Developing an Assessment for the Need for Change

1. What do you see as the need for change and the important dimensions and issues that underpin it? What external and internal data either confirms or contradicts your assessment for the need for change? How much confidence do you have in the data and why should others have confidence it? In what ways is the appraisal for the need for change grounded in a solid organizational and environmental assessment?

2. How have you investigated the perspectives of internal and external stakeholders? Who has a stake in the matter of change and do you understand their perspectives on the need for change? People’s perspectives of organizational life are often determined by their role and their level in the organization. How many people have you talked with in marketing, operations, HR, and so forth? How many middle and upper middle managers have you talked with? What external stakeholders, such as customers and vendors, have you talked with or surveyed?

3. How can the different perspectives be integrated in ways that offer the possibility for a collaborative solution? How can you avoid a divisive “we/they” dispute?

4. How have you communicated the message concerning the need for change? Have you done so in ways that have the potential to move the organization to a higher state of readiness for and willingness to change? Or have your deliberations left change recipients feeling pressured into doing something they don’t agree with, don’t understand, or fear will come back to haunt them?

The challenges at this stage for change leaders are to develop the information they need to assess the situation, develop their views on the need for change, understand how others see that need, and create awareness and legitimacy around the need for change when a shared awareness is lacking. To make headway on these questions and challenges, change leaders need to seek out and make sense of external data, the perspectives of stakeholders, internal data, and their own personal concerns and perspectives.