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Change Management

Change is such an all-encompassing topic, that it can be difficult to source the right training for your organisation ...

Pearlcatchers can help - by completing a training needs analysis and designing bespoke development programmes on a wide range of topics related to change, such as:

Leading / Managing People through Change

• The link between strategy and leadership.
• Leaders, managers and facilitators - the essential jigsaw.
• Initiating and sustaining sponsorship.
• Change and the individual - maintaining motivation (yours and theirs); supporting employees through the transition curve; managing resistance and conflict.
• Planning for change - gaining support/approval, assessing the impact, involving the team, setting objectives.
• Implementing and managing change - communication - the critical factor; managing by objectives; supporting through training and development; monitoring, evaluating and rewarding; keeping the process alive.
• Change and continuous improvement.

Participating in Change

One of the main reasons employees resist change is fear and anxiety - which translate into stress, resistance and under performance. We can help your employees develop the skills and attitude to embrace change as an integral and welcome aspect of their life:

• Living and working in a changing world.
• Understanding the change process.
• Examining attitudes and fears and managing stress.
• Identifying your personal reactions and overcoming barriers.
• Visualising and exploring future possibilities.
• Contributing to change - communicating your concerns effectively.
• Personal motivation and empowerment.
• Using change as a catalyst for personal and career development.

Facilitating Change

Facilitation has become a key tool for managers and consultants involved in change, as they are required to enable the process of group working:

• Understanding the role of facilitators and how they can add value to groups.
• Mapping the skills and processes of effective facilitation.
• Understanding group dynamics and the impact of the facilitator.
• Different ways of working with groups.
• Managing the early stages and establishing ground rules.
• Potential barriers to achieving group results.
• Maintaining focus and overcoming resistance.
• Understanding your personal impact as a facilitator.

Assessing, Designing and Changing Culture

Corporate culture, once an ivory tower topic for business scholars and sociologists has become an issue of vital concern to managers, executives and consultants on the front lines of change. While most managers are familiar with the concept of corporate culture, many lack a complete understanding of what it is, how it operates and what they can do to improve it.

• Defining culture and why it is so important in business today.
• The origins of culture in an organisational sense.
• Culture - the most fundamental aspect of change.
• The role of leadership in creating culture.
• Methodologies for defining existing culture.
• Using "the cultural web" to design a new culture.
• Understanding the dynamics at play in mergers and acquisitions.
• Business, structural and cultural integration following mergers.
• Developing cultural awareness and agility.
• The impact of globalization and virtual teams on culture.
• Technology, e-transformation and cultural change.

Developing Internal Consultancy Skills

• The role of the consultant - understanding the consultancy model.
• Core consultancy competencies, skills and capabilities.
• The client/consultant relationship.
• Establishing client needs and terms of reference.
• Data gathering, problem analysis and diagnosis.
• Understanding and working with organisational politics.
• Presenting proposals and recommendations.
• Evaluating performance and disengaging.
• The nature of influencing in consulting work.

Project Management

• The role of the project manager.
• Establishing a framework.
• Project definition and risk management.
• Building relationships with stakeholders.
• Planning methodology.
• Motivating participants and team dynamics.
• Influencing key decision makers.
• Progress reviews and reporting procedures.
• Budgets, resources and cost control.
• Closing and evaluating the project.

Strategy Planning and Development

• What is strategy and how is it used in your organisation.
• Exploring strategic models - emergent v planned strategy .
• Operational v strategic thinking.
• Environmental scanning, PEST, SWOT and scenario planning.
• Creating vision and values.
• Harnessing innovation and creativity.
• The link between strategy and organisational change.

Organisational Design, Relationships and Restructures

• Nine principles for creating, designing and implementing structural changes.
• Understanding the implications of "choices".
• Limiting restraints on organisational relationships.
• Meeting the needs of the people and the organisation.
• Testing design options.

Continuous Improvement and the Business Excellence Model

• The concept of continuous improvement.
• Continuous improvement as an approach for sustaining change.
• The Business Excellence Model and its role in managing continuous improvement.
• Exploring the benefits of using the Business Excellence Model.
• Understanding the nine elements and how they work.
• Self assessment - the benefits and pitfalls explained .
• Practical ways to use the Business Excellence Model in your business.
• Understanding the barriers to successful roll-out.
• Using customer/staff surveys and other performance indicators to monitor progress.
• Embedding use of the Business Excellence Model within your organisation.
• Continuous improvement and the link to process mapping and measurement.

Process Mapping, Management and Improvement

• Understanding work as a process.
• Comparing process, project and functional cultures.
• The concept and benefits of process mapping.
• Identifying core and support processes and defining their purpose.
• Recognising the characteristics of an effective process.
• Measuring and analysing the effectiveness of your processes.
• How to map and analyse work processes from a customer perspective.
• Implementing a process management framework.
• The role of measurement.
• Principles for process improvement.
• Process design as a basis for defining structure.

Measuring Success - KPIs and the Balanced Scorecard

• What are balanced scorecards and why are they useful.
• The link to strategic planning.
• Balancing measures - strategic and operational; financial and non-financial; hard and soft; internal and external; short and long term; enablers and results.
• The customer, process, financial and learning perspectives.
• Measures that help and measures that mislead.
• Creating and managing your own scorecard.

The Change Cycle - a Framework for Change

The Change Cycle is a flexible framework, which provides tools and knowledge to move through the various phases of:

• The fundamentals of change.
• The role of the change agent.
• Phase 1 - Recognising the opportunity.
• Phase 2 - Building support for change.
• Phase 3 - Planning for change.
• Phase 4 - Implementing change.
• Phase 5 - Embedding change.
• Phase 6 - Reviewing change.

The Organisational Change Programme

Pearlcatchers Ltd, in association with the Best Practice Club, have also designed the Organisational Change Programme, a series of complementary open courses, which focus on all three of the core attributes needed by effective change management professionals:

• Knowledge to understand the drivers and process of change.
• Familiarity with the tools available to support change.
• Skills necessary to apply the tools/knowledge successfully

The Organisational Change Programme currently consists of four key products:

• The Certificate in Organisational Change - an integrated one-year development programme.
• Development Days - a series of one-day workshops focussing on the skills and tools necessary to support change.
• Expert Seminars - a series of quarterly seminars, providing the latest knowledge and thinking on change matters.
• Change Training for the Future - an exciting one-day event to showcase the latest innovations in change training.

All products within the Organisational Change Programme can be run as either open courses or in-company events, which can be tailored to your specific requirements.

Communication Skills

Communication is at the heart of the organisation; it is the key to organisational success. It exists in everything we say and do - and also in the things we say and don't do. It is the essence of the organisation - it is all pervasive.

As such, communication skills are a core competence at all levels and within all areas of an organisation. Pearlcatchers can help by completing a training needs analysis and designing bespoke development programmes on a wide range of topics related to communication, such as:

Internal Communications

Internal communication is increasingly becoming a key issue for all levels of management as employee commitment is recognised as making the difference between success and failure. To maximise the benefits of internal communications, we can help you to design an integrated communications strategy that demonstrably adds value and links closely to corporate goals.

• Introducing the Communication Chain - a fifteen step framework.
• Understanding culture and the implications for communication.
• Linking internal communication to business strategy.
• Defining audiences, targets and messages.
• Evaluation of over 40 communication techniques and their uses.
• Identifying and implementing support mechanisms.
• Integration and orchestration of the communication strategy.
• Identifying and minimising barriers to communication.
• Measuring success, review and redesign.
• Communication in successful change initiatives.

Communicating in the Modern World

New technology, globalisation and flatter structures have changed the face of communication as we know it. The personal touch is often lost through over-use of e-mails and text messages - not to mention the impact of e-mail overload on both systems and workloads. Pearlcatchers can help change the communication culture in your organisation by educating your employees both on how to apply new communication techniques and embedding the concepts of good communication, whatever the method.