Five Factors Assessment
A transformation can be well designed and still be badly run.
This assessment reports how well the transformation you are running is being executed, across five factors. It takes about ten minutes and shows you your result without asking for an email address.
- 36 statements
- About ten minutes
- Band, breakdown and scorecard
The argument
A transformation that is stalling is rarely stalling for want of a plan. The plan is often the most finished thing about it.
What decides whether it lands is execution. Whether leaders carry it in public rather than attend it. Whether the people affected change what gets built rather than only what gets said. Whether governance can stop something. Whether anyone measures adoption rather than assuming it.
McKinsey found that transformations were nearly four times as likely to succeed where clear roles were defined for people at every level. Prosci found that projects with extremely effective sponsors were nearly three times as likely to meet their objectives as those with extremely ineffective ones. Neither finding is about the quality of a plan.
This assessment measures execution across the five factors that decide it, and reports each on its own, so a single weak factor is visible rather than averaged away.
Sources: McKinsey & Company, "How to beat the transformation odds", McKinsey Global Survey, April 2015. Prosci, Best Practices in Change Management.
What the assessment measures
Five factors, drawn from the ITXF framework. Each is assessed on its own and reported separately, so a single weak factor is visible rather than averaged away.
Leadership Engagement
Whether leaders show up after the announcement, or leave it to the programme team.
8 statements
Stakeholder Management
Whether the people affected shape what gets delivered, or hear about it afterwards.
7 statements
Communication
Whether the people affected by the change understand what it is for, or only acknowledge it.
7 statements
Governance
Whether governance can stop something.
7 statements
Data-Driven Approach
Whether anyone measures adoption, or assumes it.
7 statements
Your result, not a benchmark
- Your overall band, one of three, shown on screen as soon as you finish. No email address is required for this.
- A breakdown by factor, with your score for each, and the factor to address first.
- Where two factors sit far apart, the trap that mismatch tends to produce.
- A scorecard as a PDF, which you can keep or take into a steering discussion.
The breakdown and the scorecard are sent to the email address you provide. That is the only point at which we ask for one.
Method
The Five Factors Assessment is a structured self-assessment developed from doctoral research at the University of Portsmouth. It reports whether a transformation is being executed, rather than whether it has been announced.
What it measures. Five factors that decide whether a transformation is executed: leadership engagement, stakeholder management, communication, governance and a data-driven approach. Each is scored on its own. Your overall result is one of three bands, and the factors are also read against each other, because a strong factor beside a weak one causes more trouble than two weak ones.
The foundation. Five factors, developed from doctoral research, that decide whether change is delivered. The method. People close to the transformation answer it themselves. The result is worth what the answers are honest.
Who it is for
This is written for people accountable for a transformation that is already running.
- You are running a transformation and cannot tell whether it is landing.
- You have inherited one and need to know what state it is in before you commit to it.
- You suspect the plan is sound and the execution is not, and you want to say so with something other than an opinion.
What we collect and what we do with it
Your answers. Numbers only. We never ask you to describe your organisation or your programme in your own words.
Where it is held. Answers and results are stored in Switzerland. Your details. If you ask for the full breakdown, we store your name and email address, and your organisation and role if you give them, to send the result to you. If you ask for a debrief, the address you give is stored for that, so that I can write to you.
Cookies and measurement. One session cookie, so you can leave the assessment and come back within seven days. Visitor numbers are counted with Plausible, which sets no cookies and records nothing that identifies you. No advertising, no profiling, no tracking across other sites.
How long we keep it. Personal details are deleted 24 months after your last activity. You can ask us to delete them sooner.