Organizational readiness

Journey for the people side of change

To move smoothly and successfully to the desired future state, PEOPLE need time to work through the phases of change.  

When introducing a new change, it’s critical to understand your current readiness gaps and create actionable steps to overcome resistance. This ensures a smooth transition and successful adoption of the change. 
 

Common gaps in organizational readiness

Addressing these gaps requires a systematic approach and a willingness to adapt. Continuous evaluation and feedback are key to navigating the complexities of organizational readiness and achieving desired outcomes. 
 

Your Planview change journey

As you implement and sustain your Planview platform, managing change will continue to be at the forefront of your efforts. As change experts at Planview, we’ve learned that technology changes are not always adopted without the proper people and governance changes.  

All three elements – people, governance, and technology – must be in sync to successfully drive change and meet desired business outcomes. 

To support you and your organization in leading change, Planview has developed a robust set of learning content and templates based on OCM best practices. Every change you implement will require a different level of change management and it’s important to remember that OCM is not a single line item with a start and finish date, but an ongoing journey for stakeholders. At Planview, we recommend embedding OCM tools and practices into your daily routine and regular project efforts; these are not set-it-and-forget tools. 

Planview understands that not every organization has a change management office (CMO) or center of excellence (COE) to manage organizational change, which leaves many leaders and team members feeling like “accidental change managers.” Whether you’re new to the role or a seasoned professional change leader, Planview OCM templates and resources are designed to help you quickly get started without having to re-create the wheel. 

While a large-scale project may require a more robust, thorough approach (including a readiness assessment and role-based change stories), these simple change management plan steps can be used whether you’re pressured for time or capacity, or just want to implement a light OCM touch. Then, you can layer on additional techniques as needed to support the change.  
 

• Step 1: Understand the why – build a Change Story  | Planview OCM Community: Creating Your Project Change Story 

• Step 2: Know your audience – conduct a stakeholder analysis (take it up a notch by adding an ADKAR® analysis) 

• Step 3: Build awareness – create a communication plan 

Not familiar with these techniques? No problem! Read on to learn more!

Ready to assess the change and create a change plan for your organization?  Check out our Planview OCM Resource Library which includes practice templates and resources to support all the activities in your Planview change journey.
 

Adoption readiness

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4	Step 5
Define your readiness approach To determine the business readiness approach, change leaders will need to: Define the change criteria Confirm stakeholder involvement Identify data and evidence to capture requirements Build awareness of required governance Draft change plan timelines Define business readiness roles and responsibilities   Example roles and responsibilities to support business readiness Role Activities Executive and program sponsors Support business readiness activities Participate in checkpoints as needed and provide overall key readiness decisions Delivery lead Support all business readiness activities Participate in checkpoints as needed and provide overall key readiness decisions PMO Manage and support teams by conducting overall readiness checkpoints and composing overall scorecard Report readiness information and status to program and business leadership Define readiness measurement timeline and activities for each wave Deliver necessary communications to the program team Change management team Define business readiness criteria and monitor readiness activities Collect business readiness information for each checkpoint Provide status of business readiness by using scorecard and update tracking documents Report business readiness information to PMO and attend readiness checkpoints Change network Support change management team in readiness data collection activities Provide input to change management team business readiness scorecard SME Support change management team in readiness data collection activities as needed Provide input to change management team business readiness scorecard when applicable	Communicate your readiness plan* Once your readiness approach and plan has been defined, communicate the plan and timeline to relevant stakeholders. At minimum, your communication should include the following:   Plan, timeline, and criteria How, when, and why we need to track and manage criteria Roles and responsibilities, including expectations on involvement   *will be repeated at multiple points	Assess and build organizational readiness Collect, collate, and analyze data and evidence against readiness criteria Involve other teams and groups as needed in readiness assessment activities Define actions to build readiness with target dates, including how to measure progress Ensure actions are planned and completed to build readiness Define actions with target dates, including how to measure progress   Readiness assessment exercise Gather your project or change team to start assessing your change readiness and build an actionable plan. Ensure to capture readiness criteria across different business units and groups and involve other cross-functional teams as needed to avoid siloed communications and planning. Ask these common questions to assess your organization’s readiness: What is the scope of this change? How many people are involved How motivated are your users to utilize change? What are the biggest hurdles to overcome with new users from an adoption perspective How have we driven change successfully in past? What are some of the current adoption and change management techniques used by your organization to motivate new users? In retrospect, what went well and what didn’t?   Download our free template for the full readiness assessment: Understanding Your Adoption State of Readiness    To use this template: Mmove the pins on the slide to the corresponding sentiment for a quick visual indication of your organizational readiness. The more pins in the Limited column, the more change management you may need! Once you've identified areas of opportunity, define actions with clear target dates and measurable progress indicators to execute your plan for readiness.	Conduct readiness checkpoints Assess readiness through formal checkpoints with the necessary attendees to determine readiness and progress to the next stage. These checkpoints will ensure controlled implementation and conformance to pre-defined, explicit decision criteria.   Survey exercise  A change survey is a great way to capture the sentiment of your audience and help you drive your change management initiatives in the most effective direction. Starting with a baseline survey early is important to understand where your audience is beginning their journey. Have they heard about the change at the water cooler? Do they already have an opinion or concern you may need to address? Continue to survey teams often to show leadership is engaged and teams are supported. Survey data can be used to provide a holistic view of change impacts, identify areas of opportunity in your current state, and help you design a better future state for your internal and external customers. Prosci: Using The ADKAR® Model To Measure Change Success   Example guidelines for completing a survey​ Provide candid and honest responses. Respond with your first reaction; don’t spend too much time thinking about each question. The entire survey should take no more than 5 minutes. Anonymity is guaranteed. Select the answer in the scale that corresponds to the degree of your agreement to the statements. ​   View our sample survey questions to get started.	Identify actions to address readiness gaps* Develop a clear success plan with actionable items and clear timelines to close any readiness gaps that were identified. Ensure to follow through on the plan and embed a sense of urgency in addressing and closing outstanding actions   *will be repeated at multiple points