Change Leadership & Management Training
Organizations don’t change; people do. Successful changes focus on not simply delivering the work to achieve the goal, but also on the people-focused transition work that must happen to achieve the goal. Organizations often prioritize the delivery work and ignore the people-focused work for a variety of reasons. However, it is well-known and well-documented (and most of us have experienced it directly) that organizations must focus on helping people actually adopt the change, if they want the benefits (ROI) of the change.
Change leadership is about understanding how individuals, groups, and organizations experience change and then using that knowledge to make a change easier and more likely to succeed. Change leadership works with product or project management to ensure the goal of the change is achieved, because, without adoption, delivering the change work means little.
Change is a process by which something becomes different. A new payroll system replaces the old one. A new CEO takes over from a retiring founder. Becoming a product-centric organization is a type of change, and so is releasing a new product feature. They all have in common that something is changing, and people have to work with the new reality.
Change is becoming more rapid, ubiquitous, and complex. Predictive, plan-based approaches to change management are increasingly unsuited to the environment in which most organizations and teams operate. Working effectively with this type of change is becoming more and more critical for success. Yet many leaders and teams don’t have an adaptive approach to change. Instead, they mostly have questions: How can we lead change when we can’t predict what will happen? What sort of planning is helpful (and what isn’t)? Why do people “resist” change, and how can we overcome it?
This class helps leaders understand how individuals, groups, and organizations experience change and how to use that knowledge to make change more accessible and more likely to succeed. It introduces an adaptive approach to leadership that acknowledges the world’s complexity. Participants explore the neuroscience of change and develop brain-friendly strategies for working with human responses to change. They work together in small groups to identify the challenges they face and discover ways to avoid the problem of delivering changes that are never adopted.
Have you taken other change classes (or certifications)?
While many people who take this class have no formal training in change management, this course complements existing change methods and certifications. It covers the core concepts from three popular approaches and builds on them. We believe there is a lot of value in the concepts that these approaches present. We also know that the ways they are implemented in organizations are often rigid and plan-driven. We find that many change management practitioners benefit from adding or emphasizing adaptive and incremental elements alongside the approaches they have been certified in.
If you have taken other change classes and/or are certified (we’re certified, too) in a particular change management method and wondering how this course can help you, please contact us. We’d love to discuss your questions and explain how what we do is different.
This course is designed for anyone who
- Wants to reduce the risk of planned changes not achieving their desired outcomes.
- Is tired of plan-based change management methods that don’t account for the reality and complexity of today’s challenges.
- Wants a change approach that works together with agile and lean frameworks to build on each other.
- Is looking for an adaptive approach to change that doesn’t rely on extensive upfront analysis and planning.
- Is interested in creating an environment where people can work through the change process more effectively.
- Enjoys learning, challenging themselves, and has an interest in leading more effective change.
Learning Objectives
- Describe what change is and how it relates to causes, effects, decisions, and goals.
- Discuss how complexity and empiricism impact successful change.
- Define the two components of change: delivery work and transition work.
- Review common approaches that organizations use for delivery – including traditional project management and agile product management with Scrum.
- Identify the business implications of focusing only on delivery and neglecting transitions.
- Discuss how change leadership involves supporting people through transitions and creating the conditions they need to succeed.
- Explore how people experience change and expected behaviors that emerge.
- Review three popular change management approaches to see how they address the challenges of transitions.
- Analyze the issues with traditional project management and change management approaches in today’s world.
- Explore an adaptive approach to change that addresses these issues through transparency, collaboration, and continuous learning.
- Explain the role that psychological safety and personal safety preferences play in impacting change approaches.
- Debrief the SAFETY assessment – a neuroscience-based tool for understanding psychological safety – and discuss its relationship to successful change.
- Apply this learning to scenarios covering the most common obstacles to successful change, including lack of sponsorship and working with challenging responses.
Who Should Attend
- Change sponsors: managers, directors, VPs.
- Change agents: project managers, product managers, product owners, change managers, organizational coaches, and agile coaches.
- Leaders throughout the organization who, formally or informally, help people work through changes.
- Anyone who initiates or supports change in their organization; this includes anyone who needs to understand what is required for changes to be adopted and benefits realized.
What to Expect
We take training and learning seriously. We respect the investment of both time and money that you are making to advance your skills. As such, we use the latest training approaches and techniques. We also bring energy and fun to ensure you have the best possible experience and learn as much as possible. In this course, you can expect:
- Brain-friendly training that dramatically increases learning and retention (instructors are Certified Training from the Back of the Room Trainers).
- Opportunities throughout the course to focus on your real-world situations.
- In-depth engagement with your instructors and fellow attendees. If you are looking for a dry lecture (we use zero slides), this class is NOT for you!
- Interactive, fun, and experiential learning — increasing safety and retention — laughing helps learning.
- Challenging work with others that focuses on your real organizational issues.
- Practical and reality-based ideas and concepts that you can use and apply right away.
Virtual Training:
- Our training is currently happening virtually in most cases. We use extremely interactive tools, learning canvases, and methods to boost the fun and learning. If you are interested in an in-person training at your location, please contact us to discuss options.
- We have specifically designed all of our training for live-instructor, virtually-led classes. We know there are (still) virtual training skeptics. Some have tried virtual training and just watched piles of videos or listened as people clicked through slides (we never use slides).
- We work through in-depth and fun (really) exercises throughout the course in small groups.
- But don’t just take our word for it – we are 100% glad to take you through a live lesson and show you how we teach. If it works for you, great! We can see about moving forward. If not, we can point you to someone that is a better fit based on your needs – no joke!
- Additionally, we send every student (direct to their home or shipping location) a color, in-depth course workbook and materials. We considered just sending some electronic files, but we have had way too many students reach out to thank us for something “real” in a virtual world.
Details
Length & Level
- Length: 2 Days + pre-work. We can deliver over four half-days as well.
- Level: Introductory to Intermediate (advanced options available with Coaching).
Course Credit
- 16 PMI PDUs
- 16 Scrum Alliance SEUs
Prerequisites
- An interest in learning and discovering new ideas. (Tough questions are always okay as long as you are open to exploring the answers.)
- No prior knowledge about change management is required.
Next Steps
Contact us to set up a time to answer your questions or to see a sample of how our virtual training works! Or feel free to download a PDF of the Course Brochure to review or share with someone.
