Is the organization ready?
For this article, let’s focus on changes that are upcoming in an organization that the organization knows about.
Too often senior leaders know about changes that will have to happen in the organization, but do not share that information early enough. To be fair, some sharing cannot happen immediately as the organization works through some issues; but, at some point, sharing must occur. This is where the problems arise; when the organization can, and should share, but does not. And then the organization moves forward with attempting to launch and implement the change without getting the appropriate buy-in. So what happens – the initiative fails.
In order for a change initiative to be successful, employees (stakeholders) within the organization must be ready for the change. To get them ready, consider the following questions:
- Are stakeholders aware of the need for the change to happen? Do they understand the business reasons behind the change?
- What would motivate the stakeholders to accept the change and embrace it? What is the value to the stakeholders? (not just the value to the organization)
- Do stakeholders have what they need to be successful once the change happens? Do they require training or to build knowledge in other areas of the business?
- What else is going on in the organization that may impact how the stakeholders perceive and accept this change? Are there major projects in progress?
Once you have the answers to these questions, you are better able to gauge how ready the organization is for the change ahead.
