Before you start any major project or change, there are two important things to assess.

Have I mapped out the impact of this change?  Is my organization ready?

Measuring these two factors beside one another can help you understand the potential risks and to create a robust strategy before starting. 

Let’s start with mapping out the impact of the change? Here are the things I want you to ask yourself:

• What is the scope of this work? Is it limited to one group or an entire Enterprise?
• Are all groups impacted the same or will they be experiencing the change differently?
• What type of change is this? Is it a simple, single change or is this a complex change with lots of moving parts and dependencies?
• What is the degree of change to the process? To the technology and systems?
• Is restructuring involved?
• Will it change staff levels or affect compensation?
• And lastly, how much time to I have to implement this change?

Based on the above questions is this level of change low, moderate or high?

A larger disruptive change can be a riskier project, especially if your organization is not change ready.

To determine if you are change ready, ask yourself these questions?

• Does everyone know WHY we need to make this change? Are they satisfied with the current state?
• What is your history with past change? Do they team members perceive it to be positive or negative?
• Do impacted groups have the same priorities, or does it shift in different departments?
• Is the culture open and receptive to new changes?
• Are employees rewarded for risk taking or for consistency, repeatable behaviour?
• Do you have strong, active and visible sponsors at the executive and management level?

After assessing your organizational resistance, view it against the scope of your project. If you are change resistant, you will want to plan strategically, even for lower risk projects. If you are an organization that is comfortable with change, don’t take for granted the stabilty of your impacted groups even on low risk projects.

Remember that once you start to have more successful change projects, your organization and the affected stakeholder will begin to move the needle on your readiness, eventually becoming more flexible on other projects.

How change ready are you?