Attention Leaders: Do NOT begin, or continue, ANY new technology initiatives until assessing and understanding change readiness within your organisation!
Organisations continue to face challenges in implementing technology-enabled reforms to improve service delivery, internal operations, and customer engagement. Even well-supported initiatives—such as AI implementation, integrated data systems, digital identity frameworks, or enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms—are often incompletely adopted or fall short of intended outcomes. Despite clear strategic value, the uptake and consistent application of these technologies can vary widely across teams, units, divisions or even entire organisations.
This partial or inconsistent adoption of new technology is not uncommon—it reflects a broader pattern seen across many large change efforts. The implementation of system-wide digital transformation often reveals persistent obstacles: inconsistent participation, lack of confidence in new tools, misalignment between processes and systems, and inadequate support for users.
One of the pervasive factors influencing the success or failure of these changes is a lack of organisational readiness for change. This refers to how mentally and practically prepared individuals and teams are to take on and sustain change. It includes both psychological factors—beliefs, motivation, attitudes—and structural factors—training, infrastructure, and policy alignment. Understanding readiness is critical for leaders to guide implementation strategies and ensure limited resources are used effectively.
A Framework for Assessing Change Readiness
Many tools and instruments exist to assess readiness for change, but they often lack comprehensive coverage or fail to consider all relevant organisational dimensions. For leaders preparing to launch or scale a technology project, we propose a readiness framework based on three core areas:
Psychological Factors: the mindsets, beliefs, and attitudes of those being asked to change.
Structural Factors: the organisational conditions, infrastructure, policies and workflows influencing change implementation.
Level of Analysis: assessing readiness at both the individual and organisational levels.
This is not a new theory of change, but a practical heuristic—a lens to help leaders more accurately diagnose challenges and tailor interventions. By evaluating these dimensions in parallel, leaders can better plan for change, close gaps, and build internal support.
Change Readiness: A Multi-Level, Multi-Dimensional Construct
Psychological Factors – Individual Level
At the individual level, readiness includes the beliefs staff hold about the change. These include:
Appropriateness: Do individuals believe the change is necessary?
Leadership Support: Do they trust that leadership supports the change?
Change Efficacy: Do they feel personally capable of implementing the change successfully?
Valence: Do they see personal benefit from the change?
If people doubt the value or feasibility of a new technology, their motivation to engage with it will be limited—regardless of how well the tool performs.
Psychological Factors – Organisational Level
Here, readiness refers to shared organisational beliefs:
Collective Commitment: Is there a shared will to pursue the change?
Collective Efficacy: Do teams believe in their collective ability to deliver the change?
These shared beliefs are particularly important for cross-agency or enterprise-wide technology projects, such as ERP rollouts or shared services platforms.
Structural Factors – Individual Level
Structural readiness also involves the capabilities and resources individuals bring to the change. Key questions include:
Do employees have the right skills and training?
Are roles and responsibilities clearly aligned with the new technology?
Do employees have access to the tools and time needed to engage with change?
Structural Factors – Organisational Level
At the systems level, structural readiness relates to:
Resource Availability: Are the necessary financial, technical, and human resources in place?
Policy Alignment: Do existing rules, workflows, and metrics support the change?
Support Infrastructure: Are there feedback loops, training programs, communication channels, and champions embedded in the process?
For example, an organisation deploying a new case management platform may appear ready from a software standpoint. But if job roles are unclear, onboarding is patchy, and evaluation metrics are outdated, the structural conditions will undermine successful adoption.
Using the Framework in Practice
Leaders can apply this change readiness framework before launching technology initiatives, during pilot phases, or mid-stream in response to challenges. The framework helps answer:
Where are people enthusiastic—but underprepared?
Where is capacity high—but motivation or belief lacking?
What’s missing structurally that might inhibit success?
Importantly, no single readiness survey or assessment tool covers all four quadrants (psychological/structural, individual/organisational). Leaders may need to combine tools or supplement surveys with interviews, focus groups, or observational data. Leaders should seek support organisational development and change experts who can help deploy qualitative and quantitative assessment methods and support leaders and employees in closing the gaps that are identified.
Digital transformation in government is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a shift in how public servants work, serve, and engage. Understanding readiness for change, both psychologically and structurally, gives leaders a practical edge in planning and guiding successful implementations. With this framework, departments can diagnose and strengthen the human systems that make technology work—and create lasting, high-performing change.
Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety states that only a system with sufficient internal complexity can effectively manage the complexity of its environment—meaning, support structures must be as nuanced as the systems they aim to control. In the context of technology implementation in organisations, this law underscores the need for robust, flexible support mechanisms to match the inherent complexity of modern digital technologies. These initiatives affect multiple teams, workflows, and behaviours simultaneously, and a one-size-fits-all approach to change support will fall short. The multidimensional change readiness framework adds further complexity by recognising that both psychological and structural factors—at individual and organisational levels—influence the success of change. To navigate this, implementation strategies must be equally multifaceted, using tailored training, adaptive communication, decentralised champions, and ongoing feedback loops to effectively absorb and respond to the variety introduced by technological and human system change.