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Frank Awuku
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Change Adoption

What needs to become normal after the change?

A programme can introduce a new system, process or structure. Whether it pays off depends on what your teams do with it on an ordinary Tuesday, long after go-live.

Talk about your change Ways to work together
01Make the change specific

“Work differently” needs a practical meaning.

What will someone decide, do or hand over differently? What should a team be able to do together that it cannot do today?

Clear expectations make it easier to see whether a team is ready. They also help people see the link between their own work and the result you are after.

For example

A restructure gives two teams a shared responsibility. Adoption is how they make decisions together, settle disagreements and act on that responsibility in everyday work.

02Readiness

Readiness begins before launch.

Your teams need to understand the change, have time to learn and know where to get help.

They also need a process, a system and a set of responsibilities that support the new way of working.

When several initiatives land on the same team, the combined workload matters. A plan that makes sense on paper can become hard to deliver when it meets everything else that team is carrying.

AI-enabled change

AI makes these questions especially visible. A useful pilot still needs a dependable place in the workflow: clear responsibilities, the right level of review, a route for exceptions and evidence that the output is useful.

The same attention belongs in changes to processes, structures and team relationships.

03A practical lens

Four questions I bring to the work.

They give every engagement a practical starting point, whatever the change.

  1. 01 · Result

    What result are we trying to achieve?

    Agree the intended outcome and the assumptions behind it.

  2. 02 · Practice

    What needs to change in everyday practice?

    Name the behaviours, tasks, decisions and handovers the outcome depends on.

  3. 03 · Conditions

    What makes that change possible?

    Examine capability, capacity, incentives, authority, tools and support. Listen to the people doing the work.

  4. 04 · Evidence

    What will tell us whether it is working?

    Look at use, quality and outcomes together, then act on what the evidence shows.

04The life of a change

Adoption is won or lost after go‑live.

  • Engagement, when teams are ready and supported
  • Engagement, left to chance
05The RISE framework

Four phases that help your teams rise to the change.

Too much change is done to teams. A new system arrives, training is booked and people are told to adopt it. RISE turns that around, so your teams rise to meet the change and help drive it themselves.

Each phase runs alongside the delivery plan, on the same stages as the chart above. Each one answers a question your teams are already asking, and deals with the problems that appear when nobody answers it.

The dip after go-live is not fate. It is the bill for work skipped earlier.

The four RISE phases, Readying, Involving, Supporting and Embedding, aligned to six delivery stages: business case, design, training, go-live, month three and year one.

  1. Readying

    Alongside: Business case · Design

    Are my teams ready to work in a different way?

    What it feels like

    • Nobody on the floor can say what changes for them yet.
    • Leaders describe the change in three different ways.
    • The same teams are already carrying two other projects.

    What this phase does

    We get specific about what changes for each team, and test readiness with the people doing the work, not only the steering group. Leaders agree one clear account of why. We look honestly at what else is landing on the same teams, and make room or move the timing.

    How it makes Involving easier

    Teams start the change knowing what it means for them, so the next step has a purpose they recognise.

  2. Involving

    Alongside: Design · Training

    Are the people doing the work helping to shape it?

    What it feels like

    • Training is booked, but people do not know why it matters.
    • The design was signed off by people who will never use it.
    • Managers hear about changes at the same time as their teams.

    What this phase does

    We bring the people doing the work into design and testing, so the new way fits real tasks and handovers. Managers learn it first and explain it to their own teams. Training uses real work, and people know where to get help before they need it.

    How it makes Supporting easier

    People reach go-live having already practised the new way, with someone they trust to ask. The first week holds fewer surprises.

  3. Supporting

    Alongside: Go-live · Month three

    What is getting in the way this week, and who is fixing it?

    What it feels like

    • Go-live tickets are piling up and workarounds are spreading.
    • The project team has moved on and nobody owns the problems.
    • People are quietly using the old way to hit their numbers.

    What this phase does

    Visible help where the work happens in the first weeks. Short feedback loops with the people doing the work, to separate real faults from old habits and clear obstacles fast. Leaders see what is happening in days, not at the month-end report.

    How it makes Embedding easier

    Problems are fixed while goodwill is still there. The dip after go-live stays shallow and short, and the new way starts to feel normal.

  4. Embedding

    Alongside: Month three · Year one

    Will this still be how we work when the programme team has gone?

    What it feels like

    • Six months on, the old spreadsheet is still running in the background.
    • New starters learn the old way from the person sitting next to them.
    • Nobody can say whether the benefits are actually arriving.

    What this phase does

    Teams take ownership of the new way. We agree who owns it, set up a simple routine for feedback and review, bring new colleagues into the practice, and track use, quality and benefits to the end.

    What it leaves behind

    The new way becomes simply how the team works, and the team is better prepared for the next change.

06After launch

Adoption continues after launch.

New ways of working need an owner, feedback and attention when circumstances change.

Part of the work is helping your own people look after them and improve them, so the new way keeps working when I have gone.

07Ways to engage

Put it into practice.

Through the change 01
Advisory

Make it work, then make it last

Support for the person delivering a live change, from design to long after go-live.

Explore advisory
Before you act 02
Diagnostics

Find out what is really happening

Find out which teams are ready, and which are only saying they are, before you decide where to act.

Explore diagnostics
Start the conversation 03
Speaking and workshops

Bring Monday into the room

Give your leaders and teams a shared way to talk about the change in front of them, and to act on it.

Explore speaking

Where is your change getting stuck?

Tell me what is changing, which teams it lands on and what worries you most. A free 30-minute conversation to find a sensible first step.

Talk to Frank