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Readiness Assessment

You need to develop a strategy and focusyour efforts on those areas that aren’t ready

Strategy is the answer to the question “where are we now, where are we going and how will we get there?” A project strategy is imperative -- since we don’t have unlimited time or resources and there’s a high penalty for “solving the wrong problem”.

You can use readiness assessment as the tool to decide the sequence of things to do in your project. A readiness assessment isn’t done to punish people, it’s done to determine what needs to be done to GET READY!

There are three “chunks” to the readiness assessment process (these are expanded into generic “forms” you can print out on the following pages):

Operational readiness - how ready are the various operations in our community? What needs to be done to get ready should that operation experience a failure?

Organizational readiness - how ready are the organizations in our community (cities, churches, businesses, nonprofits, etc.)? Which can be relied upon for “heavy lifting” should it be required?

Climate for change - overall, for our whole community, what’s the environment like for this project? Do we have fertile ground upon which to work (people feel the “pain for change”), or is some preparation required?

- 2 -get ready!

You need to assess “operational readiness”

Operational readiness - how ready are the various operations (eg. electricity, telephone, water, gas, sewer, public health, public safety, gasoline distribution, food distribution) in our community? What needs to be done to get ready should that operation experience a failure?

Operation:_________________ (eg. sewer, gas, etc) High priority -- Lower priority

How likely is a failure? In the absence of reliable information, what’s the “best guess” of our risk-assessment team? (likely) _____ -- _____ (unlikely)

How complex is the operation that needs to be backed up? (complex) _____ -- _____ (simple)

How well does the team understand what needs to be done to back up the operation? (not well) _____ -- _____ (well)

How available is information? (not available) _____ -- _____ (available)

How good is the information (not good) _____ -- _____ (good)

- 3 -get ready!

Key to Success:

We need to assess “organizational readiness”

Organizational readiness - how ready are the organizations in our community (cities, churches, large businesses, small businesses, schools, nonprofits, etc.)? Which can be relied upon for “heavy lifting” should it be required? What do our organizations need to do to get ready?

High readiness -- Low readinessSector: _____________ (eg city govt, businesses, etc.)Resource availability

People available (many) _____ -- _____ (few)Facilities available (many) _____ -- _____ (few)Equipment/supplies available (many) _____ -- _____ (few)Other projects underway (few) _____ -- _____

(many)Technical / Functional depth (across all sectors)

Experience with community preparedness efforts (lots) _____ -- _____ (little)

Participation in project to date (lots) _____ -- _____ (little)

Project management experience (lots) _____ -- _____ (little)

Functional depth -- can people be spared? (lots) _____ -- _____ (little)

- 4 -get ready!

You need to assess the “climate for change”

Climate for change - overall, for our whole community, what’s the environment like for a community preparedness project like this one? Fertile ground upon which to work, or is some preparation required? What do we need to do to get ready?

High readiness -- Low readinessDesire for community preparedness / motivation to proceed (high) _____ -- _____ (low)Discipline in the community - how well do we do projects like this? (high) _____ -- _____ (low)Decision making process (crisp) _____ -- _____ (muddled)Communications / organizational relations (good) _____ -- _____ (poor)Community commitment (high) _____ -- _____ (low)Stability of community

- Geographic areas (stable) _____ -- _____ (changing)- People (stable) _____ -- _____ (transition)- Growth (low/med)_____ -- _____ (high)

Leadership (good) _____ -- _____ (poor)Understanding of the magnitude of this effort:

- Amount of team participation required (good) _____ -- _____ (poor) - Amount of citizen/participant education required (good) _____ -- _____ (poor)- Change in behavior required (good) _____ -- _____ (poor)- Project management needed (good) _____ -- _____ (poor)