Change Readiness Assessment

We measure how ready your people are for a system implementation, AI rollout, reorganization, or merger before it launches. Daniels Consulting Group's organizational psychologists lead the assessment and deliver a risk map with recommendations.
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Definition

What is a change readiness assessment?

A change readiness assessment measures how prepared an organization is to adopt a specific change before that change launches. It shows which teams are ready, which roles the change affects most, whether sponsors and leaders agree on the goal, and how much other change the same people already carry. BD Emerson delivers the assessment with our Andersen Consulting colleagues at Daniels Consulting Group, a firm of organizational psychologists and experienced business professionals founded in 2002 by Amy Daniels, Ph.D. The assessment stands alone, so a company can run it before a system implementation, an AI rollout, a reorganization, or a merger without committing to a larger program. It combines stakeholder interviews, a readiness survey by team, a change impact assessment by role, a sponsor and leadership alignment check, and a change load review. The result is a risk map with recommendations the program team can act on.

Services

What does an organizational readiness assessment include?

Stakeholder interviews
Readiness survey by team
Impact analysis by role
Sponsor and leadership alignment
Change load review
Risk map and recommendations

Stakeholder interviews

Structured interviews with executives, managers, and front-line staff establish what each group believes the change is for, what it expects to gain or lose, and what worries it. The interviews also surface the history of earlier changes, which shapes how people will respond to this one.

Readiness survey by team

A short survey measures awareness of the change, belief in the case for it, confidence in the skills it requires, and trust in the leaders behind it. Results are reported by team, function, and location, so the program can see where readiness is high and where it is low.

Impact analysis by role

The change impact assessment lists each affected role and records what changes for it: tasks, tools, decisions, reporting lines, and performance measures. Each role receives an impact rating, which tells the program where training and support need to concentrate.

Sponsor and leadership alignment

We compare what each sponsor and senior leader says about the goal, the scope, and the priority of the change. Disagreement at the top reaches employees as mixed messages, so the check names the points leaders need to settle before launch.

Change load review

Most teams face several changes at once. The change load review maps every initiative that touches each group during the same period and shows where the combined demand exceeds what a team can absorb alongside its regular work.

Risk map and recommendations

The findings come together in a risk map that ranks adoption risks by team and role, with the evidence behind each one. Each risk has a recommendation, an owner, and a point in the program plan where the action has to happen.

Our approach

Our approach

01

Scope the change and the audience

We confirm what is changing, when, and for whom, using the program plan and design documents. The scope sets which teams and roles the assessment covers and which leaders take part.

02

Gather the evidence

Stakeholder interviews and the readiness survey run in parallel, and the program team supplies role and initiative data. Every finding rests on what employees and leaders told us or on program records.

03

Analyze impact, alignment, and load

We rate the impact on each role, compare leaders' accounts of the change, and map the other initiatives each team carries. Together the three analyses show where adoption is most at risk.

04

Report the risk map

Sponsors receive a risk map, a readiness score for each team, and recommendations with owners. We walk the executive team through the findings and the decisions those findings call for.

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Is your organization ready for the change ahead?

Speak with BD Emerson and Daniels Consulting Group about the change you are planning, the teams it affects, and what a readiness assessment would show before launch.

Our Advantage

Why BD Emerson for your readiness assessment

Led by organizational psychologists

Daniels Consulting Group's organizational psychologists design the interviews and the survey, and they interpret the results. Each rating on the risk map traces to evidence gathered from your workforce.

A standalone assessment

The assessment has its own scope and its own deliverables. Your team can act on the recommendations internally, with your system integrator, or with us.

Informed by the programs themselves

BD Emerson runs digital transformation, enterprise AI, and post-merger integration engagements. The assessment team knows how those programs run and where adoption problems appear in them.

How We Work

How we run a change readiness assessment

The same sequence runs every assessment, whether the change is a new system, an AI rollout, a reorganization, or a merger. Each step produces a document the program team keeps and can repeat later to measure progress.
Reviews

What our customers say

Great consulting firms for scaling security, compliance, and appsec.

Outstanding partner in Technical and Cyber Due Diligence

Appsec maturity and application hardening.

BD Emerson helped us simplfiy our compliance management.

BD Emerson did such a phenomenal job. What started as privacy support quickly became a full partnership across compliance, engineering, and even business operations. They’re embedded with our team. They understand our product. They move fast. They’re simply invaluable.

Adam Ben Jacobs

CTO @ OneStep GPS

Great consulting firms for scaling security, compliance, and appsec.

Outstanding partner in Technical and Cyber Due Diligence

Appsec maturity and application hardening.

BD Emerson helped us simplfiy our compliance management.

BD Emerson did such a phenomenal job. What started as privacy support quickly became a full partnership across compliance, engineering, and even business operations. They’re embedded with our team. They understand our product. They move fast. They’re simply invaluable.

Adam Ben Jacobs

CTO @ OneStep GPS

We had a hard time finding the right company to partner with in support of our compliance journey. Some vendors sell the idea that they do the work, but then you end up doing everything. The ambiguity is what killed our last project. BD Emerson’s team has such great technical knowledge and understands the standard so well that they made us comfortable with moving fast. This has led to us closing major enterprise customers that were previously out of reach because of security and compliance.

Tom Watkins

CEO @ AMI AssetTrack

Lead an enterprise initiative to overhaul the organization's technology stack from ecommerce, corporate tech, and corporate security.

Supported ISO 42001 exercise and served as internal auditor.

Rubrik's privacy and compliance team began with the backbone of BD Emerson. BD Emerson supported building out the privacy program, GRC (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CMMC, FedRAMP), and the appsec function.

We needed a partner who could move quickly, without sacrificing precision. BD Emerson brought the expertise, structure, and speed we were looking for. Their team became an extension of ours, embedding themselves across the organization, guiding us step by step, and giving us confidence in areas we hadn’t tackled before. The internal audit they conducted was so detailed that even the external auditors called it out. Achieving ISO 27001 with zero nonconformities says everything you need to know about the quality of the partnership.

Walid Souilem

CTO @ FGI Worldwide

We had a hard time finding the right company to partner with in support of our compliance journey. Some vendors sell the idea that they do the work, but then you end up doing everything. The ambiguity is what killed our last project. BD Emerson’s team has such great technical knowledge and understands the standard so well that they made us comfortable with moving fast. This has led to us closing major enterprise customers that were previously out of reach because of security and compliance.

Tom Watkins

CEO @ AMI AssetTrack

Lead an enterprise initiative to overhaul the organization's technology stack from ecommerce, corporate tech, and corporate security.

Supported ISO 42001 exercise and served as internal auditor.

Rubrik's privacy and compliance team began with the backbone of BD Emerson. BD Emerson supported building out the privacy program, GRC (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CMMC, FedRAMP), and the appsec function.

We needed a partner who could move quickly, without sacrificing precision. BD Emerson brought the expertise, structure, and speed we were looking for. Their team became an extension of ours, embedding themselves across the organization, guiding us step by step, and giving us confidence in areas we hadn’t tackled before. The internal audit they conducted was so detailed that even the external auditors called it out. Achieving ISO 27001 with zero nonconformities says everything you need to know about the quality of the partnership.

Walid Souilem

CTO @ FGI Worldwide

BD Emerson didn’t just help us meet our compliance goals; they integrated security and privacy into the core of our operations. I highly recommend BD Emerson to anyone seeking SOC 2 or GDPR compliance, or simply looking to enhance their security team and boost customer trust in their product and services. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable to our success.

Padraig Reilly

CEO, Boxcore

BD Emerson understood our business requirements and worked side-by-side with us. The policies and controls we developed together not only meet compliance standards but improve how we operate day to day.

Matt Meierdierks

IT Manager, Lincoln Industries

From day one, BD Emerson brought urgency, clarity, and a sharp understanding of what truly matters to our business — earning and keeping customer trust. They went beyond helping us meet compliance requirements; they helped build a foundation for secure, scalable growth. That kind of partnership is rare.

Jason Marker

CEO @ LifeLenz

BD Emerson didn’t just help us pass an audit—they helped us build a sustainable culture of security.

Alexey Indeev

CTO Spare

BD Emerson was essential in helping our company navigate the daunting process of leveling up our security infrastructure. BD Emerson’s impressive expertise and confidence throughout the process helped our team exceed HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 1 standards quickly, distilling what can be an overwhelming process into a streamlined, organized effort. From day one they began adding value and getting us on course. With their help we delivered on a massive security overhaul with both extreme efficiency and thorough attention to details. Because of BD Emerson’s support, we’ve increased our clients’ trust in Titan Intake and the life-changing work it accomplishes for those seeking specialist referrals.

Patrick Bruce

CEO, Titan Intake

BD Emerson didn’t just help us meet our compliance goals; they integrated security and privacy into the core of our operations. I highly recommend BD Emerson to anyone seeking SOC 2 or GDPR compliance, or simply looking to enhance their security team and boost customer trust in their product and services. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable to our success.

Padraig Reilly

CEO, Boxcore

BD Emerson understood our business requirements and worked side-by-side with us. The policies and controls we developed together not only meet compliance standards but improve how we operate day to day.

Matt Meierdierks

IT Manager, Lincoln Industries

From day one, BD Emerson brought urgency, clarity, and a sharp understanding of what truly matters to our business — earning and keeping customer trust. They went beyond helping us meet compliance requirements; they helped build a foundation for secure, scalable growth. That kind of partnership is rare.

Jason Marker

CEO @ LifeLenz

BD Emerson didn’t just help us pass an audit—they helped us build a sustainable culture of security.

Alexey Indeev

CTO Spare

BD Emerson was essential in helping our company navigate the daunting process of leveling up our security infrastructure. BD Emerson’s impressive expertise and confidence throughout the process helped our team exceed HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 1 standards quickly, distilling what can be an overwhelming process into a streamlined, organized effort. From day one they began adding value and getting us on course. With their help we delivered on a massive security overhaul with both extreme efficiency and thorough attention to details. Because of BD Emerson’s support, we’ve increased our clients’ trust in Titan Intake and the life-changing work it accomplishes for those seeking specialist referrals.

Patrick Bruce

CEO, Titan Intake

Certificates

Our accreditations

Our practitioners hold security, privacy, cloud, and AI governance certifications, and the people who earned them do the work on your engagement.
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What does a change readiness assessment measure?

When should we run a change readiness assessment?

How is a readiness assessment different from a change impact assessment?

How long does a change readiness assessment take?

What do we receive at the end?

Can the assessment cover an AI rollout?

Who leads the assessment?

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