The ADKAR Model Explained: Five Blocks of Individual Change
ADKAR is a model of individual change with five building blocks: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. Where leadership models describe what an organization does, ADKAR describes what each affected person experiences. Its power is diagnostic. When someone is not adopting a change, it asks which of the five conditions is missing, and the answer points at the remedy.
The model was introduced by Jeff Hiatt around 2003. This page explains the idea in practical terms and shows how to use it on your own project. It is not affiliated with the organization that teaches the model commercially.
The five blocks
| Block | The question | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Why is this change happening? | Understanding the reason for the change and the risk of not changing |
| Desire | Do I want to take part? | The personal choice to support the change |
| Knowledge | Do I know how? | Knowing what to do on day one, which steps replace the old ones |
| Ability | Can I actually do it? | Turning knowledge into action at the required speed and quality |
| Reinforcement | Will it last? | What keeps the new behavior in place |
Awareness
Not simply knowing a change exists. A warehouse worker may know a new scanner is coming and still not understand why the old process is a problem. Awareness grows through honest explanation, data people recognize and hearing it from trusted sources, especially their direct manager.
Desire
This cannot be ordered. It depends on the person's circumstances: how they see the change, what is in it for them, what they might lose, their relationship with the organization and their personal situation. Desire is about interests and losses, not logic.
Knowledge
Training, job aids, examples and checklists. Note that knowledge is not ability. A person can watch a demonstration and still not be able to do it.
Ability
Barriers include insufficient practice, lack of time, physical or technical constraints and psychological limits. Practice, coaching, support at the point of work and a protected learning period raise ability.
Reinforcement
Recognition, consequences, visible measurement and removal of the old option. When people get no feedback, or find the old way still works and is tolerated, they drift back.
Find the first barrier point
The key insight is that the blocks must be achieved in order. If a person lacks awareness, training them is wasted. If they lack desire, practice sessions turn into compliance at best.
To diagnose, rate each block for a group on a scale from one to five using interviews, short surveys and observation. The first block with a low score is the barrier point.
ADKAR diagnostic example
A fictional logistics company asks its night-shift supervisors to log delays in a new app.
| Block | Score (1–5) | Evidence | Implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness | 4 | Can explain why delay logging matters | Adequate |
| Desire | 2 | Believe it adds work to a short-staffed shift | Barrier point |
| Knowledge | 3 | Attended the session, unsure about exceptions | Needs a job aid |
| Ability | 2 | App is slow on yard tablets | Fix tools after desire is addressed |
| Reinforcement | 1 | No feedback on whether logs are used | Plan later |
The temptation is to schedule more training. The data say otherwise: the barrier is desire. The team lead should talk to the supervisors about workload, perhaps trade a lower-value report for the new logging task, and show how logged delays reduce the morning dispute calls they currently take. Only then does training help.
What helps at each block
| Block | Useful interventions | Who is most credible |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Business case in plain terms, direct experience of the problem, open Q&A | Sponsor, then direct manager |
| Desire | Conversations about personal impact, involvement in design, addressing losses | Direct manager, trusted peers |
| Knowledge | Training, job aids, examples, checklists, FAQs | Trainers, experienced peers |
| Ability | Practice time, coaching, floor-walkers, mentoring, tool fixes | Supervisors, super-users |
| Reinforcement | Recognition, feedback, metrics, removing old options, celebrating adopters | Leaders, managers |
The role of the direct manager
For most people, the person who has the most influence on awareness and desire is their direct manager. Equip managers with the reason for the change, answers to likely questions and a way to escalate concerns. A change that bypasses them tends to stall.
How to run an ADKAR check
- Define the change in one sentence and the group you are assessing.
- List the groups, such as night-shift supervisors, dispatchers and depot managers.
- Gather evidence with short conversations and a few survey questions, one per block.
- Score each block from one to five and write the evidence beside it.
- Find the first low score. That is the barrier point.
- Choose one intervention for that block, and test whether the score moves.
- Repeat monthly until the group reaches reinforcement.
ADKAR and other tools
ADKAR looks at the person, while Kotter's eight steps look at the organization. Combine them: use Kotter to plan the organization-level sequence and ADKAR to diagnose each group. If the guiding coalition exists but one department is stuck, an ADKAR check of that department will usually tell you whether it is a message problem, a motivation problem or a skills problem. When people push back, see resistance to change for a way to respond to each cause. To clarify who owns each part of the change, a RACI matrix helps.
Common mistakes
- Treating training as the answer to everything. Knowledge is only one block.
- Skipping desire. It cannot be ordered, so it is easy to ignore.
- Averaging across groups. Score each group separately.
- No reinforcement. The change decays when the old way still works.
- Using ADKAR as a one-time survey. It is more useful as a repeated check.
Go deeper
Guide 11 of The Consultant's Playbook covers why change stalls, stakeholder maps, Kotter's eight steps, ADKAR, communication plans, working with resistance and how to make a change last. It includes a fictional logistics company case and a worksheet called ADKAR Diagnostic and Communication Plan.
Educational content. It is not legal, financial or tax advice.