If you stopped someone mid-level in the hallway and asked why this change is happening, what would they say?

Roughly the same reason leadership would give

Something in the right area, but vaguer

A guess, or a cynical reason of their own

They didn't know a change was coming

Has anyone said out loud what specifically gets worse if nothing changes?

Yes — with numbers and a date attached

It's implied, never actually stated

No — the case is that this is a good idea

Is it clear what will stop, to make room for this?

Yes — specific things were named and have actually stopped

Things were named, but none have stopped yet

It's been raised and never answered

Nothing stops — this goes on top of everything else

The last time two senior leaders disagreed about this in a meeting, what happened?

It was surfaced and settled, and everyone knew the outcome

It was noted and taken offline, then resolved

It was smoothed over and never actually resolved

Senior leaders here don't disagree in the room

Do the leaders sponsoring this change work differently themselves because of it?

Yes — visibly, and people can name examples

They talk about it, but their own week looks identical

No — this is understood to be for everyone else

If this got hard and unpopular in month three, what would leadership actually do?

Hold the line and adjust the plan in public

Probably hold, with some visible wobble

Quietly let it slide without ever cancelling it

Announce a new priority and move on

How many other major initiatives are your people absorbing at the same time as this one?

More than three — honestly, we've lost count

When you ask a team here to take on something new, what do they say?

"Okay" — and they find a way to absorb it

They agree in the room, and then nothing changes

Has anyone been given time — not just responsibility — to make this happen?

Yes — named people with genuinely protected time

Named people, but it sits on top of their day job

Someone owns it informally, in the gaps

Think of the last big change here. How did it end?

It finished, but it has partly faded back

It's still officially running, and nobody does it

When leadership announces something now, what's the typical reaction?

People engage and ask real questions

"Wait it out — this one will pass too."

If someone raised a serious problem with this change tomorrow, what would happen to them?

It'd be welcomed, and something would change because of it

It'd be heard politely, and probably noted

They'd be marked down as negative or not on board

People here don't raise things like that

What's your role in this change?

Executive sponsor — I own the outcome

Change or programme lead — I'm running it

Manager expected to deliver it in my team

External consultant or coach assessing a client

Is Your Organization Ready for Change? The Change Readiness Assessment 🧭

Most change programmes don't fail because the plan was wrong. They fail because the organization wasn't ready to absorb them. This 3-minute change readiness assessment scores yours across four things that actually predict whether a change sticks: a clear case for change, leadership alignment, capacity to absorb it, and the trust left over from last time.

Every question asks what people actually do, not how you'd describe the culture. A higher score means higher readiness.

It works best with a group. Have your leadership team answer separately, then compare — the question you disagree on most is the most useful conversation you'll have this quarter.