Manage Relationships Enable Change — A 2-Day Course

 Open Public Course Closed In-House Course

Course Synopsis

• Are you responsible for delivering a change programme or project?
• Are you interested in understanding what needs to be in place to support successful change?
• Are you finding it difficult to get people on board with your change?
• Have you ever wondered how great change leaders communicate during change?
• Would you like to know how to encourage those people, already supportive of your change, to become more active in helping you?
• Has resistance to change made you frustrated and prevented you from achieving your goals?
• Do you understand your own power base as a change agent?
• Are you interested in learning how organisational culture can impact your change?

If the answer is "YES" - this is the course for you!

Change is the new organisational certainty.

This course provides a unique opportunity for those actively involved in or contemplating change to understand the associated influences and risks, and to enhance their effectiveness in managing change.

Change agents will only be successful if they can help others interpret the benefits of change and apply them to their own perception of reality. The most successful change managers capture the imagination of others. A fundamental message underpinning the course is the need for change managers to support people on he journey of change.

This highly interactive two-day course will allow you to work with other change agents to share best practice and learn new techniques for supporting success.

Each day focuses on a different perspective - Day 1 looks at what needs to be in place for any change to be successful; Day 2 addresses the need to build robust relationships with key stakeholders.

You will be able to test your thinking on a realistic case study as well as your current change. You will be amazed at how many tools and techniques there are to help you towards success and through practice, discussion and feedback you will be able to develop your confidence to handle the realities of any change.

Course Objectives

On completion of this training course, delegates will be able to:

• Understand their responsibilities to prepare organisations for change-readiness frameworks
• Describe the change in question and be able to describe success factors
• Plan communication to support success in change
• Identify the key stakeholders associated with the change and assess their buy-in
• Understand the need to build new relationships and develop existing relationships with key stakeholders
• Understand the impact of culture on the environment of change
• Manage stakeholder relationships to ensure success in change, building teams and handling resistance
• Plan for new ways of working and identify capability gaps

Intended Audience

This course is intended for:

• Leaders of change in their organisations who need to acquire and practice formal techniques for managing the change process
• Anyone ready to expand beyond the boundaries of project management to consider a holistic view of sustainable change within their organisations

Course Style

This is an intensive 2 day course with a combination of lectures, workshops and application exercises. Emphasis is placed on building upon the experience of the delegates and the practical application of change management tools and techniques in the real world.

Benefits for your Company

Sadly, despite the best efforts of many motivated people working in organisational change, there is evidence that many changes fail to deliver the required benefits. In fact it has been suggested that this figure equates to 75% of changes. This figure becomes more significant when you consider the associated waste of time, effort, financial and human resources and goodwill.

This course will help organisational change agents to be more successful in managing change and delivering the required benefits. You will be guided through the event by learning consultants who have significant and successful experience as change agents and who will share their knowledge and tactics for success.

Benefits for You

As a change agent, you may have become increasingly frustrated by the negative energy that you are required to expend in the face of resistance to your change project or programme. This course will help you to ensure that you have prepared the community for its journey through change and helped you to argue for the necessary support and resource to achieve a successful conclusion.

Sharing your experience with other like-minded people will help you develop our own capability as a change agent.

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

Outline Course Contents

Introduction & Overview

You will be introduced to the other participants on the course, and to the format of the day. You will be asked to share the issues you would like to address to help you be more successful.

The Realities of Change

Introduction exercise to share your current change projects with your fellow delegates.

What is Change? - The act of becoming different

Change agents often refer to their change project as 'the change' assuming everyone understands what it really is. This session will help you to position your change and describe it in a way that is meaningful for others

Introduction to Case Study

You will work in groups to address the expected benefits and the issues arising from significant change project. A plenary session will ensure that all thinking is shared amongst the wider group.

Frameworks for Change

Short explanation of a holistic model of change. The critical success factors of the 5 stages will be identified and explored. The roles and responsibilities which support success will be discussed. This will be followed by case study application.

Identifying the Stakeholders

Main group exercise using workshop technique to identify the key stakeholders for the case study change project. The resulting list will be further explored to extract stakeholders who are directly or indirectly affected - and those that are internal or external to the project.

Building the Vision for Change

Communications During Change - How People React to Change

This interactive session will explore the ways in which people respond to change (the emotional cycle) and how this can affect their take-up of information. Application to your own change environment.

Communications during Change - Communication Techniques

Group discussion to identify the need for an effective communications strategy during the change period. This session builds on the discussion from the previous session and draws out the need for a formalised approach to communication. The role of facilitation to build commitment and trust in change will be explored. It is followed by case study application.

Review of Day and Key Learning

This short session will help position the learning from Day 1 of the course and encourage you to consider how you will apply the learning when you are back at work.

Welcome to Day

You will have a chance to share your learning from Day 1 and gain clarification of any issues that have arisen. We will remind you of Day 2 content. You will have realised by now that the sessions are like jigsaw pieces for success - they can only give you the full picture when they are all in place. They inter-relate and inter-connect.

Cultural Considerations

Organisational culture is a considerable issue for any change leader. Changes that embrace the existing paradigms are more likely to be successful than those that challenge the way the organisation operates. This session will share with you a way of assessing cultural fit, but also remind you that it will not be until the community really signs up to the change that you will be fully successful.

Building Teams for Change

Many experts in change suggest that it easier to make change happen when lots of people are involved. In this session we will look at the difference between teams that recommend things and those that have the day-to-day operational responsibility and we will think about how we might bridge the gap between them. We will also share a planning tool for implementation which helps people towards success.

Conflict, Power and Influence

Another piece of the jigsaw, but this time focused more on you as an individual. We will help you understand your own personal strengths when managing change and consider ways of enhancing this personal effectiveness. Always a popular session, we will apply the learning to your own change projects.

Supporting Change - Cosseting the Enthusiasts

As change agents we spend far less time than we should with our supporters and enthusiasts. Using case study material you will build plans for developing effective working relationships with the key stakeholders who support the change and discuss the potential impact of this action on other stakeholders. The Partner Chart will be introduced as a method of tracking stakeholder buy-in.

Handling Resistance

Another popular session which helps change agents put resistance into perspective. We will explore a number of proven techniques for handling resistance and examine the Partner Chart further to build suitable strategies for handling real-life resistance.

Course Review

During this final session we will ensure that the issues you identified at the start of the course have been addressed. By way of a review, we will share some sound guidance to remind you of the key factors for success in change. We will recommend further resources to support your success.