Framework library · Change management
Change readiness assessment
Readiness is the state of an organisation before a change starts: whether people accept the reason for it, whether someone senior will carry it, and whether there is the time, skill, money and trust to do it. Rating each dimension against the level the change needs shows which gaps to close before launch, and whether the launch date is realistic at all.
Use it when
- A significant change has been approved and you need to know what must be in place before launch.
- You are choosing a launch date and want evidence on whether the organisation can absorb the change then.
- A sponsor believes the organisation is ready and you need a structured way to test that.
Avoid it when
- The change has already launched and is stuck. Readiness looks forward. To find where a live change is stuck, use ADKAR or the Bridges transition model.
- Only the leadership team will answer. Their view of readiness is usually the most optimistic in the building. Include the people affected or treat the result as a hypothesis.
- You need to know what will change for each group. Do a change impact assessment first; readiness depends on how big the impact is.
How to run it
Name the change and its launch date
Readiness is for a specific change at a specific time. The same organisation can be ready for one change and not for another.
Rate each statement with evidence
How true is it today? Use what people say and do, recent history and the plan as it stands, not what leaders hope. Note the evidence for each dimension.
Set the level each dimension needs
A large, fast change needs more on every dimension than a small, slow one. Set the target before you look at the scores.
Find the weakest dimension and the biggest gaps
The weakest dimension is often the one that stops the change. The largest gaps against the target tell you where the work is.
Act or move the date
For each large gap, either fund an action that closes it before launch or move the launch. Launching on a known gap is a decision; write it down and give it an owner.
Work through it
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Mistakes to avoid
- Scoring the change rather than the organisation. A good change can still land on an organisation that has no capacity for it.
- Ignoring the history of change. People who have seen three programmes fade will wait for the fourth to fade too.
- Averaging away the problem. An overall score of 3 can hide one dimension at 1 that stops everything.
- Treating low readiness as a reason to communicate more. Most gaps are about capacity, skills or money, which messages do not fix.
Where it comes from
The concept was set out by Achilles Armenakis, Stanley Harris and Kevin Mossholder in "Creating Readiness for Organizational Change", Human Relations 46(6), 1993, which described readiness as people's beliefs, attitudes and intentions about the change and distinguished it from resistance. The dimensions and statements here are our own. Source.
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The frameworks here are free to use as they stand. If you would rather work through the question behind this one with us, these are the ways an engagement starts.