Business Skills - Managing Change
Most traditional workplaces have seen that they must be willing to change or risk the death of their organization. Very few workplaces handle changes well. Managing change is not a top-down or trickle-down approach. Managing change is about transforming your workplace by modifying these approaches to get key stakeholders involved in the process. Get the help you need when your workplace goes through reorganization, downsizing, offering new products or services, adding new technology, or culture changes by signing up for this intensive workshop. Become a transformational change agent while leading your colleagues through change.
Duration: 25-30hrs
Course Content:
1. Understanding Why Change is Necessary
Let's face it, change isn't easy for people. One of the keys to effective organizational transformation is to clarify the reasons for the change. This information can help motivate and influence people as to why the change is beneficial. Determining the readiness level of the workplace regarding change will begin your journey in managing this process effectively. This section will help you identify areas where you can find the benefits of the change in order to gain preliminary buy-in and support, as well as how to assess the current state of the workplace environment. Practice Sessions - You and your team will use the models and the formulas for change to begin working on the case study. First you will analyze how the change will affect the organization. Next you will assess the organization's environment and predict how their workplace will progress from freeze to change to unfreeze. Finally, you and your team will identify how to obtain preliminary support for the change.
Analyzing and comprehending the change
Assessing the environment – preparing for freeze and unfreeze
Gaining preliminary support for the change
2. Planning for the Change
Now that you understand the rationale for the change your role begins to shift to becoming a change agent. In order to make this transition you will need to follow a process for preparing to manage the change by involving others in the process. Skipping any of these steps could lead to a failed change effort. You've probably heard the saying before, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". This section provides you with the opportunity to practice this process while receiving valuable feedback from your facilitator on proper preparation. Practice Sessions - You and your team will continue working on the case study by identifying the change activities that need to be completed. With the help of your team, you will identify strategies and tactics for overcoming resistance to the change. As you identify the gap between the current and future state, your team will create a change management plan for the case study.
Identifying activities
Categorizing potential barriers and resistance
Creating the change management plan
3. Communicating the Change
At this point, the stage has been set for some initial buy-in to the change and a plan has been determined, but how will you communicate the change? Who needs to be notified about the change? What happens if you miss a stakeholder? What information needs to be communicated and to which stakeholders? This section is designed to help you identify which stakeholders will be impacted by the change, analyze the change impacts for the stakeholders, and manage stakeholder expectations associated with the change. Practice Sessions - You and your team will continue working on the case study by first identifying which stakeholders will need to know about the change. The next step your team will perform is to use impact analysis tools to determine the effects to all of the stakeholders. With the help of other teams, you will brainstorm and discuss how to manage the case study stakeholder's expectations. You will complete this section by creating a change management communication plan for your case study which is part of the overall change management plan.
Identifying stakeholders
Analyzing change impacts
Managing stakeholder expectations
Creating change management communication
4. Implementing the Change
Changes often fail because of poor execution of the plan and people not following through on their commitments. To ensure this doesn't happen in change initiatives at your workplace, it is critical to follow key processes while implementing the change management plan. And yes, this should be sounding like a project. This section will help you learn how to ensure smooth sailing as you implement your change management plan. Practice Sessions - You will begin by working with your team to identify the proper steps to follow on your case study to implement the change management plan you created earlier. After reviewing the change model, you and your team will predict where there could be potential problems. You will complete this section by discussing with other teams how to overcome change management obstacles during implementation and preparing a list of strategies to take back to your workplace.
Executing the plan
Following the change model
Overcoming execution obstacles
5. Monitoring the Change
The change has been implemented. Some stakeholders are elated with the effects of the change, while others are still apprehensive or fearful. And then there are those stakeholders who refuse to change. This section will help you measure how successful the change achieved key performance indicators, identify ways to continuously improve, manage stakeholder expectations post-implementation, transition responsibilities, and perform retrospectives on how well the change management process worked. Practice Sessions - With the help of your team, you will begin by examining the effects of the implementation phase of the change management plan for the case study. After assessing the key performance indicators, you will determine if any improvement is needed to the change management process. You and your team will brainstorm how to overcome post-implementation issues that occurred during the case study. You will complete this section by discussing with other teams how to transition responsibilities regarding the change and lessons learned from the case study.
Monitoring change impacts
Applying continuous improvement
Dealing with post-implementation obstacles
Transitioning and retrospectives