ADKAR in Action: How a Team Leader Rolled Out New Project-Management Software Without a Revolt

    A step-by-step look at how the ADKAR change model turns a dreaded software rollout into a team win — and why the Change Catalyst trait on your Winning Kite depends on this exact skill.

    ADKAR in Action: How a Team Leader Rolled Out New Project-Management Software Without a Revolt

    ADKAR in Action: How a Team Leader Rolled Out New Project-Management Software Without a Revolt

    Every team leader in India has lived this moment: management approves a new project-management tool, sends a company-wide email with a login link, and then wonders three weeks later why half the team is still updating status on WhatsApp. The tool wasn't the problem. The change management was. This is the story of how the ADKAR model turns that exact scenario around — and why it belongs to Trait #24, Change Catalyst, on your Winning Kite.

    In short

    Where this sits on your Winning Kite

    Change Catalyst is Trait #24 on the EQ — left — side of your Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework). It's deliberately the second-last EQ trait in the book, because it's cumulative: a change catalyst needs self-awareness to know why people are resisting, empathy to feel their anxiety, communication skill to explain the "why," and resilience to survive the messy middle. Change Catalyst is EQ maturity applied to motion — not standing still, but leading people through the discomfort of doing something new.

    The Change Catalyst competence, in one line

    A change catalyst is someone who initiates or manages change. The competence is about recognising when change is needed and taking action to make it happen. It includes all of the previous 23 competencies on the EQ side — which means the more of those qualities you build, the stronger your change leadership becomes. People with this competence identify the need for change, remove the obstacles blocking progress, and lead others in pursuit of it. Companies today value this skill more than almost any other, because they are constantly reorganising, merging, acquiring, and going global.

    I've seen this play out at scale in Indian business. When Salil Parekh took over as CEO of Infosys, he faced a rapidly changing IT services market and intensifying global competition. He acted as a catalyst for change — reshaping the business model, driving growth, and moving the company up in the market. Ratan Tata, as chairman of Tata Group, did the same on an even bigger canvas: he diversified the group's businesses and expanded them globally, turning Tata into one of India's largest and most respected conglomerates. Neither of them did this with authority alone. Being a change catalyst takes emotional skill — the ability to persuade, stay committed, stay motivated, take initiative, and remain optimistic when the outcome isn't guaranteed yet.

    And it isn't only a boardroom skill. In 2007, the Indian cricket team was knocked out in the first round of the World Cup — a humiliating defeat. The BCCI brought in Gary Kirsten, a former South African cricketer, as coach. Kirsten understood the need for change and got to work building trust and credibility with a dressing room that included Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan, and Harbhajan Singh. He read each player's strengths and weaknesses and tailored his coaching to get the best out of them individually. Four years later, that same team won the 2011 World Cup for the first time in 28 years — Dhoni hitting the winning six, Yuvraj Singh named Player of the Tournament. Kirsten's ability to lead change and build a winning culture was the difference. He wasn't the most skilled batsman or bowler in that setup. He was the catalyst.

    None of these leaders needed to be inventors or innovators. A transformational leader doesn't have to come up with the new idea — they have to make people want to follow it. That's the piece most rollouts get wrong.

    Becoming a Change Catalyst: the ADKAR Model

    The ADKAR Model, developed by Jeff Hiatt, is a practical framework for managing change at the individual level. It has five components: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. Where most change frameworks focus on the process — the Gantt chart, the rollout plan, the go-live date — ADKAR focuses on the person going through it. And that's exactly where software rollouts, restructurings, and process changes usually fall apart in Indian workplaces: leaders plan the process brilliantly and forget that a human being has to willingly walk through five distinct psychological stages before the change actually sticks.

    Here's how the ADKAR Model plays out in a completely ordinary, completely familiar workplace situation: a team leader introducing new project-management software.

    1. Awareness — of the need for change

    The team leader communicates the reasons for adopting the new project-management software: improved efficiency, better collaboration, streamlined processes. They provide data and concrete examples that demonstrate the benefits of the change. This is not a one-line email announcement. It's a conversation that answers the question every team member is silently asking: why are we doing this, and why now? Skip this stage and everything downstream becomes harder — because people who don't understand the "why" default to suspicion.

    2. Desire — to support and participate in the change

    Awareness tells people what's happening. Desire is what makes them want to be part of it. To build desire, the team leader addresses individual concerns directly and emphasises the positive impact the change will have on each person's own work — not just the team's KPI dashboard. They highlight how the new software makes daily tasks easier, saves time, and contributes to professional growth. This is the emotional-intelligence stage: it requires listening to what each team member actually fears losing, and reframing the change around what they personally gain.

    3. Knowledge — of how to change

    Desire without capability just creates frustrated people. The team leader arranges training sessions and resources to help the team learn the new software properly — not a rushed 20-minute demo, but real, hands-on sessions. They also identify "change champions" within the team — early adopters who pick it up fast and can support their colleagues informally. This peer-support layer often does more work than any formal training session, because a teammate asking "stuck? let me show you" removes the embarrassment of admitting confusion to a manager.

    4. Ability — to implement the change

    Knowledge is theoretical; ability is doing it under real deadline pressure. During the transition period, the team leader actively monitors the team's progress, identifies obstacles as they surface, and provides additional support — one-on-one coaching, troubleshooting, extra training for anyone still struggling. This is the messy middle of every change effort, where old habits keep pulling people back to the familiar spreadsheet or the WhatsApp status update. A change catalyst stays present through this stage rather than declaring victory after the training session and walking away.

    5. Reinforcement — to sustain the change

    The final stage is where most rollouts quietly fail — not because the change didn't work, but because nobody kept reinforcing it after week two. The team leader recognises and celebrates the team's early wins with the new software, addresses lingering issues quickly, and integrates the new tool into the team's daily routine so it becomes the default, not the exception. They gather ongoing feedback to identify further improvements and make sure the change is sustained rather than quietly abandoned once attention moves elsewhere.

    By applying the ADKAR Model this deliberately, the team leader acts as a genuine change catalyst — guiding the team through the discomfort of change and ensuring the new project-management software actually gets used, not just installed. The model's five clear steps are exactly why it's such a valuable tool across a huge range of workplace scenarios — software rollouts, new reporting structures, office relocations, restructured teams, even a shift in company culture.

    What great change catalysts have in common

    According to Mary Shapiro, a professor at the Simmons School of Management, technical expertise is essential for a change leader, but emotional intelligence matters just as much. Effective change catalysts know themselves well, have real empathy, communicate clearly, can adapt and bounce back, and understand the organisation's strategic goals. Vineet Nayar, former CEO of HCL Technologies and author of Employees First, Customers Second, adds that an effective change catalyst inspires and empowers people to drive change themselves — building a culture of trust and openness, giving employees a voice, and creating room for people to experiment and learn rather than simply comply.

    I saw this quality up close in Mr. Pratik Jayant Patil, whom I met at the Islampur Business Forum. Despite coming from a prominent political family — his father, Jayant Patil, is a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra — Pratik chose entrepreneurship and philanthropy over the expected path of political prestige and power. He founded the Islampur Business Forum to give local entrepreneurs a platform to collaborate and mutually grow their ventures. What struck me during our interactions was that he was a constant learner, always open to new ideas that could bring positive change, humble and down-to-earth despite his background. He led by example, recognised the need for change in his community, drove it forward with conviction, and supported others through the process. That's the Change Catalyst trait, lived outside a boardroom.

    The same instinct shows up at Kiran Gems, one of the world's largest natural diamond manufacturers. I was invited as a keynote speaker to their Women's Day celebration at the Sahara Hotel, Mumbai, in March 2023, where I met several of their leaders. The company was founded in 1985 by Mr. Vallabhbhai Patel, Mr. Babubhai Patel, and Mr. Mavjibhai Patel, starting from diamond manufacturing operations in Mumbai. Its growth into a global No. 1 player rests on a willingness to change and adapt, rooted in trust, integrity, and ethics. Mr. Dinesh Lakhani, a Director who entered the business at 17 and worked through every department, is known for his problem-solving ability and his role in formulating and implementing strategy across the group's marketing, global sales, and distribution. Alongside Mavjibhai Patel as Managing Director and Rajesh Lakhani as Director, this leadership team continuously pushed the boundaries of what was possible in the diamond industry — embracing new technologies, ideas, and approaches to take Kiran Gems from a small manufacturing operation to a global leader.

    A change catalyst doesn't have to be an innovator

    It's worth separating two things people often confuse: coming up with the new idea, and getting people to actually adopt it. Transformational leaders inspire followers by appealing to their emotions and their sense of meaning, painting a picture of the new destination that people feel emotionally invested in — not just told to comply with. Consider a hypothetical but very familiar scenario: a large company's manufacturing plant in Bangalore is being relocated to Pune for cost, logistics, or market reasons. This triggers real upheaval — employees who've built their lives around Bangalore now face relocation, disrupted routines, and uncertainty about their careers. The company doesn't need someone who invented a smarter factory layout. It needs a change catalyst: someone with the self-awareness, empathy, communication skill, adaptability, and resilience to help people process the change and see how the move benefits both the company and their own career growth — someone who creates a culture of trust and transparency, gives employees a voice in the transition, and makes room for questions rather than shutting them down.

    That's the same discipline as the software rollout, just at a bigger scale. The tool, the location, the org chart — these all change. What decides whether the change succeeds is always the same five-stage human journey: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement.

    Practical takeaway for your next rollout

    The next time you're introducing anything new to your team — a tool, a process, a reporting line — resist the urge to jump straight to training. Walk through ADKAR deliberately: explain the why before the how, listen for what each person fears losing before you ask them to gain something new, train properly and identify champions, stay present through the awkward middle weeks, and keep reinforcing the change long after the launch email is forgotten. That's not project management. That's Trait #24 of the Winning Kite in practice — Change Catalyst — and it's a skill any manager can build, one rollout at a time.

    If you want to build this and the other 24 EQ traits systematically across your leadership team, explore Avinash Chate's Signature Programs or the full list of Corporate Training Topics.

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    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the ADKAR model in change management?

    ADKAR is a five-stage individual change model developed by Jeff Hiatt: Awareness of the need for change, Desire to support it, Knowledge of how to change, Ability to implement it, and Reinforcement to sustain it. It focuses on the person going through the change, not just the process being rolled out.

    Why do employees resist new software at work?

    Most resistance isn't about the tool — it's about the unknown. People fear looking incompetent, losing efficiency during the learning curve, or having their workflow disrupted without being asked. Skipping the Awareness and Desire stages of ADKAR and jumping straight to "here's your login" is the single biggest cause of rollout failure.

    How is ADKAR connected to being a Change Catalyst?

    Change Catalyst is Trait #24 of the 25 Emotional Intelligence competencies in the Winning Kite framework. ADKAR is the practical, five-step toolkit a Change Catalyst uses to actually execute change at the individual level — it turns the abstract trait into a repeatable Monday-morning process.

    Can ADKAR be used for changes bigger than software rollouts?

    Yes. ADKAR was built for individual change and scales to team and organisational change — plant relocations, restructuring, mergers, new reporting structures, or culture shifts. Any time you're asking people to work differently than they did yesterday, the same five stages apply.

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