UNDERSTANDING CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Altering everyday office software, updating operational processes, or shifting leadership teams might seem simple on paper, but real-world execution requires a sophisticated toolkit. Adopting a rigid, unyielding approach to workplace transitions creates immediate corporate tension, leaving employees too afraid of making errors to speak up about their confusion.

This Change Management online course builds active, hands-on site awareness instead of just memorising facts. By prioritising ethical management practices and constructive feedback loops, you will learn to align corporate directors with general staff, alleviate workforce anxieties, and ensure new operational procedures are genuinely effective.

Duration - 20 hours of self paced study

COURSE CONTENT

This course has six lessons as follows:

Lesson 1 SCOPE AND NATURE OF CHANGE

• Introduction
• Types of change in a business
• Specific types of change in business
• Tools for identifying change is needed
• Case study: magazine failure
• Review what you have been learning
  
  

Lesson 2 ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT (OCM)

• Introduction
• The pillars of organisational change management
• The development of an OCM strategy
• Types of organisational change management strategies
• Ethical change management in organisations
• Case example: changing how the sales team works
• Case example: getting the ocm approach completely wrong
• Review what you have been learning
  
  

Lesson 3 FORCES OF CHANGE

• Introduction
• 7 Common change process models
• Case study: company restructuring
• Case study: developing environmental awareness
• Case study: introducing new software
• Case study: introducing new literacy teaching in a primary school
• Review what you have been learning
  
  

Lesson 4 RESPONSES TO CHANGE

• Introduction
• How does organisational change impact people?
• Resistance to change and employee doubts
• How to counter resistance to change
• Reverting back
• Case example: Daniel Dissents
• Responding to staff transparently
• Review what you have been learning
  
  

Lesson 5 CHOOSING A BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE APPROACH

• Introduction
• 3 Steps in choosing a relevant approach
• Stages of behavioural change model
• Planning for change: different approaches
• Review what you have been learning
  
  

Lesson 6 BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE TECHNIQUES

• Introduction
• Case example: martin (finally) loses weight
• The staircase model: an example of persuasion
• Professional development as a behaviour change technique
• Case example: obtaining marketing qualifications
• Review what you have been learning
• Final assessment

Learn to appreciate and work with the Inevitability of Change

Forces, such as new technology, competition, resource availability and so on can be an impetus for change. For example, new technology may make certain tasks easier and require less workers.  An increase in competition in the market where you sell your goods could mean that you need to change, diversify, reduce costs and so on.  A lack of suitable staff can mean that you must reconsider how your organisation is run and how you get new staff.  A new technology could also mean that more staff are required at the start to programme or install the technology. It may require new staff to maintain the technology. Trainers may be needed to train staff in how to use it.  

However, forces can also oppose change, resulting in the maintenance of the status quo.  This could be resistance from staff against a new technology or making new staff uncomfortable, so they leave.

In any change process there are forces for stability acting against forces for change. These two opposing pressures will interact. They need to be identified, understood, and managed, for change implementation to be effective. 
Forces of change might include technology, supply/cost of materials and support services, market competition changes, and staff changes (quantity, quality, availability, attitude etc).

Forces against change i.e., forces for stability, might include complacency, fear of change, difficulty in retraining, cost (monetary as well as damage to attitude, staff motivation, relationships etc), disruption of group performance norms and more.