A change impact assessment is a set of steps you put in place to determine the impacts that a change has on an organization. It is essential to know not only who is impacted by a particular change, but also how those stakeholders are impacted. To do it properly, you need to ask a number of questions to different individuals in the organization.
It is important to recognize that this is a critical step in the overall change management process, as this will be the basis of your change strategy, including training design and communication plans. Remember the concept of “garbage in, garbage out.” If you collect garbage during your assessment, the overall project will result in garbage.
To list all the questions to ask on a change impact assessment is not feasible, considering different questions need to be asked for different types of changes. For example, the questions asked regarding a new performance management process would be far different than those asked for a technology implementation.
Therefore, it is not the intention of this article to provide a laundry list of all the questions to be asked during your assessment. It is intended to give you a starting point from which to build upon. Note that many questions do not necessarily require a direct answer. They can be thought of as conversation starters to discuss the change management process.
Remember to keep your questions related to the change itself and not other steps in the overall process. You are not conducting a readiness assessment, nor are you conducting a stakeholder analysis. Also, do not try to do too much by discussing the change strategy. Again, you are looking to assess the impact only. What to do about the impact will come later.
You also want to give some consideration on how you will document the information you gather. You need to document the current state, future state, and what it is that is changing. You will be sharing this information with others, so use a format that is easily accessible by others. There are many software options available to document the impacts.
Try to speak to as many employees as possible, within reason of course. You want to speak to employees of different organizational levels, business areas, etc., as appropriate. Of course, you also want to discuss the questions to be asked with the project team.
Questions to be asked during just about any change impact assessment
What questions do we ask?
The first question can be simply what do we need to ask. You can start with the project team so you are all on the same page about what information you need to garner from the assessment.
Who do we ask?
The information you attain during your assessment will play a large part in determining your change strategy. Therefore, it is critical that the information is correct. You need to be sure you are talking to the right people about the right topics. People to talk to include stakeholders, subject matter experts, managers, etc.
How do we ask the questions?
Most questions will be best suited for in-person discussions with employees through one-on-one meetings, focus groups, etc. However, you might find that a lot of information can be collected through surveys or other means.
What is the change?
This will give you an opportunity to assess if everyone has a clear understanding of exactly what is changing. You will also gain perspective on how others are perceiving the change.
Who is impacted?
This is one of the most important questions. Although you are not doing a stakeholder analysis, you need to be clear on who is impacted.
How are they impacted?
This is the very reason for the assessment and should get the most attention. You must define the impacts to each stakeholder group.
Is this a phased implementation?
Some organizational changes result in all associated impacts hitting the employees at one time. However, there are others where the impacts will affect employees at different times. For example, a technology implementation might use a phased approach, where certain functionality is introduced at different times.
When will the changes occur?
Whether or not it is a phased implementation, you need to gain a solid timeline on when the changes will occur. This will enable you to build your strategy later in the process.
Why does this impact the employees?
Many of the reasons for the impacts to employees will be obvious, and this question will not need to be asked. However, there will be times where it makes sense to ask why the employees are impacted. You might find they do not need to be impacted if you probe a little.
Is this an organizational impact or a personal impact?
Sometimes you need to differentiate between organizational impacts and personal impacts. For example, saying the organization needs to be more agile is different than saying the HR staff will need to learn new software.
What processes need to be updated?
Along with change comes the need to update processes. Ask questions to determine what processes need to be updated. Also, check if the current process is documented. Process charts, Visio files, etc. can be very helpful when trying to understand the current state. If nothing exists, it might make sense to ask for it to be created.
Asking these questions will help you gain insights and start the discussion regarding the impact to your organization. However, the information you attain during your assessment must be validated. You cannot base a change strategy on false information, so you need to take the steps necessary to determine its accuracy. This includes sending the information to those who helped you attain the information. Check with them to ensure you got it right and that you are not missing anything. You also want to validate the information with others, to the extent possible.
See our related post on How to Create a Change Impact Assessment.
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