2.4 Organization readiness assessment
Overview
The primary objective in conducting an organization readiness assessment is to understand the organization's propensity, ability, and desire to adapt to change. It is also important to understand the organization's current culture and organizational structure as well as its desired state. This assessment helps identify strengths, barriers, and challenges in narrowing the gaps to achieving the future state.
Best practices
Before you deploy the assessment:
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Use existing employee pulse or culture surveys.
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Carefully consider the appropriate demographic data to gather.
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Choose the most suitable type of assessment for the organizational environment.
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Plan for follow-up assessments throughout the program to measure improvement.
The following table provides a list of sample questions that should be assessed on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree).
Pillar |
Sample question |
|---|---|
Leadership |
Senior management (leadership levels above my team manager) actively supports the transformation. |
Culture |
For the transformation, mistakes will be treated as opportunities to learn instead of being punished as failures. |
Training |
I have learned the necessary skills to effectively work in the new environment. |
Communications |
A clear vision has been developed and communicated to employees regarding the transformation. |
FAQ
Q. What is an organization readiness assessment?
A. It's a tool used to understand the organization's propensity, ability, and desire to adapt to change. This assessment is typically conducted through a survey.
Q. Why is it valuable?
A. It identifies opportunities and barriers, measures acceptance of change, and helps mitigate risks through action plans that support the overall objectives of the change effort.
Q. Who should be involved in this activity?
A. This activity must be conducted with the cloud leadership team, executive sponsors, and IT and business leaders.
Q. What are the inputs to this assessment?
A. Inputs include the business case, discovery phase outputs (MRA and MRP), interviews with the executive sponsor and HR team, staffing model, culture assessments, cloud strategy, and business value realization plans.
Q. What are the outputs of this assessment?
A. The primary output consists of baseline organizational readiness scores across the surveyed dimensions, along with prioritized mitigation plans that serve as inputs to the change strategy and plan.
Q. When do you conduct this assessment?
A. Conduct an organization readiness assessment at a key milestone such as a pilot application deployment. Use it periodically to measure progress and overall adoption of the change.
Q. How should you use the data from the assessment?
A. Use the findings to review the strategic vision and business case, obtain additional sponsorship, expand ownership to cross-functional leaders, invest in communications and training, and prioritize skill building.
Additional steps
To begin conducting an organization readiness assessment, follow these steps:
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Review the strategic vision and business case.
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Review historical survey data, if available.
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Obtain sponsorship approval and support.
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Determine the assessment tool and environment.
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Review the question set with the executive sponsor for alignment, and determine anonymity.
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Recruit the executive sponsor to send out the assessment.
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Draft a letter from the executive sponsor that outlines the purpose and importance of the assessment.
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Coordinate logistics (if necessary).
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Conduct the assessment.
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Compile and analyze results.
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Develop a report that covers baseline scores and mitigation plans.
