Change adoption suffers when “success” means different things to different groups. Sponsors may mean benefits, project teams may mean go-live, managers may mean stable operations, and frontline employees may mean “I can do my job without workarounds.” APM distinguishes project success criteria from benefits: success criteria reflect stakeholder needs for deployment, while benefits are linked to strategic intent and beneficial change [APM]. (apm.org.uk)

Developing the criteria for success further is therefore a governance, planning, and operating model design intervention. It turns a broad change ambition into a shared, measurable definition of what people must understand, do, use, sustain, and improve. Prosci argues that a common definition of success is a prerequisite for measuring change management effectiveness and recommends defining success beyond technical implementation to include adoption and use [Prosci, 2024]. (prosci.com)

This action produces a practical “success criteria set” that can be approved, communicated, tracked, and adjusted. It usually includes business outcomes, adoption outcomes, behavior expectations, leading indicators, lagging indicators, owners, evidence sources, review cadence, and tailored message points.

Use it after the change purpose and high-level scope are known, but before major communication, training, readiness, or manager cascade activity begins. It is especially useful when objectives are vague, resistance is rising because impacts are unclear, the project is focused only on delivery milestones, or leaders are asking how adoption will be measured. PMI’s benefits realization framework reinforces the need to identify, deliver, and sustain benefits aligned to strategic goals, which makes early clarity essential [PMI, 2016]. (pmi.org)

Bring the business case, benefits map or OKRs, project scope, future-state process or tool design, impact assessment, stakeholder analysis, readiness data, training needs, risk log, and any draft KPIs. Invite the sponsor or delegate, project manager, product or process owner, change manager, data/reporting owner, communications or HR/L&D partner, impacted people managers, subject matter experts, and a small number of credible frontline representatives.

Prepare a draft criteria worksheet, an impact summary by audience, and a list of unresolved decisions. The best timing is a 60–90 minute working session once the change is defined enough to discuss behaviors, but early enough to shape communication and support. The key decisions are which outcomes matter most, what observable adoption looks like, what thresholds are realistic, who owns each measure, and what is ready to communicate.

A sales organization is implementing a new CRM. The initial success statement is “improve pipeline visibility.” In the criteria workshop, the team refines this into adoption-ready criteria: sales representatives enter qualified opportunities within 48 hours; managers review pipeline exceptions every Monday; 90% of active users log in weekly by day 30; forecast variance improves by the second full quarter; and help-desk tickets related to core workflow drop after the first month.

The communication message becomes clearer: “Success is not just launching the CRM. Success means sales teams use one source of pipeline truth, managers coach from the same data, and leaders can make earlier revenue decisions.”

McKinsey’s influence model is a useful reminder that criteria should not only measure outcomes; they should also test whether people understand the “why,” have skills, see role modeling, and experience reinforcement [McKinsey, 2016]. (mckinsey.com)

HSE guidance emphasizes that employees should receive timely information about reasons for change, likely job impact, timetables, training, and support [HSE, 2021]. (hse.gov.uk) Success criteria should therefore include the conditions that make adoption feasible, not just the outcomes leaders want.

This action is working when sponsors and managers use the same definition of success, communication materials match the agreed criteria, adoption metrics appear in governance forums, and managers can explain what “good” looks like for their teams. Strong indicators include faster adoption, higher utilization, improved proficiency, fewer avoidable workarounds, fewer repeated questions about purpose or impact, and more specific feedback about implementation barriers [Prosci, 2024; Gallup, 2020]. (prosci.com)