Assessing Your Transition Readiness Whenever I start a project with an organization, I do an informal evaluation of how ready the organization is for the transition it faces. Some organizations seem to function in such a way that transition is taken in stride, while otherswhich may be just as successful as the first group in most other waysfind that transition disrupts their operations and distresses their people so much that the particular change that put them into the transition is hardly worth the trouble it causes. In some cases, a change that was supposed to strengthen an organization ends up weakening it. Heres what I look for when I talk with people while setting up the project and as I interview them in the course of my consulting, coaching, or training. These are the questions I ask explicitly, or look for answers to, as I talk with people, read the survey data they have gathered, and review the communications that have been sent out by the leaders.

1. Is there a fairly widespread sense that the change is necessary? Is the change solving a real problem, or do people think that it is happening for some other reason? Nothing is harder to stomach than losses and uncertainty that you believe didnt have to happen.

2. Do most people accept that whatever change is taking place represents a valid and effective response to the underlying problem? A bad idea is going to produce a transition that is particularly hard to manage.

3. Has the proposed change polarized the workforce in any way that is going to make the transition more disruptive than it would otherwise have been?

4. Is the level of trust in the organizations leadership adequate? There are always minor issues on this score, but when the level of trust is low, the leaders have a very hard time bringing the people along with them.

5. Does the organization provide people with adequate training for the new situations and roles that it thrusts them into? An organization that doesnt do that is likely to find people holding back and resisting the new beginning that will make the transition work as intended.

6. Does the organization tend to blame people if they make mistakes in a new situation? If it does, people are going to wait for others to make the first move as they start to emerge from the neutral zone, and the organization will stay in transition longer than it needs to.

7. Is the change part of a widely understood strategy that is designed to move the organization in a direction that fits with a fairly clear vision of the future?

8. Have the endings that are implicit in this change been talked about publicly? Do people know what it is time to let go ofand why?

9. Does the organizations history work in its favor during times of transition, or are there old scars and unresolved issues that surface and make people uncertain and mistrustful?

10. Has the change been explained to those who are going to be affected by it in as much detail as is currently possible?

11. Are there people within the organization who have expertise in the handling of change and transition? Is their assistance available to others in the organization who may need it?

12. Has a clear set of responsibilities been established for seeing that the human side of the change goes well? Do the people with those responsibilities have the resources to get their task done?

13. Do the leaders of the change understand that the transitions will necessarily take considerably longer to complete than the changes? Does the timetable for the project reflect that understanding?

14. Has the organization set up some way to monitor the state of the transition? This would not necessarily be a Transition Monitoring Team, but something more than the everyday reporting relationships in the organization.

15. Does the culture of the organization validate the idea of helping employees deal with the problems they encounter, or are they pretty much on their own?

These fifteen questions, either asked directly or used as an unspoken framework for conversations, will give you a pretty good idea of whether your organization will move through transition without undue difficulty, or whether the change is going to cause the organizational equivalent of a train wreck. The more negative answers these questions generate, the more difficulty lies ahead. While it is very hard to quantify the results, Id be worried about an organization that generated fewer than ten yeses. Needless to say, you have to talk to a real cross-section of the organizations people to answer the questions adequately. The leaders may be so out of touch with the situations that the average employee faces that they will give you very distorted answers. If the HR group is your sole source of information, you may get answers that are slanted by their sources of information and their agenda. The middle managers, the supervisors, the sales staff, the international division, the hourly workersall of them have their own particular perspective, which will trap you if it is the only one you have. The way to avoid being trapped, of course, is to get your information from as wide a set of sources as possible.

1. Evaluate the role of leader [base on case study] in leading change in this organization.
2. Propose measures and approach to ensure the sustainability of this changes.