The Wexford Files

The Organizational Change Planning and Review Tools are two complementary tools: Creating Change and Indicators of Sustained Change. These tools will assist you to identify specific characteristics and elements of your own organization related to creating change at any point in time – before, during or after a project implementation effort. These characteristics, based on findings from the organizational change literature, highlight an organization’s readiness to accept, adopt and sustain change. Using these tools can help you work toward successful change by identifying where your organization is well positioned and ready for change, and where some additional work is needed to help prepare the organization for change. The tools also help you identify when your organization has adopted and is beginning to sustain the change or innovation.

These tools can be used at a variety of times and in a variety of ways to help plan your project and identify both strengths and weaknesses during implementation. By rating each element along a five-point Rating Scale, you can quickly see where your organization is ready to meet the challenge of change, and where additional work needs to be done to ensure that positive change occurs. The first tool, Creating Change has two components. The first component, Elements of the Current Organizational Climate/Culture, offers descriptors of what an organization can look like, particularly before an innovation or new program has been introduced. The second component, “Fit” of Proposed Change into Current Organization, examines the match between the new program or innovation and the existing organizational culture. The second tool, the Indicators of Sustained Change, identifies characteristics that indicate a change or innovation has been embraced into the regular practice of an organization.

The Change tools provides a quick, easy way to take a snapshot of organizational climate that can be used to help the organization and a proposed innovation come together effectively and with a minimum of stress.

First, the tools can be used:

We suggest using Creating Change initially when you are getting ready to start a project or introduce an innovation. Use the 0 – 4 Rating Scale to describe the degree to which your organization fits that characteristic or element. If you wish, you can provide more detail about your organization and that characteristic in the space provided for comments

Over time and with additional administrations, you will probably see a trend as your ratings move from the 0 – 2 scale to include ratings of 3 – 4. When you see a definite trend in your ratings toward higher numbers, use the Indicators of Sustained Change to assess whether and when your project or innovation has been institutionalized into the life of the organization.

There are no wrong or right answers to this assessment, just indicators of where your organization is at a given point in time relative to the project, idea, or innovation you are introducing and implementing, based on the perceptions of those completing the assessment. You may want to revisit an earlier administration of the assessment (particularly the comments section) and compare it to a current assessment, to determine progress and changes that have occurred over time.

While individuals can use this assessment informally at any time in a project to gain a quick snapshot of strengths and weaknesses, its power lies in its use as a shared vehicle by members of the project team. When used as part of a group process for a variety of role members (project leaders, evaluators, participants, etc.), teams can use it to foster discussion, identify where to focus limited resources, build consensus, identify where there are different perceptions of progress based on position or role group, aid in planning, indicate areas that need work, and document progress and success.

The important thing is to use this tool and related activities in ways that make sense for you and your team, following the advice of one participant in an innovative project implementation, “You’ve got to understand the life cycle of the organization and how and when it can do things.” The tools can be used as: