Encyclopedia of Leadership

➢ If the Readiness Index is less than 14, go for it. It’s a winner!

➢ If the Readiness Index is 14 to 18, you will need to plan thoroughly and anticipate dif-

ficulties.

➢ If the Readiness Index is 19 or above, you will have considerable difficulty imple-

menting the change. It will require time and effort to build support and reduce the bar-

riers to change.

HOW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOL

“When all is said and done, more is said than done.”

—Vince Lombardi

By way of example, a process improvement task force thought it would go for big system

changes with visible payoffs. After using this tool, it became obvious that others in the orga-

nization were not ready to embrace this level of change. As a result, the task force wisely decid-

ed to do a number of smaller, quick-hit projects, to gain credibility and experience. A side ben-

efit was that during these start-up phases, the ground was laid for the future success of larger,

more complex change projects.

WEB WORKSHEET

Think of the proposed change in your leadership area, then use this tool to:

1. Assist you in assessing the difficulty of the change.


2. Guide you in deciding how much time and effort will be needed to support the change.


3. Help you determine whether you should sponsor the change at this time or at all.
   Another good use of this tool is when project teams or task forces are making recommen-

dations. The tool can be used to assess the difficulty of implementing the recommended

changes.

Copyright McGraw-Hill 2000. Original purchasers of this book are permitted to photocopy or customize this worksheet by downloading it from
http://www.books.mcgraw-hill.com/training/download.The document can then be opened, edited, and printed using Microsoft Word or other word processing
software.

RELATED LEADERSHIP TOOLS

5.1 Change Equation 5.5 Change Window 6.5 Force-Field Analysis

5.2 Major Change 5.9 Resistance 9.7 Selling Wheel

FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE

Hiebert, Murray. Powerful Professionals: Getting Your Expertise Used Inside Organizations.Recursion Press, 1999.

Kotter, John. Leading Change.Harvard Business School Press, 1996.

Scholtes, Peter. The Team Handbook: How to Use Teams to Improve Quality.Joiner Associates, 1988.

146 SECTION 5 TOOLS FORLEADINGCHANGE

Readiness Critical actions needed to reduce

Proposed change index score barriers to the change?