---
name: adkar
description: Use when asked to plan organizational change adoption at the individual level — Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement (Prosci's ADKAR model) — as the individual-change-adoption complement to process-improvement methodologies like Kaizen and DMAIC (see kaizen, dmaic), which improve the process itself rather than how people adopt it.
---

# ADKAR

ADKAR (Prosci's change management model) helps individuals and
organizations manage change effectively by breaking it into five
sequential elements: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and
Reinforcement. Its distinguishing focus: change succeeds or fails at the
level of individual adoption, not just at the level of a well-designed
process or plan — a technically excellent change initiative still fails
if people don't move through these five elements.

## The five elements

- **Awareness** — of the need for change: communicating why the change is
  happening and what it means for the organization and for individuals
  personally. Without genuine awareness, people don't understand why
  their current way of working needs to change at all.
- **Desire** — to participate in and support the change: a compelling
  vision for the future that actually inspires people to want to be part
  of it, plus honestly addressing concerns and resistance rather than
  dismissing them. Awareness alone doesn't create willingness — someone
  can understand *why* a change is happening and still not want it.
- **Knowledge** — of how to change: training and support that builds the
  new skills and understanding required to succeed in the new way of
  working. Desire without knowledge leaves people willing but unable to
  actually execute the change.
- **Ability** — to implement the change: the actual resources (tools,
  technology, time, authority) people need to perform in the new
  environment. Knowledge without ability is a common gap — someone can
  understand what's required and still lack what they need to actually
  do it.
- **Reinforcement** — to sustain the change: celebrating successes,
  recognizing individual contributions, and building a culture that
  actively supports and reinforces the new way of working, so it becomes
  permanent rather than fading once initial attention moves elsewhere.

## Why the order matters

Each element depends on the ones before it: pushing skills training
(Knowledge) onto people who haven't yet accepted the need for change
(Awareness/Desire) wastes the investment, since resistant or unconvinced
people don't actually engage with training meant for people who've
already bought in. Diagnosing *which* element a specific individual or
group is stuck at is ADKAR's main practical use — the right intervention
differs completely depending on whether the barrier is Awareness,
Desire, Knowledge, Ability, or Reinforcement.

## Relationship to process-improvement methodologies

ADKAR addresses a different layer than [[kaizen]] or
[[dmaic]]: those improve the *process itself*; ADKAR addresses
whether the *people* actually adopt whatever new process results. A
technically well-designed DMAIC or Kaizen improvement can still fail in
practice if the people expected to use the new process never move
through Awareness → Desire → Knowledge → Ability → Reinforcement for it.

## Common pitfalls

- **Assuming Awareness alone produces Desire** — a common, costly
  assumption; understanding why a change is happening doesn't
  automatically make someone want to support it, especially if their
  concerns haven't been genuinely addressed.
- **Skipping straight to training (Knowledge) without building Desire
  first** — training delivered to an unconvinced, resistant audience is
  poorly absorbed regardless of its quality.
- **No Reinforcement plan** — a change that's technically adopted but
  never reinforced (celebrated, recognized, culturally supported) tends
  to erode back toward the old way of working over time.
- **Diagnosing the wrong element as the barrier** — applying a Knowledge-
  stage intervention (more training) to a group actually stuck at Desire
  (they understand fine, they just don't want to) wastes effort without
  addressing the real blocker.

## Learn more

- [[kaizen]], [[dmaic]] for process-improvement methodologies ADKAR complements at the individual-adoption level.
- [[crucial-conversations]] for handling the individual resistance/concern conversations the Desire element often requires.