<aside> 💡 As a leader of change, you might be ready to dive in, implement change, and move the organization forward. But that doesn’t mean your organization is ready. How do you know if they are? By assessing three things: the skill, the will, and the hill. Below is an example of an assessment conducted by a pharmaceutical company undertaking a big organizational change that requires all headquarters marketing personnel to now also take on responsibilities for selling directly to physicians and nurses in their offices.
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| Skill, Will, and Hill | Example Assessment (for illustrative purposes) | Your Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| The SKILL It’s critical to understand the organization's skill level and what new knowledge and skills must be developed to thrive in the desired future state. Plans are then needed to fill any gaps between where the organization is and what’s needed. | The marketing organization has solid communication skills and has taken our “Interpersonal Effectiveness” training but has no skills in selling directly to healthcare professionals in a time-pressured environment. They’ll need training on the ABC selling method, and a six-month training program that includes doing observed sales calls with our district managers. | |
| The WILL What’s the will of the organization for facing change? What are the current attitudes and behaviors? Assessing the will includes determining if the organization has the capacity for added work that comes with change and whether or not some current work can be reprioritized or eliminated to free up capacity | We’ve been through a lot of change over the past year. Internal surveys/focus groups indicate our marketers are tired, skeptical, and anxious about more change, especially change that so directly affects their job responsibilities. They have a heavier than normal workload given our recent downsizing and given the fact that they’re rolling out a brand-new Marketing Fundamentals Program (MFP) across the globe. We can prioritize the work in rolling out the MFP or outsource the work to a training vendor. Our analysis also shows that marketers have taken on too much administrative work, which we can eliminate or outsource. We’ll need a plan to have that work out of the marketers’ responsibilities before we begin their sales training. | |
| The HILL What’s the “hill”, or obstacle, the organization faces in terms of successfully implementing the change? What are the specific barriers to overcome in making the change successful? | We know 25% of the marketers aren’t interested in selling (”not what they signed up for”), and another 20% are anxious about taking on a role for which they have no experience. We’ll need to make very clear the benefits for the marketers (more pay, company car, etc…) and give them a safe environment to learn and grow in, complete with a top-notch training and support program. |