Christmas Eve: A Time for Awareness and Desire Leading to Agile Change with Adam Ulery

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by Adam Ulery to accompany you on Christmas Eve in an Agile way. This time of the year is for reflection, to be grateful about the blessing of the year as well as a time to think about what wants to be changed and improved.   This episode is the first of two where Adam and Dan talk about organizational change management and present the steps involved in the ADKAR Method: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement as they dive deep into the first two steps: Awareness and Desire.   Key Takeaways Annual goals or New Year’s resolutions? Time for reflection and forward planning. New Year’s resolutions tend to be pleading kinds of decisions and they tend to be abandoned during the year. Organizational Change Management. Real change management is needed to achieve effective change. ADKAR Method: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. Waterfall Project Management. If you don’t understand the change or the need for it, you won’t support it. What is the nature of the change? People really need to understand why the change is necessary (Awareness). Top leadership needs to communicate how the change is aligned with the direction and the strategy of the company. What are some ways of building Awareness? There needs to be Awareness of the nature of the change. Marketing people can be in charge of the communication of the change as well as HR. In-person events are important to communicate change. Awareness building even before there is a brand to build. One-on-one conversations are useful to anticipate the change coming. Awareness is the key first step (and it’s surprising how often this step is skipped). Desire: Why should I change the tasks that I do on an everyday basis? Dan tells a professional experience about change, awareness, and desire. Long feedback loops are obstacles and cause struggle; shortening them provides tremendous value. How can you build desire for people “in the middle”? Help them think about their personal goals, ambitions, and aspirations and explain some of the benefits involved in the upcoming change.   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!