15 Questions to Ask about Your Change Initiative

To anticipate the future, it helps to use a predictive risk model and then to develop an explicit risk-mitigation plan. Fifteen specific risks, such as poor sponsorship and change overload, threaten to disrupt change efforts. These risks tend to occur in predictable patterns over the life cycle of a change, but only a handful of risks determine success or failure at each stage. A risk assessment enables a company to understand the unique risk profile of an initiative and identify the four or five risks that pose the biggest threats, the sequence in which they will arise and the tools that will be most effective for containing and managing each one.

The 15 questions you should ask about your change initiative:

1. Is our description of success clear and inspiring enough to generate emotional buy-in with our people?
2. Are the proposed solutions appealing to the organization, and will they work in our culture?
3. Are top leaders demonstrating alignment on this change in their communications and actions?
4. Do we have the right leaders who can work effectively as a team, both today and in the future state?
5. Are line managers at all levels actively and visibly reinforcing the adoption of the change?
6. Have we selected credible team members and involved trusted opinion leaders?
7. Do we know who will be most disrupted, and do we have a plan to address resistance and build commitment?
8. Can we develop or acquire the talent and expertise we need for this change?
9. Have we identified the few behaviors that will drive results and the reinforcements to encourage them?
10. Is the program governance designed to make and execute sound, efficient and timely decisions?
11. Can we deliver the change on time while protecting our business’s performance from capacity overload?
12. Do we have goals, metrics and a system to forecast results and course-correct before it’s too late?
13. Are we tuning our organization (structure, culture, incentive system, etc.) to sustain the change?
14. Can we enhance our systems and leverage new technology fast enough to deliver the results on time?
15. Are we designing fast feedback loops to learn and enhance our solutions over time?

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