The gap is the distance between hearing about a change and doing the work the new way. People learn a change on their first real attempt, and if that attempt goes badly, they go back to what they know. A short guide and ten minutes of practice are usually enough to make the first try work.

A tool that supports it

Transition Support is a way of acting, and a few tools can guide it. One of the best known is “ADKAR,” the change model from Prosci.

ADKAR names five things a person needs to change, one after the other. Awareness is understanding why the change is needed. Desire is deciding to take part. Knowledge is knowing how to do it. Ability is doing it in real work, and Reinforcement keeps the new way in place.

This Practice covers Knowledge and Ability. The model is useful because it keeps those two apart. A person can sit through a full training and still freeze on the first real task, so the support has to reach the moment of doing.

When to use it

Use it between the announcement and the first day of the new way. It fits any change that asks people to do something different with their hands, like a new tool or a new form. A common signal comes right after the announcement, when someone agrees with the change and then asks, “So where do I click?”

It assumes people already know why the change is happening. When one person is still stuck after the group session, sit down with them one on one.

How to use it

  1. Pick the first real task people will do the new way.
  2. Write a guide for that one task. Keep it to a page, with numbered steps.
  3. In a meeting the team already has, ask everyone to do the task once with the guide open.
  4. Watch where people stop, and fix the guide on the spot. The hard part is keeping your hands off the keyboard while they try.
  5. Tell people where to get help during the first week.

Example

A team of twelve is moving its expense reports to a new app on Monday.

The usual way “The new expense app goes live Monday. You’ll find the vendor’s manual in the shared drive.”
The Practice “The new expense app goes live Monday. I wrote a one-page guide for filing a receipt. Let’s each file one real receipt right now, and I’ll fix the guide wherever it’s unclear.”

By the end of the second meeting, all twelve people have used the app once, on something real.

Phrases you can use

  • “Here’s a one-page guide for the first thing you’ll do in the new system.”
  • “Let’s try it together now, with a real case.”
  • “Where did you get stuck? I’ll add that to the guide.”
  • “You drive, and I’ll watch.”
  • “For the first week, questions go in this channel, and I’ll answer the same day.”
  • For a leader, when someone does it: “That guide got the whole team through the first try. What should the next one cover?”

How to know it worked

Count how many people finish the first task before the meeting ends. Then look at the questions that come in during the first week. If they’re about unusual cases, the basics landed. Over time, people on the team start writing the quick guide for the next change themselves.

In a Skill Deck Track on Change Management, a person can choose this Practice, and the meetings they already have show when they use it.

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