A technique for assessing an organization's ability to change

The U.S. Shipbuilding Industry, while producing the finest ships for combat, are generally not competitive when it comes to commercial ships. However, when questioned many U.S. Shipyards seemed to believe that their status quo was good enough to compete in the present and future. They did not seem to know that they needed to change in order to compete for commercial business. What was needed was a method which could assess their ability to change. Then, if they were in that group that was not open to change, they would know it. What was developed to address that need was a computer-based questionnaire which results in an assessment of the organization's ability to change. The perceptions of the participants are captured through analysis of their answers gathered through individual input to a personal computer. The measurements are then used as the basis of a dialogue with the participants which leads to a valid self-assessment. The results are generally presented in a single plot referred to as the organization "radar plot." In the beta tests, the visual plot was successfully used to develop an informative self-assessment of the organizations strengths and weaknesses. The ability to develop meaningful dialogue about a company's ability to change is the strength of this method.