Assessments stimulate technical and organizational cultures to evolve. Seeing your organization as it really is can feel a little like being punched in the stomach. Managers always think their companies are better than they really are. No one is ever prepared for cold truth. But the shock of an assessment has priceless value because it can initiate momentum toward positive change. It dissolves complacency and enables staff to take a fresh look at how a company can be improved.
Shock alone, however, can lead to defensiveness and paralysis. Along with the shock, assessments put in place a group of mechanisms that help organizations survive the shock and work toward improvement in an open and energized way. Assessments convey the message that management is interested enough in making things better to take real action, bringing out the best in people who had become permanently discouraged. Assessments enable self-analysis to take place in a relatively penalty-free zone. Requiring broad participation, they distribute and limit exposure. Stressing that processes, not people, should be the focus of change, they diminish defensiveness. Providing a voice for change agents, they release energies that had been previously bottled up. Finally, assessments prioritize follow-on activities in an encouraging and logical way, making it easier to take the first steps toward new patterns of work.