Exploring Key Models of Change Management: ADKAR and CRET

Change is inevitable in any organization, but managing it effectively can be the difference between success and failure. When companies decide to transform their operations, they need clear roadmaps that consider not just what needs to change, but how people will adapt to those changes. Two powerful approaches have emerged to guide organizations through transformation: the ADKAR model, which focuses on individual transitions, and frameworks that integrate business process reengineering with change management through attention to processes, people, and technology. Understanding these models can help leaders navigate the complexities of organizational change with greater confidence and success.

Understanding the ADKAR model for individual change 🔗

The ADKAR model was developed by Prosci founder Jeff Hiatt after studying change patterns across more than 700 organizations. What makes this model particularly valuable is its recognition that organizational change only happens when individuals successfully make their own transitions. The name ADKAR represents five sequential outcomes that every person must achieve: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement.

Think about a hospital implementing a new electronic health record system. The technology itself might be excellent, but if nurses and doctors don’t understand why the change is necessary, don’t want to use the new system, don’t know how to operate it, can’t perform their duties with it, or revert to old paper-based habits, the initiative will fail. This is why ADKAR focuses on people first, ensuring each individual progresses through these stages successfully.

Breaking down the five elements of ADKAR 🔗

The first element, Awareness, addresses why the change is needed. Leaders must clearly communicate the business reasons, risks of maintaining the status quo, and urgency behind the transformation. When employees understand that their current process is costing the company money, causing customer dissatisfaction, or putting them at competitive disadvantage, they’re more likely to engage with the change initiative.

Desire represents the personal decision to support and participate in change. This is often the biggest barrier because it’s fundamentally about individual choice. No one can force someone to want change. Building desire requires addressing the question every employee asks: “What’s in it for me?” Will the new system make their job easier? Will it create opportunities for career growth? Leaders must also ensure that the right messengers deliver key information, as research shows people prefer hearing about organizational changes from senior leaders but want to learn about personal impacts from their direct supervisors.

Once awareness and desire are established, Knowledge provides the information and training needed to implement the change. This involves teaching people what to do during the transition and how to perform effectively afterward. Organizations often make the mistake of jumping straight to training without building awareness and desire first, which results in unmotivated learners who resist the change.

Ability is where theory transforms into practice. Employees demonstrate their capability to implement new skills and behaviors in real situations. This requires hands-on practice, coaching, and ongoing support. For instance, if a manufacturing plant introduces new machinery, workers need time to practice with the equipment, make mistakes in a safe environment, and receive feedback before full implementation.

Finally, Reinforcement ensures the change sticks over time. Without reinforcement, people naturally drift back to comfortable old habits. This element involves tracking progress, celebrating successes, recognizing those who embrace the change, and ensuring that leaders actively and visibly support the new ways of working. Reinforcement transforms temporary adjustments into permanent organizational culture.

Integrating business process reengineering with change management 🔗

While ADKAR focuses on individual transitions, successful organizational transformation also requires attention to the technical and structural aspects of change. Business Process Reengineering emerged in the early 1990s as a strategy for fundamentally redesigning core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance. However, BPR initiatives often failed because they focused too heavily on processes and technology while neglecting the people side of change.

The integration of BPR with change management recognizes that transformation must address three interconnected elements: processes, people, and technology. This comprehensive approach, sometimes called the People-Process-Technology framework, ensures that organizations don’t implement brilliant technical solutions that employees reject, or train people extensively for processes that remain inefficient.

The process dimension of transformation 🔗

The process element involves analyzing, redesigning, and implementing more effective ways of performing business operations. Organizations begin by mapping current workflows to identify inefficiencies, redundancies, and bottlenecks. This analysis reveals where work adds value and where it simply creates bureaucracy.

Consider a government agency responsible for issuing driver’s licenses. Their traditional process might involve multiple separate visits, extensive paperwork, and long waiting times. Through process reengineering, they could redesign the entire system to provide one-stop service, reduce environmental impact through digitization, and eliminate lengthy queues. The focus shifts from incremental improvements to radical redesign that fundamentally rethinks how work should be done.

The people dimension of transformation 🔗

This is where change management becomes essential to BPR success. The people dimension addresses how employees will be prepared, equipped, and supported through the transition. Change management ensures readiness and enables the behaviors needed to move forward with new processes.

Effective people-focused strategies include forming transition management teams, clearly communicating why change is necessary at every organizational level, providing comprehensive training, and actively managing resistance. Top and mid-level management play crucial roles in eliminating roadblocks and helping employees understand the benefits of new approaches. Without this people-focused attention, even the most brilliant process redesign will fail because employees don’t adopt it.

The technology dimension of transformation 🔗

Technology serves as an enabler of new organizational forms and working patterns. Rather than simply automating existing inefficient processes, technology should be leveraged to make non-value-adding work obsolete. Modern technologies like artificial intelligence, automation, and cloud systems can dramatically transform how organizations operate.

However, technology implementation must be carefully aligned with both process redesign and people readiness. If technological advancement outpaces personnel training or process adaptation, gaps in organizational efficiency emerge. Similarly, well-established processes might not easily accommodate new technological solutions without costly reengineering efforts. The key is ensuring that technology investments directly link to strategic organizational goals while considering integration with existing systems and user accessibility.

Applying these models in real organizational contexts 🔗

Both ADKAR and the integrated BPR approach shine when applied to real-world transformation challenges. Let’s explore how organizations can use these frameworks together for maximum impact.

Technology implementation scenario 🔗

When a financial services company decides to implement a new customer relationship management system, they can apply ADKAR to guide individual adoption while simultaneously addressing processes, people, and technology through BPR principles. Leaders would first build awareness by explaining how the new CRM improves customer service and regulatory compliance. They would foster desire by highlighting time savings and reduced frustration with current systems.

Simultaneously, the BPR team would redesign customer interaction workflows to leverage the CRM’s capabilities, eliminating redundant data entry and streamlining communication channels. The people dimension would involve identifying skill gaps, providing comprehensive training, and establishing support resources. The technology dimension would ensure proper integration with existing systems and data migration strategies. This coordinated approach addresses both individual transitions and structural transformation.

Merger and organizational restructuring 🔗

When two companies merge, applying these models helps create a cohesive organizational culture. ADKAR guides employees through awareness of why the merger happened and its expected benefits, builds desire through highlighting career growth opportunities, provides knowledge about new reporting structures and collaboration methods, enables ability through team-building activities and practice, and reinforces new behaviors through feedback systems.

The integrated BPR approach would simultaneously redesign processes to eliminate duplication between the merged entities, address people concerns through careful attention to organizational structure and roles, and leverage technology to unite previously separate systems. This dual focus ensures that both individual adoption and structural integration succeed.

Regulatory compliance changes 🔗

Healthcare organizations facing new privacy regulations can use ADKAR to help staff understand the need for change, desire to protect patient information, learn new protocols, demonstrate ability to follow procedures, and reinforce compliant behaviors over time. The BPR integration would redesign information handling processes to build in compliance, train people on new security measures, and implement technological safeguards like encryption and access controls.

The beauty of combining these approaches is that they address different aspects of the same challenge. ADKAR ensures each individual successfully navigates their personal transition, while the integrated BPR framework ensures the organization’s structure, systems, and workflows support and sustain that individual change.

Keys to successful implementation 🔗

Several factors determine whether organizations successfully apply these change models. First, strong leadership commitment is essential. Leaders must actively sponsor the change, provide necessary resources, and visibly demonstrate their own adoption of new ways of working. When leaders pay lip service to change while maintaining old behaviors, employees quickly lose motivation.

Second, organizations must avoid the common mistake of focusing exclusively on one dimension while neglecting others. A company that invests heavily in new technology without redesigning inefficient processes or preparing people will waste resources. Similarly, extensive training programs will fail if the underlying processes remain broken or the technology doesn’t work properly.

Third, change management must be continuous, not a one-time event. Organizations should track key performance indicators, gather ongoing feedback, and make adjustments as needed. The most successful companies view transformation as an ongoing journey of improvement rather than a project with a fixed endpoint.

Finally, communication throughout the change process cannot be underestimated. Different stakeholders need different information at different times from different sources. Clear, consistent, and targeted communication helps build the awareness and desire that fuel successful adoption.

What do you think? In your experience, which dimension of change-individual transitions, processes, people, or technology-tends to receive insufficient attention in organizational transformations? How might combining individual-focused models like ADKAR with integrated approaches to processes, people, and technology lead to more successful outcomes in your organization?

References

1. https://www.prosci.com/methodology/adkar
2. https://www.prosci.com/blog/adkar-model
3. https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/business-process-reengineering
4. https://www.prosci.com/blog/business-process-reengineering
5. https://wisdomplexus.com/blogs/business-process-re-engineering-change-management/