Cultivating Implementation Readiness: Growing Change with the COM-B Model

September 8, 2025

A new digital academic assessment tool is being introduced across the school district. The budget is approved, the timeline is clear, and leadership is fully supportive. On paper, it’s a no-brainer – greater efficiency, streamlined data, and improved collaboration. But despite all the right conditions, implementation is stalling. Professional development sessions are sparsely attended, teacher feedback is mixed, and classroom use is lagging. It’s a familiar story—one that many educators and leaders have experienced firsthand. The question is: what’s going wrong?

This is where implementation readiness comes into play. It’s not just about logistics – it’s about people. Are they prepared, equipped, and motivated to embrace the change? Readiness is the human aspect of implementation, and it often determines the difference between success and stagnation.

What is Readiness?

Readiness is typically broken down into two key components (Scaccia et al., 2015):

  • Capacity: Do the organization and team have the skills, knowledge, and resources to do the work?
  • Willingness: Are they motivated and committed to doing it?

These two elements must be in balance. A team may be highly skilled but unmotivated or deeply committed but under-resourced. Readiness is the bridge between intention and action, and without it, even the most well-designed initiatives can stall or fail.

Think of readiness as a garden. You can’t just plant seeds and hope for the best. You need fertile soil (capacity), sunlight and water (opportunity), and a gardener who cares (motivation). Without these elements, even the best seeds won’t grow.

As an Implementation Specialist, your role is to cultivate that garden. You assess the soil, remove the weeds, and create the conditions for growth. The COM-B model provides you with the tools to do just that. It helps you understand what’s really driving or blocking change. Because as an Implementation Specialist, you’re not just managing timelines, you’re managing behavior change.

What is the COM-B Model?

The COM-B model, developed by Michie et al. (2011), offers a structured way to understand what drives behavior. It concludes that for any change in behavior (B) to occur, three conditions must be met:

ComponentDescriptionReadiness Considerations
Capability (C)The team and individuals must have the physical and psychological ability to perform the behavior. Do individuals have the knowledge, skills, and mental bandwidth to engage in the new behavior?
Opportunity (O)The environment must provide the necessary conditions (i.e., time, resources, social support) for the behavior to occur. Are there structural, systemic, or cultural barriers that prevent action?
Motivation (M)The team and individuals must have a desire or need to act that relates to their conscious choices and habitual behaviors. Are people inspired, incentivized, or emotionally invested in the change?

COM-B is not just a theoretical construct; it’s a model that has been applied successfully in real-world settings to drive meaningful change (Creaser et al., 2022; Keyworth et al., 2020). When applied to implementation readiness, the model helps move from abstract ideas to actionable next steps. 

Using COM-B to Cultivate Readiness

Implementation readiness is not a box to check; it’s a condition to cultivate. By using the COM-B model as your guide, you can move beyond surface-level planning and into the dynamics that foster real, lasting change. Now that we understand COM-B’s components, let’s explore its practical impact. Here’s how you can use it to cultivate readiness:

  • Assess Readiness Early

Incorporate the COM-B model into your planning by making readiness assessment a foundational step. Use tools such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather insights from different critical perspectives. For example, you could survey team members about their sense of capacity and motivation regarding a new initiative. The Wandersman Readiness Thinking Tool (RTT) is a useful resource that can support this process. Once you have collected the data, analyze it for COM-B gaps by identifying patterns, such as whether certain groups are struggling with capability or if motivation is declining in specific schools. 

  • Design for Behavior

Tailor your implementation strategies to address the specific COM-B gaps you identify, keeping people at the center of your approach. Consider what they need to feel confident, supported, and inspired throughout the implementation process. For example, if the capability is low, provide targeted training and coaching. If opportunity is limited, work to remove barriers and strengthen leadership support. If motivation is lacking, leverage storytelling, positive reinforcement, and peer influence to boost commitment. With the Tailoring Support Interactive Lesson, you can explore ways to customize support and strategies to the needs of those involved in the implementation.

  •  Monitor and Adapt

Readiness is not a one-and-done –  it requires ongoing attention. Regularly reassess the readiness of your team and different groups, adjust your strategies as needed, and remain open to new insights. For example, think about incorporating monthly or quarterly pulse checks and feedback forms to track progress, alongside other implementation data such as fidelity and usage measures. The NIRN Communication Protocols Worksheet can help you establish a structured process for sharing feedback, making it easier to identify needs, implement necessary changes, and celebrate wins.

Digging Deeper: Applying COM-B to Support Growth

So, let’s return to our digital assessment tool implementation and see what happens when the COM-B model is applied. 

Assess Readiness

To better understand the teachers’ readiness for using the new assessment tool, the implementation team begins by gathering insights through surveys and focus groups. This assessment reveals a clear picture: while the teachers are Motivated (they see the tool as a way to streamline grading and feedback), they lack Capability (they haven’t received adequate training on the tool) and Opportunity (they’re overwhelmed with existing teaching responsibilities). These findings highlight specific behavioral gaps that need to be addressed before successful implementation can occur.

Design for Behavior

Armed with this behavioral insight, the team develops a targeted strategy to build readiness. They introduce  interactive workshops to enhance capability, peer coaching to foster collaborative learning, and dedicated planning time to create space for opportunity. These strategies are aligned with the COM-B model and embedded in the implementation plan to ensure change at multiple levels. 

Monitor and Adapt

To track progress and refine their approach, the team continues collecting implementation data, including tool usage and teacher perception.  During the next round of data collection, the team notices an increase in tool usage, and feedback from the teachers is trending positive. This improvement shows that their readiness cultivation efforts are working. However, the team recognizes that readiness is dynamic, not static. They commit to ongoing monitoring, regular check-ins with teachers about use of the tool, and communicating the adaptations being implemented to address needs. 

Readiness is a Living System – Not a Checklist

Just like tending a garden, cultivating readiness requires patience, attention, and care. You don’t just plant once and walk away – you nurture, adapt, and respond to what the environment and people need. Whether you’re launching a new academic program, rolling out a policy, or leading a transformation effort, readiness through the COM-B lens ensures you’re not just asking people to change, you’re enabling them to. When readiness is treated as a living system, not a checklist, the results not only take root – they continue to grow and thrive over time.

Reference List 

Creaser, A. V., Clemes, S. A., Bingham, D. D., & Costa, S. (2022). Applying the COM-B model to understand wearable activity tracker use in children and adolescents. Journal of Public Health, 31, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-022-01763-7

Keyworth, C., Epton, T., Goldthorpe, J., Calam, R., & Armitage, C. J. (2020). Acceptability, reliability, and validity of a brief measure of capabilities, opportunities, and motivations (“COM-B”). British Journal of Health Psychology, 25(3), 474–501. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12417

Michie, S., van Stralen, M. M., & West, R. (2011). The behaviour change wheel: A new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions. Implementation Science, 6(42). https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-6-42

Scaccia, J. P., Cook, B. S., Lamont, A., Wandersman, A., Castellow, J., Katz, J., & Beidas, R. S. (2015). A practical implementation science heuristic for organizational readiness: R = MC2. Journal of Community Psychology, 43(4), 484–501. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21698

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