How to Use a Readiness Assessment For Change Management

Over 50% of executives stated in a recent report that their organizations were not fully prepared to respond to change. Undertaking change initiatives that are too resource-intensive or complex for an organization can lead to failed transformations and wasted resources.

To prevent this, change professionals must accurately assess an organization's current state and readiness for change.

By assessing change readiness, practitioners can gauge whether a change initiative will be successful or whether additional resources and support are needed. They also gain vital data that helps create a comprehensive change strategy.

In this article, we'll explain what a readiness assessment for change management is and then list the steps to conduct this assessment at your organization.

What is a Change Readiness Assessment?

Change readiness is the level to which an organization is prepared, willing and able to implement change. This concept has three elements:

• Organizational readiness – This covers factors like having a change infrastructure, available resources, a committed sponsor and clear objectives for the change.
• Open attitudes toward change – This measures the organization's level of understanding and willingness to change. These attitudes affect success with employee resistance management, which should be based on building change readiness.
• Individual readiness – This aspect measures if individuals, on a personal level, are ready, willing and able to embrace and implement change.

A change readiness assessment is a systematic evaluation of an organization's preparedness for implementing significant changes. It examines critical areas of the organization like culture, awareness, employee readiness and leadership commitment.

Practitioners use the information from readiness assessments to help in change management planning. With the information they obtain, they can prepare a change management strategy that fits both the change and the organization's unique needs. This includes:

• Selecting a change management governance model and team size
• Selecting a Sponsorship Model and support system
• Assessing the risks and identifying potential obstacles
• Determining if any unique tactics are necessary to support this change
• Customizing the Communications Plan, Training Plan, People Manager Plan and Sponsor Plan

Organizational readiness assessments, as part of a structured change management approach, also help identify potential risks and root causes of resistance so practitioners can create plans to better equip the organization.

This is crucial in an era where 52% of executives and 43% of employees felt that their organizations were not adequately prepared for change.

As organizations recognize the importance of being adequately prepared for change, the role of data collection becomes integral in readiness assessments.

Data collection for readiness assessments

When the change is led by an internal team, including managers from different departments, the data required for readiness assessments might be easier to collect. Managers might already have the needed insights about the change's characteristics and organizational attributes. You may only need to collect a subset of employee data to augment the existing team knowledge.

However, most modern organizations work with external change practitioners, who are experts in their field, to create an efficient change implementation process. These advisors guide the entire change management function by implementing a comprehensive framework, like the Prosci Methodology.

Change practitioners collect data using multiple models and assessment tools, including the ADKAR® Blueprint, risk assessments, employee and manager interviews, and surveys.

How to Effectively Conduct a Readiness Assessment for Organizational Change

Although every organization has unique requirements while assessing its change readiness, you can use the following steps as a general guide for your readiness assessment:

1. Assess the change

The first step in a readiness assessment is defining the scope, depth, and overall size of the change. This assessment should address:

• Type of change – Identify whether the change involves processes, technology, organizational structures, job roles, mergers or strategic redirection.
• Scope of the change – Determine whether the change affects a workgroup, department, division or the entire enterprise.
• Number of employees impacted – Assess how many individuals the change will directly and indirectly affect.
• Amount of change – Evaluate how significant the change is compared to the current state.

This initial change management assessment lays the groundwork for developing a targeted change strategy. Practitioners must go beyond the basics and deeply understand how the change will impact employees and stakeholders.

Prosci's 10 aspects of change impact empower practitioners to focus, dissect, and document an individual's journey through transition. This framework covers 10 crucial factors of an employee's experience that are affected by change, including: 

Processes – The steps or actions needed to achieve specific outcomes, such as changes in client engagement protocols. 

Systems – The integration of people and technology to meet objectives, exemplified by the implementation of a new CRM system. 

Tools – The specific items or implements used, which can be physical objects or technical tools.

Job Roles – The responsibilities and competencies required, like shifts in client service duties.

Critical Behaviors – The vital or essential responses of an individual or group to an action, environment, person or stimulus.

Mindset/Attitude/Beliefs – The mental inclinations, dispositions, or frames of mind reflected in behaviors, such as transitioning from a transactional to a relational customer service approach.

Reporting Structure – The authority relationships in a company or organization; who reports to whom.

Performance Reviews – The process and indicators of how performance is measured and assessed relative to objectives.

Compensation – The monetary and nonmonetary rewards, such as adjustments in bonus plans.

Location – The physical geographical place that provides facilities for a stated purpose.

By assessing these aspects, practitioners can better understand how changes impact employees, facilitating smoother transitions and higher adoption rates. This detailed focus ensures that each element of the change is addressed, leading to more effective change management outcomes. 

2. Assess leadership styles and identify sponsors

Because sponsorship and management support is a top factor for successful change, it’s important to thoroughly assess the leadership styles and power distribution in your organization.

Contributors to Success Over Time

Change teams must examine senior leadership and managers to determine whether they’re committed to change, equipped to lead it, and capable of motivating others to embrace new ways of working.

Assessing executives and managers also helps identify the primary sponsor who will lead the change. A coalition of sponsors representing different groups of impacted individuals supports the primary sponsor.

Practitioners can also have one-on-one interviews with leaders and managers to gather insights into readiness and current processes, systems and hierarchy. This data can help identify potential obstacles and root causes of resistance.

3. Analyze organizational culture

Culture and value systems play a major role in how an organization reacts to change. In our Best Practices in Change Management – 12th Edition report, 87% of participants said cultural awareness was important or very important to a change management initiative. 

Importance of Organizational Culture Awareness

Recognizing the influence of cultural dimensions can guide practitioners in tailoring their change management strategies effectively.

There are six primary cultural dimensions that impact change management: assertiveness, individualism versus collectivism, emotional expressiveness, power distance, performance orientation and uncertainty avoidance.

Assessing these prevailing norms, values and behaviors can help practitioners understand how an organization might react to change. This, in turn, allows practitioners to prepare strategies for engagement and effective communication.

For example, in organizations with a culture of low assertiveness, communication about change often becomes indirect and ambiguous. This can hinder effective engagement, as feedback mechanisms may fail to encourage direct and honest discussions, leading individuals to shy away from addressing challenging topics.

By identifying these challenges early, practitioners can proactively develop strategies to address them. This foresight allows for tailoring communications and other change management plans, significantly enhancing the likelihood of achieving successful outcomes.

4. Examine organizational change capacity

Organizations have a limited capacity for change. If your organization is already experiencing significant change, introducing additional changes can become increasingly challenging.

Change saturation occurs when organizations simultaneously implement change initiatives without adequate planning and prioritization. When employees are bombarded with changes without proper guidance from leadership, it leads to change fatigue, negative work culture, poor adoption, and increased employee turnover.

To prevent this, you can work with expert change professionals to implement the Prosci Change Management Portfolio process. A change management portfolio is a structured approach to managing multiple change initiatives simultaneously, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and efficient resource allocation. The change management team can also use other strategies for reducing change saturation, such as creating, scrutinizing and prioritizing initiatives to mitigate saturation.

Practitioners should also examine previous change management experiences. Past changes may have left residual effects that could work in their favor or make change management more challenging. Your organization's history is part of your starting point when managing change.

5. Focus on employee readiness

Employee readiness gauges how prepared and able employees are for change. It also indicates whether you can expect high or low employee resistance, and the root causes behind the resistance. Understanding these factors is crucial for tailoring your approach to effectively manage and support your people through transitions.

Implement employee data-gathering carefully and in context with a good change management framework. When collecting data, three areas are important:

• Employee perceptions of the organization's readiness for change
• Employee personal readiness for change in general
• Employee understanding of the change itself and how they perceive the personal impact of that change

The last area must be timed carefully with the overall change management communications plan and the project team's readiness with details about the change. In particular, they will need to answer "What's in it for me?" (WIIFM) questions from employees, who first assess change in terms of personal impacts before relating to the broader effects on the organization.

The ADKAR Assessment, which leverages the Prosci ADKAR Model, is an excellent readiness assessment tool for collecting employee data and identifying gaps in the individual change process.

Prosci ADKAR Model

The ADKAR Assessment is a questionnaire or survey that addresses every element of our ADKAR Model. It is distributed to all impacted individuals. Practitioners use this data to identify common trends, barrier points, and patterns that highlight gaps.

These insights enable change teams to develop targeted solutions that address gaps and support individual transitions, ultimately leading to the successful implementation of organizational change.

6.  Understand the predisposition of people managers 

In many organizations, people managers can have a high degree of control over their peers and employees. They may be strong leaders or feared by others. 

They directly influence employee attitudes toward a change and play a significant role in the change management process. Our research shows that mid-level managers were the most resistant group, followed by front-line employees.

Most Resistant Groups

While a lack of awareness primarily drives employee resistance, managers often resist change due to:

• Organizational culture issues, like risk-averse cultures or past negative experiences
• A lack of awareness and knowledge about change
• A belief that the change is a poor solution or that it will fail
• Misalignment of project goals and personal incentives, and problems with the project team
• An inability to be a leader of change and manage the people side of change

Practitioners can use the ADKAR Blueprint and other methods to assess managers and anticipate root causes of barrier points. By addressing these barriers, they can prevent resistance.

With this data, they can create a plan to address concerns and turn managers into change advocates. For example, they can use a People Manager Plan to prepare managers to fulfill their CLARC roles.

7. Assess communication

Clear communication helps ensure everyone understands the goals of the change initiative, their roles in achieving them, and the metrics being used to measure success.

Practitioners must assess the communications strategy to ensure that it:

• Is structured
• Is transparent
• Is customized for different employee groups
• Delivers through multiple channels
• Provides answers to employee questions
• Creates an open dialogue

To adequately assess your communication tactics, Prosci has a high-level 10-point Communications Checklist that you can use as your starting point to develop a more comprehensive Communications Plan.

8. Analyze the data and assess change readiness

Once all data has been collected, it's essential to thoroughly analyze it to evaluate the organization's change readiness. This involves reviewing information gathered from the various assessments, including the ADKAR Assessment, leadership evaluations, cultural analyses, and employee readiness surveys. By doing so, you can:

Identify readiness levels – Determine the organization's overall preparedness, willingness, and ability to implement change. This includes assessing both organizational and individual readiness to identify potential strengths and weaknesses.

Spot trends and patterns – Look for common trends, barrier points, and patterns that may indicate areas needing attention. This could involve identifying prevalent resistance factors or cultural dimensions that might impact the change process.

Develop targeted strategies – Use the insights gained from the data to develop targeted strategies that address identified gaps. This might include enhancing communication plans, refining leadership support, or tailoring employee engagement efforts.

By systematically analyzing the data and implementing these strategies, you can effectively enhance the organization's readiness for change, ensuring a smoother transition and greater success in achieving desired outcomes.

Use the Prosci Readiness Assessments to Build an Effective Change Strategy

Conducting organizational readiness assessments with the right change management framework can be useful for planning your change management strategy. It also enables the project team to make informed decisions about their approach. It's important to understand that the assessment process is a planning aid, not the bulk of the change management effort. As tools that help your team plan for the change, assessments should consume minimal time—just enough to inform good planning decisions.