Innovation & Change™ | Change Management Training Activity

Teams examine basic details of a (real) sandwich shop based in a tourist city. They receive photographs giving lots of clues about the business (so the information is not all data-based). Later teams are issued with more clues in the form of a questionnaire that was completed by the current business owner.

Based on their analysis of all the information, teams are asked to propose a set of realistic, changes that in their view would improve the business. They then work on a short presentation, listing the innovations they would like to see. The team presentations are then discussed and evaluated.

What issues do teams flag up? All the likely suggestions are listed in the Trainer’s Notes - but it is not definitive. Participants will have their own, innovative ideas. This leads to a general discussion on innovation and change. Finally a second set of photographs is issued, showing what really happened when changes were made by a new owner. The changes are interesting and did work - profits went up! How many of the teams' ideas matched those that were put into practice by the new owner? How good were teams at deciding what could be changed for the better?

Attention now turns to participants’ own situations. It’s easy to see problems in others and say where change is needed, but can teams identify shortcomings in their own environment, practices and procedures - and performance? The aim is to generate ideas that will improve performance back at work, based on the approach they adopted with the sandwich shop.

• Thinking innovatively and having a positive attitude to change
• Practising innovative thinking with a 'real' a situation
• Seeing the benefits of innovative thinking and positive outcomes of change
• Applying innovative thinking to performance improvement
• Increased confidence in looking for ways to improve

1. Introduce the activity and issue Team Briefs and a set of photographs (The Sandwich Shop)
2. Allow teams to study the materials, come up with their ideas and prepare a convincing presentation. After an allotted time, issue Questionnaire results if teams have not already asked for it.
3. Hear team presentations and discuss. Points listed in the Trainer’s notes should be covered. Note how much or how little teams want to change, what innovative ideas they put forward, how good their ideas are, how reasonable their findings are.
4. Issue the AFTER set of photographs (Cham Deli) to show what really happened. Summarise the issues that are raised.
5. Move on from the sandwich shop to participants’ own organisation and situations. Can they identify areas that need change and innovation in order to improve their performance?
6. Issue a copy of the Action Plan and allow time for teams to complete - then discuss.
7. Issue the Key Points handout for each person to discuss and/or take with them to serve as a reminder.

Full guidance supplied in the Trainer’s Notes.

Hard & Digital Copy

• ☑️ Hard copy pack supplied
• ☑️ PDFs supplied

Digital Copy

• ☑️ PDFs supplied

Contents

• Trainer’s Notes
• Team Briefs
• Photographs - before
• Photographs - after
• Handout 1: Questionnaire Results
• Handout 2: Key Points
• Handout 3: Action Plan

This activity is for face-to-face and virtual classroom use. The digital files are supplied via the Northgate Trainerhub.

This Northgate Training activity comes with a five-year licence for repeat use with up to 24 participants at a time, for use by Trainers based at one licence-holding site.

All Trainers physically based at the same office location can access the Northgate resources during the five-year term, including the digital resources supplied on the Trainerhub via your own site-specific Trainer Dashboard. If you have Trainers based at other locations, and/or remote workers, who would like to access and use the Northgate resources, we can advise further depending on your requirements.

For further information on our licence terms please view the Northgate Licence Agreement.