--- name: transformation-readiness-evaluator description: "Scores an organization's readiness for major transformation across six weighted dimensions — leadership alignment, culture, talent and skills, technology infrastructure, data maturity, and financial capacity — producing a readiness heatmap, dimension-by-dimension diagnosis, top blockers ranked by severity, and a prioritized readiness-building plan. Use when evaluating whether an organization can absorb a strategic transformation, diagnosing why a change program is stalling, or building a go/no-go case before committing budget." argument-hint: "[org-context] [transformation-scope]" allowed-tools: ["Read"] --- # Transformation Readiness Evaluator ## Purpose Score an organization's capacity to execute a specific transformation across six critical dimensions, then surface the blockers most likely to derail it and the sequence in which to fix them. Turns a vague "are we ready?" question into a defensible heatmap and a prioritized readiness plan a steering committee can act on. ## When to Use Invoke this skill when the user asks to: - Assess whether the organization is ready for a major transformation (digital, operating model, M&A integration, ERP, AI adoption) - Build a go/no-go readiness case before committing transformation budget - Diagnose why an in-flight change program is stalling or losing momentum - Compare readiness across business units, regions, or acquisition targets - Produce a readiness heatmap or scorecard for a steering committee or board - Identify the top blockers standing between the org and successful execution ## Inputs Required Before starting, collect: - **Transformation scope**: What is changing — the type, size, and time horizon of the transformation - **Organization profile**: Industry, headcount, structure (functional/divisional/matrix), and geographic footprint - **Leadership context**: Who sponsors this, how aligned the executive team is, and prior change track record - **Current-state signals**: Known strengths and pain points across people, technology, data, and finances - **Prior change history**: Recent transformation attempts and how they landed (succeeded, stalled, failed) - **Constraints**: Budget envelope, immovable deadlines, regulatory factors - **Stakeholder tolerance**: Appetite for disruption among leadership, middle management, and frontline staff If quantitative data is thin, score qualitatively from the signals provided and flag each low-confidence score explicitly. ## Instructions ### Step 1: Score the Six Readiness Dimensions Rate each dimension on a 1–5 scale (1 = Critical Gap, 2 = Weak, 3 = Developing, 4 = Strong, 5 = Transformation-Ready). For each, evaluate the sub-factors below and assign a score with a one-sentence justification tied to the specific inputs. **Dimension 1 — Leadership Alignment** (weight: 25%) The single strongest predictor of transformation success. Score based on: - Sponsor authority and visible commitment (is there a named, senior, active sponsor?) - Executive team consensus on the "why" and the destination - Willingness to reallocate budget, people, and political capital - Governance clarity — who decides, who is accountable - Red flag: passive sponsorship, competing executive agendas, or delegation of ownership downward **Dimension 2 — Culture & Change Appetite** (weight: 20%) Whether the organization can absorb disruption. Score based on: - Track record of prior change (repeated failures create scar tissue) - Middle-management posture — enablers or blockers - Psychological safety to challenge the status quo - Change fatigue level (how many initiatives are already in flight) - Red flag: "we've tried this before" narrative, low trust, or initiative overload **Dimension 3 — Talent & Skills** (weight: 15%) Whether the people can do the future-state work. Score based on: - Presence of critical skills the transformation requires - Depth of change-capable leaders below the executive tier - Capacity — do people have bandwidth, or are they fully loaded? - Ability to hire, reskill, or partner to close gaps in time - Red flag: dependence on a few key individuals, no reskilling plan **Dimension 4 — Technology Infrastructure** (weight: 15%) Whether the technical foundation can support the change. Score based on: - Modularity and integration health of core systems - Technical debt and legacy constraints - Delivery capacity of the technology function - Security and compliance posture for the new state - Red flag: brittle monoliths, no integration layer, chronic delivery slippage **Dimension 5 — Data Maturity** (weight: 15%) Whether decisions and automation can be trusted. Score based on: - Data quality, completeness, and single-source-of-truth availability - Governance, ownership, and access controls - Analytics and reporting capability - Readiness for data-dependent use cases (AI, personalization, real-time ops) - Red flag: siloed data, no governance, "spreadsheet culture" **Dimension 6 — Financial Capacity** (weight: 10%) Whether the org can fund the journey and survive the J-curve. Score based on: - Funding sufficiency for the full scope, not just phase one - Tolerance for the productivity dip before value is realized - Business-case rigor and benefits-tracking discipline - Contingency for overrun and slippage - Red flag: single-year funding for a multi-year change, no benefits ownership ### Step 2: Build the Readiness Heatmap Present all six dimensions in a table with score, color band, and weight. Color bands: - **Red** (1.0–2.4): Critical gap — blocks progress - **Amber** (2.5–3.4): Developing — needs active work - **Green** (3.5–5.0): Ready — a foundation to leverage Calculate the **Weighted Readiness Score** (sum of score × weight) and map it to an overall verdict: - **< 2.5 → Not Ready** (address foundations before proceeding) - **2.5–3.4 → Conditionally Ready** (proceed with targeted readiness-building in parallel) - **≥ 3.5 → Ready to Proceed** (green-light with standard risk management) ### Step 3: Identify and Rank the Top Blockers Surface the 3–5 blockers most likely to derail execution. Rank by severity, not by dimension order. For each blocker: - **Blocker**: One sentence naming the specific gap - **Dimension & score**: Where it sits - **Consequence if unaddressed**: The concrete failure mode it produces - **Severity**: Critical / High / Moderate — weighted by dimension importance and score depth A red score in Leadership Alignment or Culture should almost always rank above a red score in a lower-weighted dimension. ### Step 4: Prioritized Readiness-Building Plan Sequence the actions to raise readiness, front-loading the highest-leverage moves. For each action: - What to do (specific, not "improve culture") - Which dimension and score it lifts - Rough time horizon (0–30 / 30–90 / 90+ days) - The signal that confirms the gap has closed Foundation dimensions (Leadership, Culture) are prerequisites — enabler dimensions (Talent, Technology, Data, Finance) are addressed in parallel or after. ### Step 5: Verdict & Recommendation State a clear go / conditional-go / not-yet recommendation. Be opinionated. If conditional, name the two or three conditions that must be true before proceeding. ## Output Format - **Structure**: Heatmap table first, then per-dimension diagnosis, ranked blockers, readiness-building plan, and final verdict - **Length**: 1,100–1,500 words - **Format**: Heatmap and blockers as tables; dimension diagnosis and plan as structured bullets; verdict as short prose - **Sections**: Readiness Heatmap → Weighted Score & Verdict → Six-Dimension Diagnosis → Top Blockers (Ranked) → Readiness-Building Plan → Final Recommendation - **Tone**: Strategy director — evidence-driven, direct, willing to deliver an uncomfortable "not ready" verdict when the scores warrant it ## Quality Checklist Before delivering output, verify: - [ ] All six dimensions are scored on the 1–5 scale with a specific justification tied to the inputs - [ ] The weighted readiness score is calculated using the stated weights (25/20/15/15/15/10) and mapped to a verdict - [ ] Every dimension score is color-banded (Red/Amber/Green) consistently with its number - [ ] Between 3 and 5 blockers are ranked by severity, not by dimension order, each with a named consequence - [ ] The readiness plan sequences foundation dimensions ahead of enabler dimensions - [ ] Low-confidence scores (from thin data) are flagged explicitly rather than presented as firm ## Notes - Leadership alignment and culture carry the most weight because transformations rarely fail on technology — they fail on sponsorship and absorption capacity. Weight the verdict accordingly. - A single red in a foundation dimension can override multiple greens elsewhere; a technically capable organization with a passive sponsor is still Not Ready. - Change fatigue is systematically underreported — probe how many initiatives are already in flight before trusting a high culture score. - When comparing multiple units or acquisition targets, run this once per entity and present the heatmaps side by side for a defensible ranking. --- ## How to use this skill This file is a Claude Code skill in [Anthropic's standard format](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills) — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top. **Installing in Claude Code:** - `~/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects) - `/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills) Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register. **Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:** 1. 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