Organizational Change Readiness Assessment

In the Apprentice Stage, the organization considers the people side of the change and attempts to implement a change plan. However, there is no consistent change approach or toolkit, and the effort stalls a few weeks into the initiative. Leadership gives lip service to the importance of the people. They provide a perfunctory status update at all-hands meetings, falsely believing that the management levels below will reinforce the message.

The Apprentice Stage renews focus on a change management process as a last resort, which is too late. There needs to be a greater focus on equipping leaders with change leadership skills so that change initiatives can be proactively guided to success.

Your company realizes solid change capabilities are essential to success. However, leadership has failed to realize the benefits of a proactive change approach. Your next steps could include:

• Communicate the change vision. Educate your change advocates on your shared understanding of what organizational change means to your company.
• Introduce a consistent change framework. Define basic change roles, responsibilities, and communication flows for any initiative.
• Train and empower your managers. Encourage all managerial roles to take the Change Leadership Self-Assessment. Follow up with targeted development to enhance their change leadership skills.
• Start small and build credibility. Select one area or team to implement structured organizational change and share measurable results.

In the Journeyman Stage, the organization acknowledges that its failure to proactively lead change initiatives has yielded lackluster results. The leadership team has appointed a task force or arranged for individuals to attend change management training with the intention of introducing a consistent approach and toolkit throughout the organization. The newly appointed change advocates are introduced in a series of meetings.

However, the results are inconsistent with executive sponsorship’s vision and commitment to institutionalizing the change approach.

Yet, pockets of the organization have “seen the light” and started to adopt a consistent change approach. Things are looking up.

• Make change leadership a core competency. Evaluate the outcomes of the Change Leadership Self-Assessment and formalize the development of these skills in performance planning.
• Increase executive visibility. Encourage leaders to actively support change through clear messaging, role modeling, and accountability.
• Amplify a success story. Let the broader organization understand how your consistent organizational change processes, roles, and tools have achieved sustainable results.
• Develop a phased change roadmap. Build a forward-looking view of anticipated or planned initiatives and align resources to support them early.

In the Expert Stage, a concerted effort has been made to embed change competencies throughout the organization. Characteristics such as adaptability and resilience are celebrated, and prospective employees are evaluated for these traits.

As a result, continuous improvement is a way of life, and all levels of the organization are empowered to identify challenges and bring solutions.

The organization has also fostered a culture of resilience and adaptability, giving it a competitive edge.

Beware: It is easy to relax and shift focus away from the behaviors that got your organization this far. Without a concerted effort to continuously improve change capabilities, soon you will hear:

• But we crushed it last time.
• Don’t fix what’s not broken.
• This worked before.

Pay attention; those are the whispers of our nemesis, the status quo.

• Scale and standardize what’s working. Formalize your change processes and toolkits so success isn’t dependent on a few key people.
• Empower change leaders. Identify leaders across departments who can mentor others and champion future initiatives. Continue to provide change development programs to keep these advocates engaged.
• Advance to proactive change readiness. Use internal data and feedback loops (e.g., internal surveys and pulse checks) to anticipate change fatigue and adapt your approach accordingly.
• Continue to share change stories. It is important for the organization to understand both success and failures so that change capabilities continue to strengthen. Don’t take your foot off the gas.
• Don’t take your foot off the gas. Continue to challenge yourself, learn, improve, and grow.