6 Change Management Lessons With Infographics

Last year, I inherited a change management project for a systems integration. The project was several months underway and the change lead and systems trainer transitioned to other work. I was charged to take over the change and training work streams to project completion: consolidating a hospitality company’s three platforms into ONE, web-based platform for procurement and expanded revenue generating possibilities. Are you grumbling right now my fellow change consultants? Has this happened to you? Taking over a half-baked change project isn’t like getting a nice check from your poor deceased uncle. I’m picturing something more like a half-finished kitchen upgrade with failed inspections and overdue contractor bills. Good luck!
Inheriting a half-baked change project can be a mess!
Actually, it wasn’t that bad. The previous consultants did some good work that we could leverage. My article this week discusses the simplicity of using Prosci’s ADKAR model for managing change. I’ve also wrapped in some of my own best practices and infographics to make it an interesting read.
What’s ADKAR? ADKAR is Prosci’s Change Management model (below). There are various models of change. I first learned in a John Kotter shop and I’ve also studied Diane Dormant’s Chocolate change model! Google it for fun. Prosci calls ADKAR a “goal-oriented change management model that guides individual and organizational change.” At the organizational change management level, you can think of ADKAR like work streams. Each stream has its own set of activities and change tactics. Here's an example of an ADKAR OCM Plan:
ADKAR is also what Prosci calls an “Individualized Model.” Using ADKAR helps you identify an individual’s barrier point to change.
Here are some example barrier points:
  • A sales manager resists the change because he/she doesn’t know much about it. The barrier point is AWARENESS.
  • An individual contributor resists the change because he/she doesn’t know HOW to change. This is KNOWLEDGE and possibly ABILITY.
  • A senior leader resists the change because he/she doesn’t see the benefits (WIIFM) = AWARENESS or DESIRE.
  • A warehouse employee doesn’t accept a change in process and goes back to doing things the old way (even after completing training). This barrier point is likely REINFORCEMENT. There aren’t reinforcements in place to encourage the new behavior and/or discourage the old way.
Change Lesson #1: Consider your key stakeholders’ preferred change model.
In the first meeting with the leader of the procurement stakeholder team, I asked her about the previous change management efforts and if they had a preferred change model. Stakeholder: "YES.” Me: "Cha-ching (silently)." Stakeholder: “We like the Prosci model.” Phew! I wasn’t familiar with the change model the previous consultant was using and was a little confused by the 60 some odd slides that were waiting for me on day one. Change Management is model agnostic. Read this article to learn more about some of the different OCM models. What’s the end goal of managing change? Minimize the pain of transition for the organization and its people.
A wise man once told me,
“There are many ways up the mountain, but the view from the top is always the same!”
Reflecting on this earlier meeting, it was clear to me why change efforts had stalled for the project. The key stakeholder team wasn’t familiar with the change model. The blueprint for managing the change was unclear to the key stakeholders in charge of supporting the new software. If your key stakeholders and project team don’t understand your method for change… how are they supposed to help you drive it? ADKAR is easy for your stakeholders to understand and follow. It's meaningful, memorable, and motivating.
Change Lesson #2: Your change strategy should fit on one page.
Create a one-page blueprint for everyone to refer to for a high-level overview. You can also add timelines to the one-pager (I removed the key milestone dates for this simplified version). You want everyone to see the what and when in ONE, easy-to-read place.
Change Lesson #3: People don’t read email (get creative with communications).
In looking at the client’s existing communication strategy, one thing became very clear to me:
This communications campaign relied too heavily on email. Don’t let your change management efforts die in Outlook!
Get creative to get the word out. Infographics are a great option. These are some generic versions of an infographic I created as a part of the Awareness campaign. It’s a print quality vector. Using vectors enables you to distribute a digital or print at any size without losing quality (e.g. break room poster). Venngage offers free tools for creating your own infographics. I made these with Adobe Illustrator.
Change Lesson #4: Video doesn’t have to be big production.
Multimedia and video is the communication currency for change or anything else these days. It’s common practice to have senior leadership visibly support the change with video (active and visible sponsorship can make or break a project). But it can be expensive to bring in film crews and time intensive to write scripts, shoot, and edit. Hello Prezi! Pretzels? No. Prezi. It’s a quick and affordable tool to create and distribute engaging videos that don’t require an expensive production team. Here are some screenshots of a change message using Prezi. It’s a little like PowerPoint, but better. You can animate images and add audio narration in an easy-to-use online platform:
I used a pre-built Prezi template and weaved in some company-branded graphics, color themes, and logos.
Change Lesson #5: Measure training effectiveness and change together.
Change is dependent on training your end users to perform the desired behavior or steps. You manage change to get your key stakeholders to ABILITY. It helps if your change management consultant can design training or is savvy enough to have detailed discussions with your L&D team. Many a change consultant (myself included) started in L&D and can integrate the two seamlessly. This is another infographic I put together to report on the change (awareness, readiness, desire) and overall effectiveness of the training series for end-user enablement:
There is a critical bridge from the Knowledge phase of ADKAR to Ability. Just because you know something doesn’t mean you can do it. Prosci’s “Ability” ebook, cites a “variety of tactics you can employ to help individuals successfully develop the abilities they need to succeed and thrive in their changing environment.”
These include:
  • Training
  • Access to managers, subject matter experts
  • Coaching
  • Virtual office hours
Prosci's ebook continues to cite the importance of measuring adoption and performance:
“Measuring adoption and performance provides critical information to the organization. Assessments provide information on where the change is succeeding, so the organization can recognize and reinforce new behaviors. Assessments also provide information about where the change is not succeeding, so corrective action and special tactics can be applied.”
For this procurement project, I created a set of analytics to measure training effectiveness, ability, and change readiness throughout the implementation. Working with the project team, we picked strategic points to assess our audience (via survey) in cadence with training releases and the phased software launch. Let's look at some of the questions:
“1. The training aligns with the business priorities and goals for my team(s).”
From this, we calculated business alignment. The goal is 80% agree/strongly agree.
“2. How much of this training do you plan to use on the job? (select 0-100).” Using this overall average, we can calculate the training scrap or waste. The goal is to have 30% or less to align with Metrics That Matter’s industry benchmark for training waste. The industry benchmark is 70% of the training is used on the job. 30% is waste. Best-in-class organizations hover around 20% waste. “3. I feel well informed about how the transition affects me and my team (Agree scale).” This is change awareness. “4. After taking this training, I feel confident I will be able to use the software to manage the xyz process (Agree scale).” This is ABILITY . “5. The change will result in improved processes and management of our procurement efforts.” Measures the effectiveness of our Desire campaign.
Change Lesson #6: Recruit a Team of Change Ambassadors for Your Desire Campaign
Change Ambassadors (sometimes called Change Champions) are volunteers to help to facilitate change. The ambassador is an active member of the change project during all of its stages. You can recruit:
  • Human Resources
  • Trainers
  • Key Influencers
  • Leaders at any level
  • Internal Coaches
  • Communications Experts and more

Recruit employees looking for career development opportunities and that want to learn change management principles. Facilitating a workshop on coaching and change leadership acumen increases the effectiveness of your ambassador team and provides an attractive professional development opportunity.
Change Ambassadors can be from any level within the organization; they do not need to be members of management.
I've provided an excerpt from one of my Change Ambassador program documents on the left.
Creating an engaging brand like, "Change Heroes," can increase participant engagement and interest in the program.
I've highlighted three key Change Ambassador activities:
  • Sharing concerns, questions, feedback from the business.
  • Being a positive role model for change.
  • Leveraging meetings to cascade change messaging.
Change Lesson 6B: Formulate an Engaging and Multi-Faceted Resistance Plan
People don't like change, even when it is positive change. Always plan for pockets of resistance and don't rely solely on email messages or traditional methods. One effective example I've used is creating a 'Change Puzzle' to combat old system loyalism.
I build the puzzle in Adobe Ilustrator and animate the concept in my slides and work with a marketing company to print puzzle sets. I've found that people like tactile, tangible concepts.
Here is an example of what it could look like: The gray pieces represent the old, limited legacy systems and the vibrant, color pieces are the tangible benefits of the system change.
The Fact or Fiction Game: I also like to use gamification whenever possible to engage key stakeholders in the change. Creating short, gamified e-learning courses and communications in Articulate Storyline enables you to publish the course in a Learning Management System (LMS) and assign key change awareness messaging and training courses to a global audience with a few clicks. You can run reports to see completion rates. Here is an example of a Fact or Fiction Game I created to address common misconceptions and rumors about the change:
Final Thoughts
To me, ADKAR makes great music. It’s catchy. It’s memorable. The project team started saying, “ADKAR” in meetings. They had a change model that was easy to understand and apply. Adopting this model brought the key stakeholders onboard for a successful project.
Who says that a half-baked change project isn’t a good inheritance? And now some change management humor:
About the Author: Matthew Smart is an ACMP (CCMP) and Prosci-Certified Change Management Consultant with 20+ years of experience helping organizations drive culture change, business transformation, and IT system transition. Contact him to start your change project today.