Change Management Training

Over two days, you’ll build a complete change approach for a real initiative - yours or one from your organisation. The course is structured around four things every change practitioner needs to get right.

Understanding where people are. Before you can move people from here to there, you need to know where ‘here’ is. You’ll use the ADKAR model to assess where individuals and groups are in their readiness for change, and the change curve to read the emotional journey people go through during transitions. You’ll apply both to your own situation and see straight away where support is needed most. For a deeper look at readiness, see our guide to assessing change readiness.

Planning your approach. Change takes hold when people understand why it matters, what it means for them, and what they’ll do differently. You’ll use Kotter’s 8-step process and stakeholder mapping to design an approach that looks after the human side of change alongside the project plan.

Getting communication right. Change communication works best as a two-way conversation. You’ll develop a communication approach for your specific change - who needs to hear what, when, through which channels, and how you’ll listen as well as share.

Keeping it on track. A plan is only as good as your ability to adjust it. You’ll learn practical ways to monitor how change is landing, spot problems early, and adapt when things don’t go as expected.

Day one covers the core frameworks - change psychology, assessing readiness, designing your approach. Day two turns to communication, implementation, and building the complete plan. Throughout, you alternate between short inputs from the facilitator, structured exercises, and working sessions applying everything to your own change. Groups stay at twelve to twenty people, so everyone gets time on their specific challenges.

A completed change plan for your real initiative, built with well-tested frameworks as the course goes along. A stakeholder map showing who matters most and how to engage them. A communication approach shaped to your situation. And the confidence that comes from having practised these tools on something real.

The course is built around Monday morning - the real conversations, decisions and situations waiting when you’re back at work. We draw on frameworks from across the field and choose the ones that fit, and most of the time goes on putting them to use. If your organisation would like broader support with the change itself, our change management consultancy works alongside leadership teams to design and deliver it.

You’ll spend the day working on your real situation, using well-tested frameworks adapted to your context. The day is built around three practical parts of leading a team through change.

Understanding what your team is really experiencing. Change affects people differently - some adapt quickly, others need more time, more information, or more support. You’ll map where each team member is in their own transition using the change curve, Bridges’ transition model and the Satir Change Model - as practical lenses for reading your team and working out what each person needs from you right now.

Having the conversations that matter. Leading change often comes down to conversations - with someone who’s gone quiet, someone with lots of questions, someone wondering where they fit now. You’ll practise these conversations using realistic scenarios, and leave with approaches you feel confident using.

Building a team change plan. By the end of the day, you’ll have a written plan for leading your team through this specific change, built from your actual situation - what you’ll communicate, when, and how you’ll support different people through the transition.

When change comes on top of change, change fatigue becomes a real risk across a whole team - spotting it early is one of the most useful things a manager can do.

The format is interactive and collaborative. You’ll work in small groups throughout the day, sharing experiences and learning from other managers facing similar challenges. Sessions alternate between short input from the facilitator, structured exercises, and time to apply what you’ve learned to your own situation. Groups stay small - typically twelve to sixteen people - so everyone gets individual attention.

A completed team change plan covering where each team member is in their own transition and what they need, a communication approach tailored to your team’s specific concerns, planned conversations for the people who need individual support, and a realistic timeline for the next four to six weeks. And confidence in your own ability to lead your team through what comes next.

The course is about putting change models to use. You work on your real change, with your real team in mind, and leave with something you can act on straight away. We draw on a range of recognised frameworks - ADKAR, Kotter’s 8-step model and others - and adapt them to fit your context. If your organisation is going through broader change and would like support beyond training, our change management consultancy can help design and guide the wider programme.

You’ll work on a real change initiative throughout the day - something you’re building support for now, or something you know is coming. People decide based on a mix of logic, feeling, trust and what they see others doing, so data is only part of the picture. The day covers three connected areas.

Reading the room before you make the case. A strong case starts with understanding what matters to the people you’re bringing with you. You’ll map the stakeholders involved in your change using tools like the Mendelow power-interest matrix, understand their priorities and concerns, and design an engagement approach that builds support in a helpful order - because who you talk to first can shape how the rest goes. Kotter’s 8-step model helps structure urgency and vision.

Crafting a case that works. A good case for change answers four questions clearly: why change, why now, what happens if we don’t, and what does success look like? You’ll build yours using a structured framework covering both the rational and emotional sides - people need to feel the urgency as well as understand it.

Presenting with confidence. A strong case on paper is half the job. You’ll practise presenting it, handling the difficult questions senior stakeholders ask, and keeping momentum after the first conversation.

Short facilitated inputs mixed with structured working time. You’ll spend most of the day building and refining your actual case, with guidance and challenge from the facilitator and fellow participants. The final session is presenting your case and getting real feedback. Groups stay at eight to sixteen people, so there’s room for everyone to talk.

Your completed case for change, ready to use. A stakeholder engagement plan showing who to talk to, in what order, and what matters to each. Confidence in presenting your case and handling pushback. And an understanding of why some cases land while others - sometimes better ones - don’t. For more on the principles behind this work, see our article on building the case for change.

The focus is on the human side of persuasion as well as the analysis - stakeholder psychology, sequencing your engagement, reading how people respond. And you leave with a case of your own, ready to use. If your organisation is facing a larger transformation and would like help with the strategy as well as the case, our change management consultancy works with leadership teams to design and deliver change that lasts.

The session is built around three questions every change sponsor needs to answer.

What does my programme actually need from me? Sponsorship means different things at different stages. Early on, your team needs you to clear obstacles, secure resources and signal commitment. As the work progresses, they need you to hold the line when things get difficult, manage upward and across the leadership team, and stay visibly engaged even when your diary is full. You’ll work through what your programme needs now - and in the months ahead. A stakeholder map helps identify which relationships need your direct attention; the ADKAR model is a useful lens on what your people need at each stage, and where your sponsorship makes the biggest difference.

Where am I helping most, and where could I step back? Sponsors rarely get the space to think this through. Even committed, well-intentioned sponsorship can pull in unexpected directions - stepping into things the team would like to own, or being less visible at the moments it counts most. You’ll get a clear picture of where your involvement adds most value, and where a small adjustment could help.

How do I show up consistently? Knowing what to do is one thing. Doing it week after week, alongside everything else on your plate, is the real challenge. You’ll build a practical sponsorship plan with specific, realistic commitments that fit your schedule and working style.

A focused half-day - typically three to four hours, conversational rather than classroom. Short facilitated inputs followed by structured reflection and planning time, most of it spent working on your own programme with guidance and challenge from the facilitator. Groups stay small - usually six to ten sponsors - so there’s time for everyone’s programme.

Clarity on what your specific programme needs from you at this stage. An honest assessment of where your sponsorship is strong and where to adjust. A practical plan with weekly commitments that fit your real schedule. And confidence in handling the difficult moments - when the programme hits obstacles, when stakeholders push back, when progress stalls.

This session is built for the sponsor - the person whose support makes such a difference to the people delivering change. It’s direct, practical and respectful of your time, with plain language, just enough theory, and a plan for doing it. If your organisation would like broader support with the programme itself, our change management consultancy works alongside leadership teams - and the fundamentals course at the top of this page serves the wider team. For more on making change compelling, see building the case for change.

Over two days, your team builds a comprehensive approach to your specific change programme, working through four connected areas.

Reading the system. Changing an organisation starts with understanding how it works day to day, which isn’t always how the org chart draws it. You’ll map the real dynamics: where power sits, how decisions get made, which parts of the system are ready for change and which will need more time. Tools like systems mapping and the ADKAR model help build a fuller picture.

Designing your change approach. With a realistic picture in hand, you’ll design an approach that works with the system rather than against it - thinking about sequencing (what needs to happen first to create the conditions for what comes next), spotting where small shifts can ripple across the wider organisation, and building in flexibility, because plans always shift once the work begins. Lewin’s change model helps frame the stages at organisational level.

Building a coalition. Large-scale change succeeds when enough people across the organisation understand what’s happening, believe in where it’s going, and are actively helping it work. You’ll identify who you need alongside you, understand what matters to them, and develop practical ways of building real support that people feel part of.

Sustaining momentum. Plenty of change programmes start well; keeping the energy up is the harder part. You’ll develop an approach for maintaining momentum over months and years - tracking progress in ways that go beyond RAG ratings, adapting as the organisation responds, and building capability so the change outlasts your programme.

Day one is understanding your organisation as a system and designing your change approach. Day two is building your coalition and planning for sustained momentum. Throughout, you alternate between frameworks, facilitated exercises, and working sessions applying everything directly to your programme. We typically run this for groups of eight to twenty; if your change team is larger, we adapt the format.

A systems map of your organisation showing the real dynamics that will shape your change. A sequenced approach designed around how your organisation works. A stakeholder strategy with practical actions for building support where it matters most. A momentum framework for tracking and sustaining progress. And shared language across your team about how you’ll approach the work.

This course starts from the system the change is moving through - your organisation as a connected whole, where each part affects the others. Starting there helps you see where to begin and how a change in one place reaches the rest. Senior leaders sponsoring the change are welcome; if sponsorship is the main need, the dedicated half-day for change sponsors on this page is a better fit. For more on the difference between managing change and leading it, see change management vs change leadership. And if the transformation needs ongoing support beyond training, our change management consultancy and organisational development consultancy work alongside leadership teams throughout.

You’ll spend the day working on your organisation’s real culture. The course is structured around three areas.

Understanding the culture you have. Culture work goes best when it starts with a clear view of where things are today. You’ll map the visible and less visible parts of your current culture - the stated values and everyday behaviours, the official processes and the informal shortcuts, the stories people tell and what those stories reveal. Edgar Schein’s culture model helps explore the gap between what an organisation says it values and the deeper assumptions driving behaviour; the Cultural Web examines six specific elements, from stories and rituals to power structures and control systems.

Identifying what needs to shift. Not everything needs to change. Good culture work picks out the specific behaviours, norms and systems that would help most if they shifted - and why they exist. You’ll learn to tell surface symptoms from root causes, and to focus your energy where it will make the most difference.

Designing practical interventions. Culture shifts through consistent, deliberate action over time. You’ll design a set of practical interventions for your organisation - changes to processes, rituals, rewards and leadership behaviours that nudge culture in the direction you want.

Facilitated inputs on how culture works, mixed with structured diagnostic exercises and planning time. You work on your own organisation throughout, with guidance from the facilitator and insight from other participants facing similar challenges. Groups stay at ten to sixteen people.

A clear map of your organisation’s current culture as it is today. A prioritised list of the cultural shifts that would make the biggest difference. A set of practical interventions you can start implementing. And a realistic sense of what culture change takes - including the patience, consistency and leadership commitment it asks for.

The course is grounded in how culture works in practice - the levers leaders and teams can use to create real, lasting shifts in behaviour. For more on how culture works and how to shift it, see our article on developing organisational culture. If your organisation needs deeper support, our change management consultancy and organisational development consultancy work alongside leadership teams to design and sustain the change.

You’ll work on a real change initiative throughout the day - something your organisation is going through right now. The day covers three types of story every change leader needs.

Vision stories that make the future feel real. Describing what will happen is one thing; a good vision story helps people experience what it will feel like. You’ll learn to craft narratives that make future states feel tangible and worth reaching - so people want to get there, as well as understand where ‘there’ is. The Hero’s Journey is a helpful structure here, framing your people as the heroes of the change.

Bridge stories that connect past to future. Change can feel as though it sets aside what people have built. Bridge stories honour what came before while showing how it connects to what comes next. You’ll practise building narratives that value where people are now and show a clear path forward.

Stories that meet people’s concerns. Behind most questions about change sits something people care about. You’ll learn to hear those concerns and shape stories that speak to them directly, early on.

A narrative strategy keeps your change story consistent across every touchpoint, from team meetings to all-hands communications.

Short inputs on narrative psychology and change science, mixed with structured working time on your own change. You’ll craft, test and refine your stories with feedback from the facilitator and fellow participants. The emphasis is on practice - by the end of the day you’ll have told your change story several times and improved it each time. Groups stay at ten to sixteen people.

A bridge story for your current change initiative, connecting your organisation’s strengths to its future direction. Stories that speak to the concerns you know your people have. A communication timeline showing how your story needs to evolve as the change progresses. And the confidence to tell these stories in a way that feels natural, not scripted.

This course treats communication as one of the main ways change happens. The frameworks draw on the change curve, Kotter’s 8-step process and narrative psychology, but the focus is always on what you’ll say and how you’ll say it. For more on why communication sits at the heart of change, see change management vs change leadership. If your organisation needs broader support with the change itself, our change management consultancy works alongside leadership teams to design and deliver it.