When a company is facing change in their business, there is often a degree of uncertainty about the best approach to managing the change.  How the business handles change could mean success or failure and there may be lack of clarity on what is right for their own organisation.

The ultimate outcome will depend on having a clear, shared view of what the change means to the business and how it can be managed.

These are some of the most frequent questions asked when starting a change journey:
“How important is it to start early with a change strategy?”
“Is there a rulebook we need to follow to ensure success?”
“Do we need to have external advisors to lead the change or can we manage it ourselves?”
“What’s the best approach for us to use?”

So, what IS the right approach to take?

One way of both learning more about change management and arriving at a balanced view of the most appropriate change approach is to have informed and open discussions during the planning phase of a project. There may be people within the business who have done change management before who can bring insight into the discussions, or everyone could be starting from scratch.  Whatever the scenario, bringing a diverse cross-section of people from the business together facilitates discussion on the subject of business change and assists discovery of the most appropriate approach to the management of the change.  A facilitated workshop can be a good way to bring people together and get the creative juices flowing, encouraging discussion and informed decision-making.

‘Discovering Change Management’ is an innovative workshop, facilitated by OrganisationsWork.  The workshop is totally collaborative, with the objective of increasing business insight into the management of change and building an approach to change management that fits the company culture and appetite for change.

The workshop is designed to create ideas, but at the same time, consider what will work and what won’t work when it comes to designing the change management approach.  Participants use a blend of brain-dumping, fact-finding, presentation and discussion to explore all aspects of change management.

By the end of the workshop, participants will reach a collective agreement on their change management approach and devise the ‘roadmap’ for their change programme and the assignment of roles and responsibilities within the project team for putting the plan in place.  Groups vary, of course, but some workshops have resulted in a prepared presentation to the project board for approval of the approach agreed during the workshop.  Now, that’s a result!

Here are some comments from happy workshop participants:
“The workshop gave me valuable insight into how change management works”
“I now know how much there is to do!”
“We were definitely challenged during the workshop – in a good way!”
“We channelled our thought processes into something tangible and useful by the end of the workshop. Great result. Thank you”

‘Discovering Change Management’ is a one-and-a half or two-day workshop, depending on the size of the group and the business roles of participants.  It is usually run off-site, as a large space is needed to accommodate the workshop activities.  To kickstart your change journey, a group of 10-12 people is the ideal size for this workshop.

Charges for the workshop will depend on the number of participants and the venue.

OrganisationsWork also provides support in various ways:

• An advisory service to augment the knowledge gained in the workshop and to give guidance to internal team members moving into the change management roles.  Advisory is provided throughout the project lifecycle to an agreed number of days.
•  A full change management consultancy service to those companies who don’t have sufficient internal resources to cover the change management roles.  Requirements are assessed and agreed on a client-by-client basis.
• A half-day workshop designed to broaden the scope of executive leaders’ involvement in the change process.  This workshop is designed and facilitated in collaboration with project sponsors and business leads.

For further information on these workshops and the services offered by OrganisationsWork, please contact us at info@orgswork.com