I spoke with a lady yesterday that asked me a valid question that inspired me to write this post. She asked, "What does it cost to do a change readiness assessment?" I responded, "It depends - what insights are you trying to glean?"

There is no one answer. Organizations need to understand the insight they are looking to derive first. There are plenty of vanilla change readiness surveys out there - do they result in any insight to impact change? I think you know the answer...

There is a place for surveys and assessments and know that when you choose that option, the insight you glean will be limited. If your objective is to employ a range of data gathering tactics that involve a deeper level of collaboration, you will help resolve two of the most challenging obstacles in the path of every change: (1) gaining acceptance and (2) realizing successful adoption of the change. Consider the questions below when you're seeking a change readiness assessment.

• Are you trying to assess whether those impacted by the change will support the change?
• Are you trying to assess if, and where, there will be roadblocks? Any threats to the change being adopted?
• Are you trying to assess change readiness in terms of competency of the change management team and executive sponsors to execute the change?
• Are you trying to assess readiness to uncover areas of concern?
• Are you trying to assess the organization in terms of capability and capacity to adopt the change?
• Are you trying to assess whether the change management tactics used for the change will result in effective implementation?
• Are you trying to dig deeper and gain an emotional understanding of how your target audience feels about the change? What motivates them?
• What are you specifically looking to understand from the data gathered?