Organizational Change Management Foundations

Every change should lead to creating specific value for the organization or other key stakeholders. Whether you’re introducing a new tool or way of working, changing the organizational culture, or implementing new regulations — you need to understand the reasons behind it.

That’s why the workshop starts with an introduction to value-driven change management. Participants will learn to distinguish between project deliverables (like a new process, IT system, or organizational structure) and the expected outcomes (like lower costs, fewer errors, increased market share, or higher margin). They’ll also explore the key factors that affect the ability to actually deliver and sustain that value during and after the project. This sets the stage for understanding what change management is really about, and what it’s meant to achieve.

We’ll also discuss the key roles involved in change initiatives and why the engagement of stakeholders is so important. From this point on, all exercises will be based on real examples of change projects brought in by participants, so every tool and technique can be practiced in the real context of their organizations.

A key part of this section is also a conversation about the role of change leaders at different levels of the organization, and how they can prepare themselves for change and take care of their own well-being throughout the process.

This part wraps up with a walkthrough of John Kotter’s 8-step change cycle — a simple, clear framework that helps increase the chances of successful implementation and keeps stakeholders engaged.

In the second part of the workshop, we’ll focus on three key tools in change management: assessing the scope and level of impact on various stakeholders, evaluating readiness for change, and measuring change adoption.

We’ll start with an initial analysis to identify the specific areas the change may affect. This helps estimate the depth of the change and plan next steps. Then, participants will explore real-life examples of stakeholder impact assessments and immediately apply the same method to their own sample projects.

The next step is building a simple tool to assess change readiness for selected stakeholders or organizational units. Along the way, participants will also discover new ways to report readiness levels, going beyond traditional project status reports to give a more accurate picture of how well prepared different parts of the organization really are.

We’ll close this part by introducing practical techniques for measuring change adoption, focusing on three key dimensions: speed of adoption, proficiency, and ultimate utilization. Participants will understand the meaning of each one and learn how to select relevant adoption metrics based on their project context.

As an additional tool, and often a useful alternative to the techniques above, we’ll also look at the A.D.K.A.R. model. It can be used to diagnose, plan, and evaluate stakeholder readiness for change.

People are at the very heart of any change process. That’s why it’s so important to understand the basics of the psychology and sociology of change. Equally important is to know how to work constructively with resistance, a natural response to change and often a valuable source of risk-related insight.

We’ll start by looking at key factors that influence people’s behavior, with a special focus on mental states (e.g. stress) and belief systems. This knowledge helps participants understand why training alone usually isn’t enough to drive behavioral change and enables them to build a more comprehensive approach to stakeholder engagement.

Another key topic is the sources and underlying mechanisms of resistance to change. Participants will have a chance to shift away from the typical “fight the resistance” mindset and instead learn to treat resistance as a natural phenomenon, and often a useful signal. They’ll get to know practical techniques for proactively reducing the likelihood and intensity of resistance.

We’ll also explore how personality traits affect how people experience change. As a result, participants will learn how to shape the environment, processes, and communication in a way that respects and responds to different personality types among stakeholders.

The final part of the workshop focuses on communication during change and brings together all the elements covered earlier. The main emphasis is on the factors that influence how effective communication is.

We’ll begin by exploring what effective and intentional communication really means. Participants will also get a set of key questions to ask themselves before developing their communication.

Once the purpose of the communication is clear, we’ll move on to building change messages based on what we already know about key stakeholders. Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle will help us structure those messages. Participants will practice tailoring communication to different audience groups.

With the basics in place, we’ll take a closer look at the content and purpose of a communication plan, a critical tool in any change initiative. This will be a great opportunity to discuss different communication channels and formats, and to reflect on how leaders’ communication habits shape the message.

We’ll wrap up with a hands-on exercise based on dozens of real examples from actual change projects. Participants will learn to spot common mistakes in written communication, especially emails, and build a set of practical tips to take back to work.