Making Changes Stick
By Adina Russell, Oct 22 2025
Cross-posted to the Skeleton Key Strategies blog
I’ve been supporting organizations and departments through major change for close to a decade, creating new workflows, transitioning outdated systems to ones that seemingly fit a need.
But no matter how well I thought I planned a project or campaign for success, something always seemed to get in the way.
Eventually, I realized these obstacles had little to do with the quality of the systems and processes themselves, but how we use them—and how change affects every single person involved differently. It was only then that I understood: how we change together as a collective hinges more upon individual change than anything else.
What Makes Change Sustainable?
Throughout a career devoted to achieving lasting social change, I often harped on the concept of “sustainability.” I’d say to myself (and many others): yes, we all want to achieve some kind of change—personally, socially, politically—but how can that change be sustained? How do we prevent ourselves from falling back into the same bad habits?
Although I had been engaging in practical change management, I wasn’t introduced to a formal “change management” practice until joining Skeleton Key Strategies. Principals Simone and Justin supported me in pursuing formal training through ProSci.
I was humbled to realize that the way I was traditionally taught to plan, execute, and analyze projects was missing this major element: Change Management. The training took what I’d learned on the ground—guiding teams, aligning stakeholders, helping people adapt—and gave it language, structure, and a framework I could apply at scale. I’m excited to lead change initiatives with this structured approach, using individual success as the litmus test for a successful project and data to back it up.
The ProSci Methodology
Change management is a customizable framework for supporting individuals through obstacles, clearing the way for both project and individual success—with sustainability as the guiding star.
You always hear the phrase “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” This is a great way of thinking about change that involves a group of people. The ProSci methodology for change management allows you to adjust your approach based on where the first weaknesses (or risks) appear in your “chain” of people.
The ProSci methodology provides structured ways to assess individual readiness (through frameworks like “A.D.K.A.R” Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement), measure project health, and track progress across three general phases: Prepare the approach, Manage the change, and Sustain the outcome.
Rewriting Project Goals Through a Change Management Lens
In project management roles, we’re often taught to focus on managing stakeholders and keeping projects on track to achieve the goals set for us.
The problem? These goals are usually not people-focused. They’re typically metrics for increased revenue, user adoption, or workflow optimization. While these are all valid goals, they don’t center around the primary factor that determines whether they’ll succeed: people.
A strategy built without including those who will be most impacted is doomed to create a future state where success is not fully realized or fails completely.
Rewritten through a change management lens, traditional goals become far more actionable.
For instance, instead of a general organizational goal to “increase revenue,” a goal might become: “Drive adoption of new processes and tools that enable teams to identify and capitalize on revenue opportunities more effectively.”
Instead of “increase user adoption,” a goal could expand to: “Increase user adoption through targeted communication, training, and engagement strategies that build confidence and competence with the new system or process.”
See the difference? This level of specificity builds the change management plan for you, and forces you to identify what specific obstacles your team is facing and what strategies would best address those obstacles. It removes the trial-and-error guesswork that often comes with goals written by individuals who aren’t involved in the day-to-day work and don’t have the same frame of reference as those who will be directly impacted.
Change management, in conjunction with the principle of appreciative inquiry, puts us in a unique position to help stakeholders identify not only blockers but also opportunities, and build a plan to address them at the onset. This on-the-ground approach ensures the foundation for success is laid before the project even begins.
Why This Matters for Your Operations Overhaul
Change is scary, but it can also be healing. We all know that person who hates change; in some cases, it might be you, reading this article. Despite that feeling, we all know change is necessary, and when done well, it can lead to something transformational.
When you begin the process of overhauling workflows, rewriting policies, and generally changing the way people work day-to-day, there will always be resistance. It’s how we respond to that resistance that makes all the difference.
When people begin to ask, “Why are we changing?” the answer is usually simple: what we’re doing now isn’t working. They ask, “Well, what if this new way of working is worse than what we’re doing now?” and we’ve all heard the saying “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know”, and while a familiar process might be comforting, if it is not moving you in the direction of your goals, it is not sustainable.
When we work together to address and calm these fears upfront, and learn about what is distracting you from your actual role, you will remember what it was like to be energized by your work again.
At Russell & Co, Admin Partners, we do just that. We work with you to understand your and your colleagues’ needs. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but there are ways to adjust a standard practice to each individual to make it work within their capacity and expertise.
We listen…. We hear your worries and concerns about the future of your role, your organization, your company, your firm, your industry. We meet you where you’re at and ask a question we collectively answer, “How do we get to where we want to be”, and begin planning to make that vision a reality.
We are your partners. And while every partnership includes comprehensive and intentional support, great partnerships work to make you even greater people.
If you’re ready to embark on that journey with us, let’s chat and start the conversation that will begin that partnership.
Send us a message at info@russelladminpartners.com or use the contact form. We can’t wait to begin!
