Introduction

Every leader knows how easy it is to announce a transformation and how hard it is to make it real. The slides are crisp, the strategy is sound, and the town hall applause is genuine. Yet a few months later, the organization feels strangely unchanged. Teams have returned to familiar habits. The excitement fades, and “transformation” becomes another initiative that never quite stuck.

Why? Because strategy doesn’t transform an organization, people do. And people don’t change because they were told to. They change when they understand, believe, and act differently over time. That’s where the ADKAR model becomes a practical tool for every strategy and transformation leader who wants to make strategy stick.

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Understanding the ADKAR Model

ADKAR, developed by Prosci founder Jeff Hiatt, breaks down change into five sequential outcomes,

• Awareness of the need for change
• Desire to participate and support the change
• Knowledge on how to change
• Ability to implement new skills and behaviors
• Reinforcement to sustain the change

This framework isn’t merely theoretical. In my opinion, it's a reference to how real change actually happens.

Many organizations excel at designing transformative strategies but struggle to execute them because people resist change when they lack context, clarity, or capability. If your transformation plan doesn’t address those barriers, even the most compelling strategy can stall. ADKAR helps you bridge that gap by aligning execution with how people actually adopt change.

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Step 1: Start with "Why" (Awareness)

Before you can move people, they need to understand why the change matters. Awareness isn’t about broadcasting a vision statement, it’s about creating shared understanding. Simon Sinek, the author of the book "Start with why" says that people are inspired by a sense of purpose or the "Why", and that this should be communicated first before "How" and "What". He calls this the golden circle. By the way, I strongly recommend that book.

‍How to build awareness effectively

• Tie the change directly to business reality. What’s broken, what’s at risk and what’s possible.
• Communicate in stories, not slogans. Use real examples that illustrate the cost of inaction.
• Make the “why” local and personal. Help every team see how the change affects their day-to-day.

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Step 2: Create Pull, Don't Push (Desire)

Awareness is knowing something needs to change, desire is wanting to be part of it. Many leaders stop at awareness and assume motivation will follow. It rarely does.

How to cultivate desire

• Involve teams early in shaping how change will happen. People commit to what they help create.
• Recognize personal impact, how the transformation will make their work easier, more meaningful, or more successful.
• Celebrate small wins to build momentum and belief.

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Step 3: Equip People to Act (Knowledge)

Once people want to change, they need to know how. This is another point where many transformations falter. Leaders announce “We’re moving to an agile model” or “We’re adopting a new operating rhythm,” but teams are left guessing what that really means.

How to build knowledge

• Provide clear, role-specific learning. For eg, what does this mean for a sales manager vs. a product leader?
• Pair formal training with real-time coaching and peer learning.
• Document playbooks that translate strategy into daily behaviors and decisions.

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Step 4: Turn Knowledge into Practice (Ability)

Knowing and doing are different muscles. Ability develops only when people apply what they’ve learned in a live environment.

How to enable ability

• Create safe spaces to experiment and make mistakes.
• Remove structural barriers such as outdated processes, rigid approvals, conflicting KPIs.
• Support managers as coaches, they’re the bridge between intent and execution.

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Step 5: The New Normal (Reinforce)

Many transformations fail not because they start poorly, but because they fade away. Reinforcement cements progress and prevents backsliding.

How to reinforce change

• Measure what matters. Track both outcomes (business impact) and behaviors (what people actually do).
• Recognize and reward progress publicly.
• Continuously communicate success stories to remind people that the change is working.

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Bringing ADKAR to Life with OKRs and Projects

ADKAR gives you the roadmap for transformation, but it still needs the machinery of execution. That’s where OKRs come in. Each stage of the ADKAR journey can be translated into clear, measurable outcomes that signal progress on how well your organization is adopting change.

For example,

1. Awareness

Objective - Create deep organizational awareness of why the transformation is happening and what success looks like.

Key Result - 85% of employees should accurately describe the strategic reason for change in engagement surveys over the next 3 months.

Related Project - Executive communication campaign, Strategy town halls

2. Desire

Objective - Increase organizational willingness and motivation to participate in the transformation.

Key Result - Achieve less than 5% voluntary attrition in key transformation roles over the next 2 quarters.

Related Project - Cross-functional pilot teams, leadership roadshows, feedback loops for co-creation.

3. Knowledge

Objective - Equip every manager and team with the practical knowledge to operate effectively in the new model.

Key Result - Avg. team score of 90% in post-implementation assessments after completion of transformation enablement programs.

Related Project - Targeted training, playbook development, peer learning circles.

4. Ability

Objective - Enable people to consistently apply new behaviors, tools, and processes in real work situations.

Key Result - Improve cycle time for key processes changed by 25%.

Related Project - Pilot implementations, coaching programs.

5. Reinforcement

Objective - Embed new behaviors and systems into the organization’s rhythm to sustain change.

Key Result - Achieve transformation adoption rate of at least 80% over two quarters.

Related Project - Performance system updates, Implement internal recognition programs.

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Think of ADKAR as defining what must shift in people’s behavior and OKRs as defining how you’ll measure progress toward that shift.

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Making Transformation Work for You

Transformation isn’t about changing everything overnight, it’s about changing the right things persistently. ADKAR gives you a language and structure to do that with discipline and empathy. It helps you treat change not as an announcement, but as a managed journey that connects every person to the organization’s strategic intent. At Tesoract, we help leadership teams design and sustain this rhythm, through our platform and consulting. Whether you’re modernizing your operating cadence or building alignment around bold new goals, we can help you make strategy stick. Get in touch with us.