The Activity

All Change sets up a simple situation: an organisation, spread across two sites in the city is about to move to a single site, outside the city.

The move will cause disruption in a number of ways. For some staff it will mean a longer commute, for all it will mean moving from a city-base to a rural environment. The computer systems to be installed at the new location is familiar to staff in one of the two sites, but not the other. More staff are to be recruited and some job roles will change. The changeover is due to take place in one year’s time.

Faced with this situation teams are asked a crucial question:

What major considerations and challenges can you identify for a smooth and seamless transition to the new site - and exactly how would this work?

You can instruct all teams to work on the question from the managers’ point of view OR, for more learning points at the end, you can have one of the teams working from the staff viewpoint.

Participants should identify the issues arising for managers including forward planning, peoples’ resistance to change, the problem of poor communications, not giving staff ‘ownership’, the importance of being straightforward and honest, and breaking down silo mentality.

For issues arising for the staff undergoing the change, they should identify a convincing reason why the change is necessary, clarify the rewards, positive outcomes and benefits, and recognise fears and concerns around uncertainty, redundancy and losing the status quo.

Trainer's Role

• Briefly introduce the topic of change. (Trainers can use this after their own input on change - or beforehand to reveal participants’ thinking at the start.)
• Divide the group into teams of approx. 3-6 per team.
• Issue one or more copies of the Team Brief to each team. It contains details of the proposed change and a map showing the existing sites and the new, single site.
• Simply allow teams about 40 minutes to study the Brief and formulate a ‘change’ plan. Teams look at the situation from a management viewpoint. Alternatively you can have one of the teams looking at it from the staff viewpoint.
• Teams can go into as much depth as you/they choose although no further information is supplied. (The session is about working in general terms rather than the specifics of this particular scenario.)
• At the end of the allotted time ask each team to prepare a brief presentation about how they would tackle the problem. Then ask teams in turn to present.
• Lead an informal discussion with the whole group to summarise their different approaches, priorities and plans and identify any shortfalls and potential problems.
• Use Handouts 1 & 2 to consolidate the learning. First is a list of key points you would expect teams to cover (and outlined in the Trainer’s Notes). The second is a Seven-Step guide to handling change successfully. Issue this as an aide-memoire for participants to take away.

Pack Contents

• Trainer’s Notes
• Team Briefs
• Handout: Key Points
• Handout: Seven Key Steps to Effective Change