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Session 3. People Through Change: ADKAR, Concerns and Respectful Resistance
Objective. Use ADKAR to find the first stage where a person is stuck, use the stages of concern to hear what a colleague really asks, and answer doubt or refusal with a respectful four-step conversation.
A group can be told in one meeting; a person can only change in their own time. This session gives you two lenses to find out where each colleague is, and one conversation to use when someone doubts or refuses. They help you spend your effort where it counts: not another training session for a teacher who has not yet seen the point, and not a lecture for a teacher who is quietly asking how many hours it will take.
Key ideas
ADKAR: change one person at a time
- The Prosci ADKAR model describes five things one person needs, in order: Awareness of why the change is needed, Desire to take part, Knowledge of how, Ability to do it in practice, and Reinforcement so it lasts. A school changes only as far as its individual teachers do.
- The stages are a sequence. Find the FIRST stage where a person is stuck and help there. Training (Knowledge) given to someone who does not yet see the point (Awareness) or does not want to take part (Desire) is wasted time. Desire cannot be ordered; it grows from trust, a believable benefit for pupils and for the teacher, and good past experience.
- In school terms: Awareness is the case for change (session 1). Knowledge is training. Ability is time to practise, coaching and simple tools (session 4). Reinforcement is follow-up, recognition and removing the old routine so nobody can slip back. Check a few individuals, not only the group average.
Stages of concern: hear what is really asked
- The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (Gene Hall and Shirley Hord) says that people's concerns about an innovation change in a pattern. Stage 0 awareness: little concern. 1 informational: 'tell me more'. 2 personal: 'what does it mean for me, can I cope?' 3 management: time, materials, organisation.
- Then 4 consequence: 'how does it affect my pupils?' 5 collaboration: 'how can we work with others on this?' 6 refocusing: 'I have ideas to make it better.' A teacher who is at stage 2 and hears a leader answer a stage 4 question about pupil results does not feel heard.
- The tool is simple: ask people to finish the sentence 'When I think about this change, I am concerned about...' on a card without a name. Sort the cards by stage. Concerns are not resistance; they are information. Answer the stage you hear, then move one stage on.
What resistance may be telling you
- Resistance usually comes from two doubts: 'Is this worth doing?' and 'Can I succeed with it?' Under them often lie real losses: of competence, time, status, routines or belonging. Add history: a teacher who saw three reforms fade has learned that waiting works.
- Sometimes the resister is right. A colleague who says 'this will take 90 minutes a week from my marking' may have found a real design flaw. Ask yourself first: what might be true in what they say? Separate three things: a concern (needs an answer), an objection (needs a change or a reason) and a refusal (needs a different conversation).
- Be honest about what is fixed. Safeguarding, ministry regulations and legal duties are not open for debate, and pretending they are is a form of disrespect. Say what cannot change, then open every real choice about how. Never repeat a colleague's private words to others; listen with the same confidentiality as in session 2.
HEAR: a four-step conversation
- H = Hear: let the person finish, with no interrupting or correcting; sit, do not stand. E = Echo: say back the content and the feeling, 'You are worried that this will cost you evenings, and that it will be forgotten in spring.' Check: 'Have I got that right?'
- A = Ask: 'What would you need to see to feel this is worth trying?' or 'What would make it possible?' R = Respond: give an honest small next step with a date, such as 'I will remove the weekly report for your classes this term, and we will look at your time again in three weeks.' Say clearly what you cannot change.
- Do not label ('a difficult person'), do not argue in front of others, do not bargain with favours that others will resent, and do not say 'everyone else is doing it'. If someone continues to refuse something that is required, that is a separate private matter handled under school rules and fairly documented by the head; it is not solved by public pressure. See course 14.1 (Educational Leadership) for leading difficult conversations.
ADKAR: five things one person needs, in order
A heat map of five faces
ADKAR works best with a handful of real people. Draw a small grid with five or six colleagues (use initials or roles on a private sheet) in rows and the five stages in columns, and mark each cell green, amber or red from what you have actually heard and seen. The first amber or red along a row is that person's stuck stage; a column that is mostly red tells you where the whole group needs help.
Check your marks with a question, not a guess. 'Can you tell me in your own words why we are doing this?' tests Awareness. 'What would make you want to try it?' tests Desire. Keep the sheet private and short-lived, and never use it to judge a colleague. Its only job is to decide what you will offer this week.
Resistance that protects pupils, and the line you hold
Some resistance comes from care. A teacher who refuses to send a weak pupil's marks to a parents' chat group may be protecting that child, and a teacher who worries that comments on every task will exhaust older pupils may be right. Ask 'which pupils are you protecting?' before you answer. Often the objection becomes a design improvement, and the person becomes your best advocate.
Some things you cannot trade: safeguarding, honest marking, ministry regulations. When a colleague resists one of these, say it kindly and clearly: 'This part is not optional, and I will help you do it well. The format is open and I want your ideas.' Then follow up privately and in writing if the issue continues. Do not make it public, and do not let one refusal change a rule for everyone.
Examples from the classroom
Desire after a past failure in Samarkand
Scene. A Grade 7 literature teacher in Samarkand, Dilnoza, attends the training on writing comments and writes none. Her deputy, Jasur, wants to book another training. Instead he asks, 'What would you need to see to try it for two weeks?' She answers, 'Last time the head asked for fifty sheets a week and then never looked at them.' Jasur promises that he will read five sheets a week himself, and does. Dilnoza starts the next week.
Insight. Training does not fix a Desire problem; a kept promise does.
Sorting concern cards in Fergana
Scene. A methodist in Fergana collects 24 anonymous concern cards. She sorts them: 3 awareness, 5 informational, 6 personal ('will I be judged?'), 8 management ('time, printing') and 2 consequence. She sees that her planned talk about research results answers only the two consequence cards. She writes a one-page reply about time and printing, and a separate promise on how the pilot notes will be used. She sends both within a week.
Insight. Answer the stage you hear; most cards were about me and time, not about research.
A refusal in Bukhara
Scene. Bobur, a Grade 10 physics teacher in Bukhara with 22 years of experience, says he will not use pupil self-assessment sheets. The deputy listens, then says, 'You are worried they will mark themselves too high.' Bobur nods. She asks what would help, and he suggests that pupils check three items against his answer key before they write the mark. She agrees, says the sheet itself is required by the school policy, and sets a review in three weeks. He keeps the sheet and the new check.
Insight. A fixed point plus an open design choice lets a refusal become a contribution.
Common pitfalls
- Giving more training to a person whose first stuck stage is Awareness or Desire.
- Answering a personal concern ('will I be judged?') with data about pupil results.
- Rewarding the loudest resister with a lighter load, which others will notice and resent.
- Repeating what a colleague said in confidence, even to help them.
Read the Concern and Answer with HEAR
- Pairs (15 min): open the Activity Kit. Table A has ten sample things colleagues say about a new feedback-comment policy. For each, write the first ADKAR stage where the person is stuck and the stage of concern (0-6).
- Pairs (10 min): Table B lists four leader replies to statements 4, 5, 9 and 10. Mark each reply: helpful, harmful or neutral, and say which stage it answers. Rewrite one harmful reply.
- Trios, three rounds of 6 min (20 min): HEAR role play with the cards in Table C. One is the leader, one is the colleague, one observes with the checklist. Colleague roles: statement 4, statement 9 and statement 10. Rotate.
- Part B, alone (25 min): Table D gives five sample staff profiles. For each write the stuck ADKAR stage, the concern stage and ONE action this week. Then write a concerns card for your own school (the open sentence and two prompts) and a plan for how you will sort and answer the cards.
- Whole group (10 min): each trio shares one reply that surprised them by working better or worse than expected. The facilitator lists them on the board under helpful and harmful.
- Alone (5 min): write your leadership task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which statement was hardest to place, and what did you need to know to decide?
- When you were the colleague, what did the leader say that made you want to help, or to stop talking?
- Which person in your school is stuck at Awareness or Desire, while you keep offering training?
Reflect
- Which colleague's doubt did you once dismiss that later turned out to be right?
- What is fixed in your change and what is open, and have you said so clearly?
- How do you want to be treated when you disagree with a change at work?
Try it tomorrow
- Make a private ADKAR grid for five colleagues affected by your change and choose one action for the amber or red you see most.
- Give out a concerns card to ten colleagues, sort the answers by stage and write one reply to the biggest group.
- In your next difficult talk, say only the echo sentence first, and check whether the person says 'yes, exactly'.
Further reading and links
Find the first stage where a person is stuck, answer the concern you hear and give an honest small next step.