ADAPT and Switch

In Mike Cohns great book "Succeeding with Agile" he mentions the acronym ADAPT as the 5 steps necessary for an agile transistion in an organization(ie change). The letters stand for Awareness, Desire, Ability, Promotion, and Transfer. Very similar to Prosci’s ADKAR change model which describes the necessary phases for an individual to adopt a permanent change in their behavior and attitudes. The K an R stand for Knowledge and Reinforcement respectively. I guess in moving from an individual to an organization knowledge and reinforcement are replaced by promotion and transfer.

Anyway, I wanted to match ADAPT up with the steps in the great book Switch by the Heath brothers (see an earlier blog). So here goes,

Awareness

The reason why change is required should be clear (ie the problem that has to be solved).

This is related to "direct the rider", particularly "point to the destination". After all, the destination should be better than where we are now.

Desire

You may know a problem but still not want to fix it. Some unfinished chores in the house come to mind.

This is related to "motivate the elephant", particularly "find the feeling". Desire is after all all about emotion.

Ability

You may want to fix a problem, but simply lack the ability to solve it or make a positive change. Again, certain household chores spring to mind.

This is related to "Direct the rider, script critical moves"; after all, everyone can carry out simple instructions. But this is also related to "Motivate the elephant, shrink the change"; after all small changes are easier to carry out than big daunting overhauls. And finally, this is related to "Motivate the elephant, grow your people"; after all training, teaching and coaching will increase the ability of people and your organization.

Promote

In an organization, you need to motivate more than one person for a change to occur. This involves alot of communication (selling).

This is related to "Shape the path, rally the herd"; organizational changes require momentum to build up. Also, this is related to "Direct the rider, find the bright spots"; if positive change is working somewhere then celebrating it goes a long way to keeping momentum going.

Transfer

In an organization, having succeeded with change in one department, or team, or organization unit doesn't mean you are done. The rest of the organization will also need to adapt, otherwise organization gravity will simply drag the changed unit back down to the old state.

This is basically saying, iterate the ADAP steps again and again everywhere in the organization. In that sense, it relates to the Switch steps mentioned above. More generally, this relates to "Shape the environment".