Change Management
Training Exercises and Resources

This is a powerful exercise that can help managers to understand what their team thinks of the organisation’s structure. Such structures are used by companies in order to communicate their vision with staff on how the company is managed so the whole company can work together as a well-functioning team.

Any such structures may be subject to change. This could be because of market change, new products, new competitors, new vision, new management and so on. It is important to educate the team about the new organisational structure and this is when this exercise comes in handy.

The aim of this exercise is to find out what the team thinks of the company or organisation as a whole. It is simple to execute and if carried out well, it can be quite powerful. It is the kind of exercise that delegates remember for quite some time to come.

This exercise is ideal for change management, team building and understanding how various parts of an organisation communicate and interact with each other. You can customise the exercise to explore how the organisation already works or how it should work.

This exercise is ideal for delegates who work together or are part of the same organisation. Ideally someone from the management team should also be present during this exercise to listen in and take notes on what delegates share.

This is a powerful exercise that demonstrates why change should not be imposed. The likelihood of resistance is much higher when people are not consulted on change. This is why they should be involved in the decision-making process. It is a novel exercise since it can be shocking just as you tell them what they need to do which in turn makes delegates remember the exercise well. Hopefully, when it comes to imposing change in the future, they remember the exercise and refrain from doing it.

Before going through this exercise make sure you can use it with your specific delegate. You will need to handle this with care specially when it comes to the sensitive part as you will see. Only conduct this exercise when you have gained enough rapport and established your authority as a trainer so that in case there is some resistance, you can handle it with ease.

Use this icebreaker to help people get to know each other more. It provides a structured approach so that the most is gained from the introductions in a short amount of time.

It has become fashionable to place motivational posters on the walls in the companies. Depending on the nature of the organisation, this can be seen in two ways; a propaganda campaign by the management to make the workers work harder or an attempt to remind the workers of certain values held by the organisation.

With the first view the posters may look nice but usually do little to lift moral, educate or motivate. Various formats are used but usually those that have a generic picture with some bland slogan are the ones that are despised the most. They usually have a dark background, a central picture and a slogan at the bottom. Most often these slogans are single words, such as “Prosperity”, “Motivation”, “Ambition” or “Stability”. Perhaps, the idea is that by seeing “Motivation” (and some random picture) on the wall every day, people become more motivated!

Well, you need to make a bit more of an effort than that to motivate people.

Posters which are used in the workplace to remind us of the organisation’s values are often not very effective. They might be noticed the first time seen on the wall but it is then filtered out the same way we filter out those motivational posters or intrusive advertisements.

Both of these views seem to be problematic although the general ideal of being repeatedly reminded of something is a good one. In fact, productivity gurus have been recommending using this technique for years and if implemented well they can have great effects.

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.

This exercise helps delegates to understand the importance of focusing and concentration when they are in a fast changing environment.

This exercise helps delegates to understand the importance of several key principles, such as “Parkinson’s Law” as well as managing their performance in the face of change or increasingly challenging environments. It is also useful for teamwork, decision making, leadership and creativity. You can use this exercise to teach “Parkinson’s Law” in a time management course.

This exercise is suitable for delegates who are going through change or there has been significant change at work. Can be used as part of a change management course as well.

In this exercise, delegates explore the implications of stress and how it affects their workflow. In 1936, Hans Selye carried out extensive research on stress. He found that the body goes through 3 stages during distress:

• The body is alarmed
• The body’s resistance is increased
• The duration of the distress causes exhaustion.

These three stages are present in any stressful activity. If we want to get over our stress and reduce its impact, it is ideal to know which one of these is causing most of the problem so we can take steps to improve it.

This exercise uses a simple example to demonstrate the three phases.