deployment in an insurance company, a process optimization project in a manufacturing plant, a merger in the pharmaceutical industry, a new HR policy and system in a municipal government. Some of the changes impact a dozen employees while others impact thousands. Some have budgets in the thousands, while others have budgets in the millions. The size, type and reasons for these projects are quite varied, but the unifier is that each project has a significant people-side element. Each change impacts how employees do their jobs. And the success of the project ultimately depends on whether employees adopt the required changes. This is why the people side of change is a common denominator in nearly any type of organizational change. People: The Common Denominator in Organizational Change Changes happen for a number of reasons, each triggered by some sort of internal or external stimuli, and each aimed at delivering some sort of marked improvement in performance. Changes can be incremental or radical; sometimes the gap between the current and future state is small, and other times that gap is large. Changes can impact processes, technologies, systems, tools, structures, job roles or any combination of these factors. Some have little or no structure around them, some derive from policy declarations, and others are formal projects with associated project managers, project codes, project charters and work breakdown structures. Regardless of the reason, type or structure of the change, each ultimately impacts how individual employees do their jobs. The common denominator of organizational change is the people side of change. Since the common denominator of organizational change is the people side of change and project success depends on impacted employees adopting the change, the tools for helping each impacted employee to adopt the change are critical to the success of the project. Said another way, change management is essential because the people side of change is universal. What Does Your Change Look Like? The chart below identifies 10 aspects of a person's job you can impact. Think about a change you are working on right now. Which of the aspects below will need your attention? Consider two simple examples: Example #1: A planned program in an insurance company aimed at increasing efficiency and improving customer satisfaction though a radical installation of new technologies and systems. Example #2: An incremental process change resulting from an established continuous improvement system aimed at reducing errors in a food/beverage organization. Although these two changes are unique in many ways, they share a key factor: their ability to deliver intended outcomes depends on individual employees doing their jobs differently (e.g., exhibiting new behaviors, following new processes, or using new tools). This is one of the reasons change management has emerged as a discipline over the last few decades. It is universally applicable to any change that impacts how people work. What Can You Do About the People Side of Change? Work to define the individual changes required This is necessary for every project you are involved with. It can sometimes be challenging, especially as the size and scope of change increases, but it is an important first step for understanding the reality of how changes occur in your organization. Use a model for individual change The Prosci ADKAR Model is one of the most widely used individual change management models. The ADKAR Model is an acronym for the five outcomes an individual needs to achieve to make a successful change: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. Whether at home, in the community or at work, an individual will make a change if they can say, "I have the awareness of why the change is happening. I have the desire to participate and support the change. I have the knowledge on how to change. I have the ability to implement the required skills and behaviors. And I have the reinforcement to sustain the change." Apply a structured organizational change management approach In all of Prosci's benchmarking studies, the use of a structured approach for change management was identified as a top contributor to success. A structured organizational change management approach provides clarity on the roles, tools and activities required to enable and encourage individual transitions. An intentional approach to change management provides more consistent and repeatable outputs. The Prosci 3-Phase Process provides step-by-step instructions and tools for preparing your approach, managing change, and sustaining outcomes. Preparing for change, Managing change and Reinforcing change. And this process-driven approach enables scaling and customizing change management plans and activities to reflect the unique nature of the change and the groups being impacted.
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