How ready for change are you?

We are all trying to understand and respond to the changes occurring in our work and personal lives. It could be argued that our lives are changing at a faster pace than at any other time in human history.

This article gives a short overview around the personal aspects of change (more detail about psychological effects of change here), and a number of “diagnostic tools” to assess your change readiness.

Personal change

When we view change as a human problem, a number of fundamental features emerge:

1. Change is not just a professional concept. Change is a natural part of the human condition. It is likely that people react to professional change in the same way as they react to change in other aspects of their lives, such as marriage, accidents, growing up etc.

2. Change in one aspect of a person’s life will have an effect on, and be affected by, other aspects. Reactions to professional change, therefore can often have little or nothing to do with the actual change itself, but may be conditioned by apparently unrelated factors.

3. Change poses a potential threat to what psychologists call the ‘key meanings’ of our lives (Blacker and Shimmin, 1984). Key meanings provide stability and security, and make our behaviour meaningful. Examples of key meanings are our relationships with other people, our perception of our status, our moral or religious values, our group allegiances, our habits and routines. Any change poses a threat to one or more of these key meanings.

Personal change readiness Tools

The Assessing Change Management Skills Diagnostic tool  helps you evaluate how well you manage the demands of change through a response to 32 questions.

The Firing Up Commitment to Change looks at how well you lead a Team or a group through change.

The Personal Competencies for Managing the Human Side of change helps you estimate your own comfort/uncomfortable zones around change criteria like flexibility, risk taking and innovation.

The Planning for Change – self assessment helps you think strategically about change about the rationale, people you need to influence and get on board and potential obstructions.