Prepare for Success with a Change Success Diagnostic

Is your company preparing for a big change? We’re the first to admit that corporate change initiatives can be daunting.

In fact, research indicates that 70% of all change initiatives fail. Whether you’re integrating a new software, in the middle of a merger, or hiring new staff, change is especially challenging if you haven’t prepared for it. The trial-and-error approach often leads to unnecessary costs, wasted time, and a frustrated and demotivated team. When you’re looking at making a change in a company, there are three key items you need to assess:

These fundamental questions help determine if your change initiative will be successful. Utilizing our Change Success Diagnostic helps you identify areas to improve before taking on a change initiative. Identifying in advance where you might need more support improves your opportunity for success.

Our business advisory services focus on recognizing your goals for the company’s future to help you achieve sustained success. Here at Haskell & White, an Orange County CPA firm, we’re passionate about helping our clients grow and plan for the long term. Part of that planning involves preparing for significant changes in your business.

The Change Success Diagnostic is based on doctoral research that investigated companies around the world which handled change initiatives with great success. The research identified three areas critical for enacting change and how to measure their impact. As part of our business advisory services, we’ve found that using this diagnostic to assess how prepared a company is for a given change is extremely helpful and prevents wasted efforts. That way, they can see which areas need improvement before diving headfirst into something new.

There are three primary areas and ten sub-factors that play into a company’s ability to be successful in adapting to change, including:

After completing a quick questionnaire, our diagnostic provides you with a visual and quantified representation of how ready your organization is for change. Complete with percentages and breakdowns for each area, this diagnostic has helped our clients avoid headaches, wasted money, and time.

Knowing your strengths and weak points when it comes to change preparedness helps your organization adapt in order to achieve a more successful outcome of new initiatives. We recommend having several people from your company complete the diagnostic to gain a more balanced perspective. Doing so allows deeper insights into potential problem spots, which are often hidden or not discussed.

For instance, if someone from your organization completes the assessment and scores low in perceived difficulty, meaning they think that the change will be difficult, this may spark a conversation among leadership to understand why. Perhaps staff members are worried about implementing new tech because the existing IT department is lacking. You could address this perception of difficulty by planning to hire additional tech support for the implementation.

We’re not the typical Orange County CPA Firm offering business advisory services without practicing what we preach, either. We use (and continue to use) this resource within our own organization when we implement new initiatives. We’ve found it to be an essential tool in our business advisory services toolkit.

Planning for a substantial change? Or is one being forced upon your competitors? Try this diagnostic out first. It’s free, and it only takes a few minutes to complete. Once you finish, you’ll instantly get a visual report representing how prepared you are for a change initiative in your company.

Don’t be too concerned if your results come in low: most people who take this assessment score around 40-50% (out of 100% prepared). Also, know that we offer a wide range of business advisory services and solutions, so if you aren’t prepared, we’re here to help get you there.