Do you have a primary sponsor named for your project but lack the true sponsorship support you need to succeed?
When project leaders and change practitioners are asked to name the number one factor in project success, they typically know the answer: active and visible sponsorship. In all of Prosci's Best Practices in Change Management research reports, active and visible sponsorship ranks as the top contributor to project success and has been cited four times more often than any other factor. Yet, despite a large percentage of projects having a named primary sponsor, many change practitioners lack the true sponsorship they need for success.
Why You Need True Sponsorship During Change
To understand why the role of the primary sponsor is important to achieving successful change, consider what the role really entails. Change leaders need primary sponsors to fulfill all of the ABC's of Sponsorship:
Active and visible participation throughout the project
Build a coalition of sponsorship
Communicate support and promote the change to impacted groups
When this level of sponsorship is lacking, change leaders often experience:
Increased resistance from employees, including key people managers in the organization
Unavailable resources to support the project
Slow adoption of the change or complete rejection of the change by some parts of the organization
Sponsor in Name or in Practice?
Consider a project you're supporting today. If you agree with the statements above and a senior leader has agreed be your primary sponsor, you might assume you are good to go. Unfortunately, the research does not support this assumption. Over the last two decades, Prosci research participants have cited ineffective change sponsorship as a top obstacle to change for a variety of reasons, such as:
The sponsor was at the wrong level or in the wrong part of the organization to support this change (i.e., the sponsor lacked control over the people and systems impacted by the change).
The sponsor was invisible (i.e., the sponsor did not get involved with the project team or communicate to employees).
The sponsor did not build a coalition of sponsorship with other business leaders (and as a result, the change team encountered resistance from managers throughout the organization).
The sponsor wavered in their support midway through the project (or found a different project that took priority).
The sponsor did not manage the resistance that surfaced during the change.
In the 12th Edition of Prosci's Best Practices in Change Management research study, participants cited the following sponsor challenges:
The upshot? Assigning a senior leader to the role of primary sponsor does not constitute effective sponsorship.
Sponsorship Checklist
The checklist below is a simple tool that can help you determine whether you are well-positioned to have the authority necessary for change success. Score each question on a scale of one to five, where one represents "no" or complete disagreement with the statement, and five represents "yes" or complete agreement with the statement.
If you score between 40 and 50 and you scored the first three questions a 4 or 5, your project likely has the elements for effective sponsorship. A score below 30 indicates that your project lacks the effective sponsorship required for successful change.
Statement
Score
My sponsor has the ability to provide the needed resources and funding for the project.
1 - 5
My sponsor has direct control over the people and processes being impacted by this change.
1 - 5
My sponsor has direct control over the systems and tools being impacted by this change.
1 - 5
My sponsor is willing and able to be active and visible throughout the entire project.
1 - 5
My sponsor will build a coalition of sponsorship with key leaders and stakeholders in the organization.
1 - 5
My sponsor will manage resistance from other managers and remove barriers to the success of the project.
1 - 5
My sponsor will communicate directly to employees about why this change is being made and the risk of not changing.
1 - 5
My sponsor will implement the necessary reinforcements to sustain the change, including modifications to performance objectives and performance evaluations, and rewards and recognition for employees who adopt the change.
1 - 5
My sponsor is credible and respected by employees and managers within the organization (i.e., employees embrace the leadership of this individual).
1 - 5
My sponsor will remain in the organization throughout the implementation of this change.
1 - 5
Total score:
How to Remedy Ineffective Sponsorship
If you scored low on the sponsorship checklist, take action to address the root cause:
A low score on any of the first three questions means your sponsor is probably not at the right level, given the scope of your project. In this case, a careful assessment of the sponsor coalition would determine if this project is in jeopardy. If you determine that your sponsorship coalition is also weak, you have two options:
Identify the right person to sponsor this initiative and begin to build the necessary sponsor coalition.
Redefine the scope of your project to fit or align with the sponsorship you do have.
Simply continuing with the project is not typically a viable option because the consequences will negatively affect the organization and your people, and your risk of project failure is high.
A low score on questions 4 through 8 means your sponsor needs coaching on the role of the primary sponsors during change. You may have a sponsor who is willing but does not know what effective sponsorship means, or you could have a sponsor who prefers not to be directly involved. The latter issue is harder to overcome, but with the right information and approach, most sponsors quickly see the importance of their role and get on board. Other the other hand, if your sponsor is willing but uneducated about the role of effective sponsorship, the change leader should directly coach and assist the sponsor to execute the role.
A low score on questions 9 or 10 likely means you need special tactics for approaching the project, including careful use of a strong sponsor coalition to carry a strong message to employees and be there throughout the entire project. If your sponsor is on a fixed term, such as with military organizations or government agencies, you may want to consider breaking the project into phases and focus on the phase that falls within the term limit of that sponsor.
Your Role in Effective Sponsorship
Having a primary sponsor named for your change and having the required sponsorship for successful change are not the same thing. Most executives and senior leaders lack understanding about how to be an effective primary sponsor of change—and that's to be expected because change management is not their primary role in the organization. Fortunately, that's where you come in. As a change practitioner, it's your job to enable your sponsor, so they are prepared and equipped to execute the critical actions needed for change success.
Tim Creasey
Tim Creasey is Prosci’s Chief Innovation Officer and a globally recognized leader in Change Management. Their work forms the basis of the world's largest body of knowledge on managing the people side of change to deliver organizational results.
The success of any organizational change depends on impacted people and teams adopting new behaviors or responsibilities. But nothing will happen without coaching from people managers. To enable people managers to coach others through change, change practitioners must first prepare and equip people managers with the right knowledge and skills. Coaching Guide for People Managers Prosci's Best Practices in Change Management research consistently shows that people prefer to receive messages about how the change will impact them directly from their immediate supervisors. If people managers have a basic understanding of the Prosci ADKAR Model, they can use it to identify gaps and coach impacted people and teams. Here's a step-by-step coaching approach for employee-facing people managers in your organization. 1. People manager conducts a group meeting with impacted employees Make introductions and conduct an ice-breaker activity. Explain the change, including background and context. Be honest about what is known and not known at the time. Introduce the ADKAR Model. Talk through several examples of easy-to-understand and universal changes (i.e., resolving a behavior issue with child, losing weight, quitting smoking, etc.) and how the ADKAR Model applies. Ask each individual to complete the ADKAR exercise for a personal change. Those who feel comfortable can share their experience. You will be surprised by how many will share. Conduct an ADKAR group exercise and presentation, working in small groups or as a team to examine the organizational change in terms of the ADKAR Model. Where are the barrier points? Brainstorm and capture ideas on flipcharts if meeting in person or on screen if virtual. Next, facilitate a Q&A discussion about the change and the ADKAR Model. Provide an open and safe environment for candid discussion about the change. Wrap up with next steps and information about where they can get support. Be sure to mention the upcoming individual coaching sessions. Each employee should prepare an ADKAR Assessment on themselves to bring to their individual coaching session. Schedule an individual session with each employee. The Prosci ADKAR Model 2. People manager conducts individual meetings with each team member Discuss the employee's ADKAR Assessment of themselves. Allow them to provide background and explanation on each area of their ADKAR Assessment. Agree on their barrier point to change. Their barrier point is the first ADKAR element with a score of 3 or less. Focus your individual coaching activities in the first area with the score of 3 or less. The actions you take will differ for each individual. Discuss potential root causes for this barrier point. Create an individual-change action plan with the employee that will help them overcome their barriers to change. 3. People manager analyzes patterns and creates ongoing coaching roadmaps Create a grid with each team member's ADKAR profile. Do not share this grid with employees. Look for trends and patterns in the table. If everyone's barrier point is the same, you will be able to address it with the group as a whole. Once you have identified patterns and addressed them, create an ongoing coaching roadmap for each impacted individual. This should build on their individual change action plan. Follow up as needed. The frequency and content of these individual coaching sessions will depend on the specific individual, size of the change, and organizational attributes. Coach Individuals Successfully Through Change People and teams need information and coaching to effectively engage, adopt and use a change to their daily work. Using the ADKAR Model to identify barrier points, understand what each person needs to move forward, and equip people as needed enables people managers to demonstrate that each individual's success matters. Doing so puts people at the center of change—which also makes practitioners and people managers more effective leaders of change.
If your organization is struggling with AI adoption despite significant technology investments, you're not alone. And more importantly, you're likely focusing on the wrong problem. Our comprehensive research studying 1,107 professionals across frontline employees, team leaders, and executives reveals 63% of AI implementation challenges stem from human factors, not technical limitations. While organizations pour resources into platforms, data infrastructure, and advanced algorithms, they're missing the real barriers that determine success or failure. In this article, we outline why your people aren't embracing the AI solutions you've already invested in, and what successful organizations do differently to unlock actual transformation. AI Implementation Challenges: The Real Crisis Behind Failed AI Initiatives When executives analyze struggling AI initiatives, they typically examine technical metrics: system performance, data quality, or feature utilization. But our research paints an entirely different picture. User proficiency emerges as the single largest challenge, accounting for 38% of all AI failure points—dramatically outpacing technical challenges (16%), organizational adoption issues (15%), and data quality concerns (13%) combined. Within that user proficiency crisis: 22% face significant learning curve difficulties 11% struggle with effective prompt engineering 6% report inadequate training and support The data shows that technology isn’t the barrier, the real challenge is building the skills and confidence for people to use it effectively. The AI Transformation Trust Gap Perhaps the most revealing finding from our study is the dramatic trust and experience gap across organizational levels. This isn't just a minor misalignment—it's a fundamental disconnect that undermines entire AI initiatives. The trust gap between leadership and frontline workers is stark: Executives express strong confidence in AI capabilities and outcomes Team leaders show moderate trust, often cautious but optimistic Frontline workers demonstrate minimal trust, remaining skeptical about AI's value This trust disparity creates a dangerous feedback loop. Leaders see positive AI metrics and assume adoption is progressing smoothly, while frontline employees remain skeptical and struggle with basic implementation. The experience divide extends far beyond trust into decision-making power: Executives enjoy significant freedom in selecting and experimenting with AI tools Team leaders face restrictions but retain some input on tool choices Frontline workers have little to no say in which AI tools they're expected to use Organizations with successful AI implementations operate fundamentally differently. They prioritize transparent communication about AI decisions and invest heavily in building AI expertise across all organizational levels, rather than concentrating knowledge among leadership and technical teams. 5 Success Factors for AI Adoption After analyzing implementation patterns across hundreds of organizations, five critical success factors emerge: 1. Democratized AI expertise drives results Organizations achieving the best outcomes systematically build AI capabilities across their entire workforce, rather than relying on scattered pockets of expertise. Successful organizations emphasize: Effective mentorship programs Accessible learning resources Clear paths for skill development Role-specific AI value propositions 2. Individual choice accelerates adoption Counter to many IT-driven approaches, individual-led choice of AI tools correlates with better adoption outcomes. Organizations that allow employees to select their own AI tools see smoother implementations than those mandating specific platforms. This doesn’t equate to chaos. The most successful organizations balance centralized governance with distributed choice—providing clear frameworks while empowering individual autonomy in tool selection. 3. Internal skills trump external consultants Our data reveals that internal AI skills align more closely with smooth implementations than relying on external expertise. Organizations investing in developing their own people see consistently better results than those depending heavily on outside consultants. 4. Experimentation culture is non-negotiable The research exposes the most significant gap between successful and struggling organizations: how they approach AI experimentation. Organizations with smooth AI implementations actively encourage employees to try new tools and approaches Those making moderate progress show measured support for experimentation Organizations struggling with implementation actually discourage employees from exploring new AI capabilities This fundamental difference in experimentation culture represents the single most significant factor distinguishing AI adoption success from failure. 5. Scale paradox: go big or struggle One of our most counterintuitive findings challenges conventional "start small" wisdom: larger, more comprehensive AI initiatives tend to go smoother than smaller, incremental ones. This suggests that organizations treating AI as a minor workflow adjustment miss the cultural and structural changes necessary for meaningful adoption. Successful AI transformation requires treating it as the significant organizational change it actually is. If you want to dive deeper into these AI implementation success factors, watch our recorded AI Adoption Q&A webinar featuring Tim Creasey and Paul Gonzalez. AI Transformation Barriers: What Stalls Enterprise AI Adoption Our research uncovered fascinating differences in how various organizational levels approach AI, revealing why many initiatives lose momentum: Frontline employees are motivated by practical applications and creative uses—they want AI to solve immediate problems and enhance their daily work experience. Team leaders balance tactical needs with strategic requirements, caught between delivering results and meeting organizational expectations. Executives focus on strategic applications rather than innovative uses, optimizing for competitive advantage and operational efficiency. This misalignment explains why many organizations remain stuck in AI pilot mode. Leaders drive strategic implementation while frontline workers seek practical solutions, creating a gap that pilots can't bridge. AI Implementation Through Change Management: Applying ADKAR to AI Adoption Our findings align directly with established change management principles, particularly when viewed through Prosci's ADKAR® Model: Awareness barriers remain the most significant challenge, with the biggest restraining forces being lack of understanding, fear, uncertainty, and concerns about job security. Desire barriers center on the "what's in it for me" question, particularly when organizations position AI solely as a cost-reduction tool rather than highlighting augmentation and enhancement capabilities. Knowledge barriers emerge when organizations fail to provide contextual, task-oriented training. Our research confirms that people need to understand not just how AI works, but how it applies specifically to their role and responsibilities. Ability barriers develop when there's a gap between training and real-world application. Organizations that provide structured learning paths see smoother adoption than those leaving people to learn independently. Reinforcement barriers emerge when early AI enthusiasm fades due to a lack of ongoing support, recognition, or clear measurement of impact. From AI Implementation Challenges to Transformation Success The research delivers a clear directive: stop treating AI adoption as a technology implementation and start treating it as the behavioral and cultural transformation it actually is. Organizations that recognize this reality and focus on building widespread internal expertise, encouraging experimentation over mandates, and balancing centralized governance with individual choice see measurably better outcomes. But understanding where challenges exist is only the beginning. The patterns we've identified through studying over 1,100 professionals provide the foundation for a systematic approach to diagnosing exactly where your AI adoption is breaking down—and what to do about it. Diagnose Your AI Transformation Readiness for Improved Results The difference between organizations that achieve AI transformation and those that remain stuck in pilot mode isn't luck or better technology. It's understanding exactly where your specific barriers exist and having a proven methodology to address them. The Prosci AI Adoption Diagnostic, built on this comprehensive research, goes beyond general insights to identify your organization's specific challenges across the five critical success conditions. It reveals: Root causes of stalled adoption in your specific context Leadership-workforce alignment gaps that undermine implementation Trust barriers preventing widespread acceptance Capability gaps limiting effectiveness Cultural factors either accelerating or hindering progress Whether your organization is in the early stages of AI exploration or struggling to scale pilot programs into enterprise-wide adoption, the path forward starts with understanding where you are today and what specific barriers are preventing the outcomes you need. As AI continues to reshape how work gets done, the organizations that thrive will be those that solve the human equation first—recognizing that successful AI adoption is fundamentally a change management challenge that requires proven methodologies, not just better technology. Ready to move beyond guesswork and identify exactly where your AI adoption is breaking down? The Prosci AI Adoption Diagnostic provides the insights and roadmap your organization needs to turn AI investments into measurable business outcomes.
The upshot? Assigning a senior leader to the role of primary sponsor does not constitute effective sponsorship.
