Change Management: From Past to Present

Purpose

This exercise helps the delegates to examine our changing world and provides an opportunity to discuss what it means for future. You can use this as part of a change management course or to run it for staff who are subjected to a change management programme.

Objective

Discuss the evolution of change on a particular topic based on the images provided.

What You Need

• Pictures that represent change. These are sets of images from past to present on a particular topic. Here are some examples:
  • Evolution of telephone, from old dial phones, to landlines, to brick cordless phones to mobile phones to smart phones. A great poster on evolution of phones can be found here.
  • Computers
  • Cars
  • Bicycles
  • Fashion
  • Music players
  • Hair styles
  • Singers
  • Actors
  • Movies
  • Interior design
  • Shopping behaviour
  • Overall attitudes in society
  • Roles (from being a daughter, to a sister, to a wife, to a mother and to a grandmother)

Setup

• Divide the delegates to groups of 3 or 4. Make sure there is an age variation in each group.
• Give one set of images on a particular topic to each group at random.
• Ask the groups to discuss the changes that took place in that topic based on experience and memory while getting inspired by the images.
• Naturally, those who are older can talk about the past and explain how they had to deal with the change at each stage.
• Encourage groups to discuss the significance of these changes in the society and also specifically in their own lives.
• Encourage groups to talk about the future of that topic, what they expect to happen next, how it would impact their organisations, what they should do to prepare for it.
• Allow 10 minutes for this part.
• Collect all images and distribute a different set of images to all groups.
• Repeat as before for another 10 minutes.
• Repeat for a third round and then bring back everyone together.
• Follow with a discussion.

Timing

Explaining the Exercise: 2 minutes

Activity: 10 min * 3 rounds = 30 minutes

Group Feedback: 10 minutes

Discussion

What do you think of change? Is it inevitable? How does it affect us all? What should we do to survive a change? What areas do you expect to be most challenging in the future in terms of change and what can you do about them now to stay one step ahead?