Leading Change

This module closes out a change leadership sequence by tying together seven steps to change???from establishing dissatisfaction with the status quo through consolidating gains via accountability???and mapping each step to a specific tool, including the Beckman & Harris Change Formula, the Change Curve coaching approach, and a Change Communication Plan. Participants review how these tools connect across the full change process, then discuss what accountability looks like in change leadership specifically, how to recognize and reinforce productive change behaviors on their teams, and how to constructively address a peer or team member who isn't holding up their end. The module closes with concrete follow-up actions: using the Change Curve to coach individuals through change, applying the Beckman & Harris formula to assess change readiness, co-creating vision with stakeholders, building a communication plan with "What's In It For Me" messaging for each audience, and running a pre-mortem before the next change initiative.

This module teaches the Beckhard-Harris Change Model: Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Steps > Resistance. Using a sample CRM rollout, participants see how the model works as a multiplicative formula, where a weak or missing factor can stall a change effort entirely. Participants then apply the formula to a real organizational change they're facing, breaking it into its four elements, and discuss their results with a partner to identify their strongest motivators, weakest variable, and sources of resistance.

This module teaches how to build a case for change by surfacing dissatisfaction with the status quo. Participants practice creatively identifying what's broken in the current situation ??? including long-standing workarounds and "that's just the job" inefficiencies people may not even recognize as problems ??? and framing the pain of staying the same as greater than the uncertainty of changing. Participants also learn to isolate their critique to only what the change actually addresses, rather than piling on unrelated frustrations or bashing coworkers, since people still have to return to work the next day regardless of the change.

This module teaches how to build and share a vision for change that gets people on board. Participants learn to paint a concrete, day-in-the-life picture of the future state (using a "walk the morning" technique to show what daily work looks like post-change), craft a vision using the criteria of being simple, motivational, emotion-triggering, and end-in-mind, and co-create parts of that vision with their team using "Yes, and" acceptance versus blocking to decide which ideas to incorporate.

This module teaches participants how to plan communications for a change initiative by identifying different audiences and crafting targeted talking points for each. Using a worked example built around a company re-organization (covering managers of affected teams, managers of other teams, individual contributors, and the rest of the company), participants see how communication needs, channels, and "what's in it for me?" messaging shift depending on an audience's role in the change. Participants then apply this same structure to a change they're leading, mapping their own audiences, each group's role in the change, and the specific talking points that will help that group buy in.

This module teaches leaders to anticipate and plan for resistance to change rather than being surprised by it. Participants learn five common sources of resistance ??? people, processes, relationships, physical/location obstacles, and technology ??? and how resistance must be outweighed by the combined pull of dissatisfaction, vision, and clear first steps. They then practice the pre-mortem tool: imagining a change has already failed, working backwards to identify what went wrong, and scoring each risk by likelihood and impact to prioritize what to fix. Participants apply this directly to their own change goal, naming likely points of failure in their first steps and drafting mitigations for their highest-scored risk.

This module introduces the Change Style Indicator (CSI), a self-assessment that identifies personal preferences for initiating and responding to change. Participants take the CSI quiz and learn the three style profiles it measures???Conservers, Pragmatists, and Originators???including their typical behaviors, what each looks for in a change plan, and how each style tends to resist change. Through self-assessment, small-group breakout discussion with others who share their style, and a full-group debrief, participants examine how their own style shows up under change, what they need from other styles to succeed, and what they offer in return.

This module teaches the "change personas" framework, based on Everett Rogers' diffusion of innovations research, for understanding why people respond so differently to the same organizational change. Participants learn the five adopter categories???Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards???and how to identify each in their own teams. Through self-assessment, peer mapping, and small-group discussion, participants map their own change persona and those of colleagues, then build "what's in it for me" messaging and communication strategies tailored to each persona, including how to apply Crossing the Chasm tactics and adapt approaches for heterophilous versus homophilous organizations.

This module applies the DISC framework (Eagle/Dominance, Parrot/Influence, Owl/Conscientiousness, Dove/Steadiness) to leading organizational change. Participants learn how each DISC style typically reacts to change, what it needs to feel supported, and how to tailor messaging accordingly. Working in groups, participants apply the Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Steps > Resistance change formula to a real organizational change (framed around a "Sales Assistant" rollout, which generalizes to any change initiative), customize key messages for each DISC style, and build an audience-by-audience communication plan covering project role, benefits, and communication needs. The module closes with self-reflection on participants' own DISC style and how to support a colleague with a different style through change.

This module recaps the core tools from the Leading Change workshop and helps participants consolidate how they'll apply them going forward. It revisits the Change Curve, the Change Formula (Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Steps > Resistance), and the Change Communication Plan, then guides participants through discussion of how they've used these tools since the original workshop, what's worked, and what's still unclear. Participants close by reflecting on whether they achieved their personal goal and committing to specific tools they'll apply to themselves and their team.