People have a natural tendency to revert to what they are familiar and comfortable with – hence Adoption is critical to success of any change management initiative. Yet, because adoption steps come later in the change process, they are often neglected.
As a business innovates and enables new ways of working, employees often need support and education to adopt new methods. Consider the following principles when implementing your next change initiative.
5 Factors to Successful Change Adoption
1. Shared Vision: When starting any change effort, it’s the change leader’s job to deliver the vision of the future state, and inspire others to move towards it. People are more committed to work towards the change when there is a clear vision or a ‘a unified reason for change’.
2. Accountability starts at the TOP!: Leadership accountability is a critical factor when it comes to gaining buy-in for the change. Participation, communication, resource commitment, sharing the vision early and often—each one of these actions demonstrates leadership’s commitment to the change.
3. Stakeholder Involvement: Change Leaders must not only understand who the stakeholders are, but also the level of support each has for the change effort and the degree to which each can affect it (positively or negatively). Understanding, supporting and establishing two-way communication with stakeholders is critical to successful adoption of change.
4. Enabling Behaviour: Individuals respond differently to change, so change leaders need to provide support, training and coaching to keep the change effort moving forward without alienating stakeholders. Successful change leaders must recognize and reinforce desirable behavior by celebrating small wins, providing ongoing feedback on the progress of the change, and remembering that each individual moves along the change curve differently.
5. Measure Metrics: Metrics are critical to measuring adoption success. Whether your metrics track process, personnel or financial performance, change requires leaders to examine and realign the current measurement systems to support the change effort in each area. Too often, contradictory metrics exist, driving old behaviors and eroding support for the change.
