We are experts in determining what conditions impact your project; specifically how ready your team is in terms of their motivation and capacities.  Readiness is essential in achieving quality outcomes. Yet most people realized that readiness is dynamic and fluid construct.

Why is readiness important?

Being ready for change is important throughout the whole process, not just at the start. This is because change is not just one decision but a series of decisions that must be maintained over time. People’s motivation and ability to change might change over time, so it is important to keep being ready for change throughout the process.

Second, it then follows that readiness is not static but dynamic. The conditions that make implementation more successful can change up and down over time. This can be for reasons both predictable and unpredictable. 

Third, readiness is innovation-specific. We previously defined innovation-specific capacity as the knowledge and skills specific to a new thing. The same is true for motivation, the reasons to change are specific to the change. Because of this, different new things require different levels of readiness.

For example, in community coalitions, the readiness to implement a nutrition program can be very different than the readiness to implement an obesity prevention program, even if they both target better health in the long run. It is a mistake to assume that just because an organization can do one thing well, it can quickly pivot to something new, even if the initiatives are related.

Fourth, readiness applies at different levels. It’s a fairly common phenomenon that people at different levels have different perspectives about how ready they are to implement. Leaders at the top may be disconnected from the day-to-day realities of what front-line professionals are facing. Going in the other direction, people on the front lines may be siloed from initiatives across an organization or what the overall vision of an organization might be.

In nearly every project that we have been involved in, we have seen a difference between readiness that varies by roles within organizations. This has major implications for planning and implementation because there might not be agreement on how the motivational and capacity conditions impact a change effort. Using readiness requires thinking about the appropriate level, and then negotiating between levels to make an effective plan in place.

Getting change facilitators into place

Finally, readiness can be built. People have been managing change for a long time, and experts have studied and written about it. However, managing change can be hard if the conditions that make change happen are not considered. Change is a process, and breaking it down into specific parts helps match strategies to those parts and create the conditions for change to happen. 

We can match your team’s readiness to evidence-based strategies so you can build and sustain readiness over time.

Workshops Available.

We have many trainings available for your team or initiative. Just reach out and ask!

1. Understanding Readiness for Change: This training provides a foundational understanding of readiness, its importance in the change process, and its dynamic nature.
2. Recognizing the Dynamic Nature of Readiness: This module delves deeper into how readiness changes over time and the factors contributing to these shifts.
3. Innovation-specific Readiness: Participants learn about the unique readiness requirements for different kinds of changes and innovations.
4. Readiness Across Organizational Levels: This training focuses on understanding readiness from organizational perspectives, from top management to frontline employees.
5. Navigating Disparities in Perceived Readiness: A course to address the gap between perceived readiness at different organizational levels and strategies to negotiate a common vision.
6. Building Readiness for Change: Participants learn practical strategies for building and improving team readiness.
7. Change Facilitation This training equips managers with the necessary skills to guide their teams through the change process, considering the readiness of their teams.
8. Maintaining Readiness Over Time: This training equips attendees with the tools to sustain and foster readiness for change over an extended period.