SHIFT Framework vs ADKAR: What Each Approach Does Well

What ADKAR Does

ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) is a widely adopted change management framework developed by Prosci. It sequences the individual's journey through change, from understanding why the change is happening to sustaining the new behavior. It is particularly strong at structuring communication plans, sponsor engagement, and individual readiness assessment.

ADKAR provides a clear, repeatable process that change practitioners can apply across contexts. Its strength is organizational: it gives teams a shared language for tracking where individuals and groups are in the change process.

Where the Approaches Differ

ADKAR is a readiness model. SHIFT is a behavioral design model. ADKAR tracks where people are in their change journey (aware, willing, knowledgeable, able, reinforced). SHIFT diagnoses why a specific behavior is not occurring and designs an intervention to address the specific barrier.

The practical difference shows up when change stalls. ADKAR's response: assess which ADKAR element is missing (Is it awareness? Desire? Ability?) and reinforce that element. SHIFT's response: diagnose the barrier using COM-B (Is it capability, opportunity, or motivation? Which sub-category?), then select a matched intervention from 33 strategy cards that combine Behaviour Change Techniques with implementation strategies.

ADKAR asks 'where are they in the change journey?' SHIFT asks 'what is preventing this specific behavior in this specific context?' These are different questions that lead to different interventions.

How They Work Together

ADKAR provides the change program structure: sponsor roadmaps, communication plans, training deployment, reinforcement activities. SHIFT adds a diagnostic layer underneath: when ADKAR identifies that 'Ability' is the gap, SHIFT diagnoses whether that ability gap is knowledge, skill, cognitive load, physical environment, social norms, reflective beliefs, or habitual impulse. Each leads to a different strategy.

Organizations that use both effectively treat ADKAR as the program governance framework and SHIFT as the behavioral design layer that makes each ADKAR element more precise. The combination is stronger than either alone.

ADKAR tells you what stage of change readiness to focus on. SHIFT tells you what specific barrier to address and which intervention will address it. They answer different questions, and both questions matter.