How to Ride the Winds of Change Without Getting Blown Away: Thriving in Organizational Transitions
This interactive workshop is designed in two phases. Phase I is for everyone in the organization, helping leaders and employees alike to deal with the emotional side of change and transition, minimize disruption, and retain/regain productivity as quickly as possible. Phase II is only for leaders who have the task of taking others through transition process. Phase I of this workshop is a prerequisite for Phase II.
Phase I
Format: ½ day; interactive format
Who Should Attend: All organizational members
Change is always disruptive, but unwelcome, imposed change can be particularly difficult. Shock, confusion, anxiety, depression, and grief can send people reeling, and they wonder, “Why’s this happening to me?” The ability to come to terms with disappointments, imposed challenges, and even personal disasters requires critical transition skills, coping strategies that everyone needs. In today’s ever-changing world of work and in personal life, no one is exempt from having to use them all too often. Encountering experiences that “just weren’t supposed to happen” is inevitable; letting them rob you of ultimate success is optional.
The winds of change do not have to bring a devastating personal hurricane. This workshop shows participants how to weather the storms of work life, make the necessary transitions, and actually become stronger in the process. (These skills work at home, too!)
Below are some of the outcomes people will achieve from this workshop:
- understand the important difference between “change” and “transition;”
- identify the four “hardiness factors” that predict how an individual will weather change;
- explore the five emotions that most often plague people during imposed change and learn do-able strategies for dealing with them (not stuffing them) and moving on;
- privately scan their past change experiences for leftover emotional “debris” and find out how to clear it away;
- learn the three stages of transition and the telltale signs of each stage;
- find out how to move through each transition stage while minimizing stress and maximizing learning.
Phase II: How to Ride the Winds of Change without Getting Blown Away
Format: ½ day, interactive format
Who Should Attend: Leaders
Transition difficulties are personal and emotional. Individuals resist letting go of what was and being willing to invest in what can be. They express this resistance in denial, anxiety, anger, depression, and grief. Given the fact that the difficulties in transition are emotional, transition leaders need special skills and tools for taking team members through the confusing terrain of organizational change.
Phase II of How to Ride the Winds of Change without Getting Blown Away is designed to prepare leaders to:
- assess their own acceptance/resistance to the proposed changes;
- explore ways their own emotions are unintentionally transmitted to employees;
- diagnose the stages of transition of their team and of individual members;
- implement leadership actions that enable people to let go of the past with honor;
- put to work leadership strategies to help employees not get stuck in the confusing “wilderness’ stage of transition;
- take compassionate and bold action to help people taste the benefits of new beginnings;
- use 6 critical communication strategies that inspire employees to faster buy-in and greater investment.