Change Management Workshop

While Change Management is generally classified as a soft skill, in reality it is a very rigorous, methodical, and measurable process that can offer tremendous advantages to organizations who know how to execute it properly. The importance of Change Management is finally being recognized on a more universal scale. In a business environment where 80% of projects fail, costing organizations billions of dollars each year, leaders are beginning to understand that any project requiring a change in human attitudes or behaviors must have Change Management embedded from the beginning in order to succeed. The old, linear Project Management model is not effective in such situations.

In this five-day workshop, participants learn exactly what Change Management entails and how to assess, plan, and successfully implement and sustain large-scale business changes. They also learn why successful change must originate, grow and live within an organization the process cannot be handed off to consultants to manage. Our objective is to set you on the path to developing Change Management competency within your own organization. Unlike other seminars that take an academic or theoretical approach, our workshop is based on practical Change Management experience and techniques proven in the Fortune 500 global marketplace over a span of 25 years.

This workshop can be customized to the particular needs and business objectives of your organization. For example, the focus could be on solving one or more business problems the organization faces; aligning the instructional content and case exercises to different disciplines or business units within the organization; or a more in-depth exploration of one particular element of Change Management. You are invited to review the Program Content, identify, and prioritize the areas of greatest interest, and add to or subtract from the list of topics covered.

Additional information

Program Type

Key Benefits

Understanding and applying Change Management principles and techniques gives your organization a significant competitive advantage over organizations that do not have this capability, while significantly increasing your chances of project success.
Developing Change Management competency within your organization will:

  • Help you understand the critical role of Change Management in project success
  • Enable you to plan, control, and adjust the change process in a more timely manner
  • Create a stronger working relationship among all levels of management, staff, and stakeholders
  • Help you guide the workforce through the performance dip and recover faster
  • Provide the information you need for hiring and managing consultants more cost-effectively and producing the results you need
  • Help create a culture of accountability across the organization
  • Add significant value to the organization while helping participants advance their own careers

Who Should Attend

This program is designed for mid- to senior-level managers and supervisors from all sectors of the oil and gas industry who wish to acquire Change Management competency, or become familiar with its practice.

Professionals in the areas of Human Resources, Project Management, IT, Communications, Training, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service will also find participating in this workshop particularly valuable.

Program Content

Change Management Overview

Defines Change Management and its critical role in ensuring project success when changes in human behavior are required. Demonstrates why focusing on the personal / emotional aspects of change is even more important than the organizational aspects. Explains why ongoing engagement with stakeholders is critical throughout all stages of the project. Introduces the key principles, best practices, systematic framework, change elements and typical activities necessary to plan and manage effective, measurable and sustainable change. Clears up common myths about Change Management e.g., its about much more than Communication and Training — and explains the synergies with, similarities to and differences from conventional project management.

Change Leadership

Emphasizes the essential role of leaders in change project success through active and visible sponsorship. Demonstrates the importance of emotional intelligence, understanding leadership personalities and styles, determining the support the leaders require, helping them avoid common mistakes made by leaders, coaching them through the change process, and helping them help the workforce through the performance dip. Explains how leadership styles and messages affect the emotional reactions of stakeholders, why stakeholder emotions constitute a Zero Sum game, and why only the leaders can initiate and sustain change.

Change Assessment

Demonstrates how assessment provides the foundation for all the change planning that takes place throughout the change process, and why it is key to a successful change implementation. Identifies the people who need to be involved in the assessment process. Determines how a proposed change will impact an organization and its people, how to create an approach to achieve the change vision, and how to build a business case for the change. Elements include translating the change into its key phases; conducting stakeholder, process, and risk analyses; conducting a gap analysis and identifying barriers to performance; measurement tools for each phase of the change project.

Change Planning

Demonstrates how to use the information gathered during Assessment to develop a high-level strategic change plan encompassing the necessary elements for project success, review the plan with leaders and modify as necessary. Shows how to break the elements of change into objectives and activities; map out the necessary activities phase by phase; create a tactical change plan and review it with leaders and stakeholders; and integrate the change activities into the project plan prior to implementation. Explains the importance of setting up a continuous feedback loop with stakeholders to ensure that plans can be modified as necessary.

Communication and Engagement

Communication drives each stakeholders decision whether to support or resist a change. Defines communication objectives and principles. Identifies key activities required to plan and execute communications effectively, including vision statement, key message development, standard presentation for executives, timelines, audiences, delivery channels, content development and review process. Explains principles and tactics of successful engagement sessions. Shows how to create an overall Communication and Engagement plan designed for targeted and timely delivery of messages and collection and integration of stakeholder feedback into the planning process

Implementing and Sustaining the Change

Understanding the details of the change as new processes and technologies are introduced into the organization. Translating change activities into individual roles and responsibilities. Ensuring that key messages continue to be delivered on the appropriate timeline, and that leaders continue to provide active and visible sponsorship. Assisting the workforce in its transition through the performance dip. Ensuring that learning objectives are properly identified and Training activities are appropriately planned and measured. What to do if the project runs off track. Validating that the change implementation plan is designed for sustainability. Preparing and executing the handoff from the project team to key operations staff in the workforce. Conducting a project review and documenting lessons learned for use in future change projects.

Instructional Format

The workshop is conducted in a lecture / breakout session format. In the breakout sessions, smaller teams can work on specific areas of the change process or specific business problems relevant to their own areas of expertise, and then receive valuable feedback from the class at large. The balance between instruction and the breakout session case-work can be adjusted according to your needs and business objectives.

Pre- and post-instruction assessments are always included in the workshop. This ensures that learning objectives are clearly identified and the participants have successfully absorbed and are now capable of applying the lessons they have learned. Our workshop begins with an overview of Change Management, its critical role in ensuring project success, and the importance of focusing more on the personal and emotional aspects of change than the organizational aspects. This overview identifies the principles, best practices, systematic framework, and techniques necessary to plan and manage effective, measurable, and sustainable change.

Applying the practical tools of Change Management, workshop participants will develop a sample business case, an overall strategic plan, and a tactical change plan that clearly reflect the vision for change and is easy for all stakeholders to understand. They will also learn why enrolling leaders in leading the change is an essential ingredient in change project success; how to coach leaders through a change; and how to support leaders in their role throughout the transformation.

Instructors