How to Measure Readiness for Change

 

 The podcast episode of this post is available at Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts and Spotify.

So, what is the one thing I recommend you do to measure readiness for change when you are short of time?

DO THIS:

Require leaders to confirm that their teams are prepared to take on the change.

BY DOING THIS:

– Define what people must know and be able to do at each checkpoint in the change plan

– Ask leaders to confirm that their teams have met these requirements

– Get leaders to sign off that their team members are ready to progress to the next phase

of preparation

The biggest question to answer before people take on a change is, “Are they prepared to do so?” You must confirm they have the required knowledge and skills for each phase of preparation because learning is cumulative: the preparation for one phase is a necessary foundation for the next.

The first step of measuring employees’ readiness for change is to define what people must know and do at each checkpoint in the project plan. Provide leaders with a list of questions that measures the criteria for each checkpoint. A simple traffic light rating system – green for “ready,” yellow for “needs some support” and red for “needs extensive support” – works well. Finally, requesting leaders’ sign off on their team’s readiness, either in writing or verbally at a checkpoint review meeting, lends credibility to the assessment and gives leaders ownership of the change and “skin-in-the-game.”

KNOWLEDGE BITES:

 

 

READINESS ASSESSMENT TOOL: Do people have the knowledge and skills required to pass the checkpoint?

 

SUCCESS TIP:

“Yes or no” assessment questions are the best because they remove the middling answers, e.g. Do employees know how to get help at go-live?