Managing Change for Small Business Leaders

Most small business owners struggle to successfully implement and sustain change in themselves, their team and their business overall. Research shows that 50-70% of change initiatives fall short of achieving the outcomes identified at the beginning of the change effort. Why? Because they focus on trying to manage concrete projects and tasks and underestimate the importance of managing the much messier, more emotional and less rational side of change – the people side. This program equips participants with the fundamental skills and knowledge they need to lead and manage both planned and unexpected change. Regardless of whether they have initiated the business change themselves or have had change forced upon them by external forces, participants will gain valuable skills, knowledge and perspective on the human side of change that will help them more confidently move their team in the direction they want their business to go.

Instructional Objectives:

The following topics will be covered:

Day 1 – Fundamentals of Change Management
- Fundamentals of change management
- Types of change
- Key change management research and models
- Understanding resistance
- The barriers to change
- Key drivers of successful change initiatives
- Change management roles in a small business and who should play them
- Identify change management issues and opportunities
Day 2 – The Kyosei Thrive Model for Building Thriving, Change-Resilience Cultures
- Overview of the Kyosei Thrive Model for personal and organizational change
- Developing a fertile change culture in your small business
- The intersection of employee performance, engagement, resilience and change
- The role of communication, emotional intelligence, trust and teamwork in thriving on change
Day 3 – Personal Strategies for Managing Change
- How to use the Kyosei Thrive Model for assessing change readiness (in yourself and your employees)
- Assess what stage of change you are in for each of the changes you are planning or managing
- Identify personal strategies for thriving during change
- Develop your personal action plan
Day 4 – Evaluate the Change Impact
- Articulate the change
- Identify the purpose and benefits of the change
- Identify the consequences of not changing
- Identify all stakeholders and how the change will impact them
Day 5 – Evaluate Business (and Individual) Readiness
- Tools to evaluate how your team/organization stacks up against critical success factors for change
- Assess the change readiness of your team
- Assess the change readiness of your customers and suppliers
- Identify key opportunities and priorities to enhance change readiness
- Increasing change readiness with a planned change vs. an unexpected change
Day 6 – Formulate Your Change Management Vision, Goals & Strategy
- Characteristics of an effective change vision
- Identify success criteria
- Develop a business case for change (confirm if the change is worth it)
- Clarify change roles
- Identify change resources (or lack of them)
- Get input from key change influencers to form your strategy
- Document your change vision, goals and strategy
- Communicate your change vision and strategy
Day 7 – Develop Your Change Management Plan
- The difference between a project plan and change plan
- Essential elements of a change management plan
- Setting concrete and realistic goals
- Scaling your change management plan to suit the size of your organization
Day 8 – Implement Your Plan
- Methods for communicating the change vision
- Strategies for involving people in the change effort
- Agile planning and project management foundations
- Tools for managing resistance
- Celebrating small successes
Day 9 – Adjust Your Plan
- Adjust your plan as you go
- Methods of evaluating success
- Keeping your finger on the pulse
- Involve stakeholders in adjusting the plan
Day 10 – Sustain the Change
- Challenges with sustaining change
- Sustaining vs. amplifying change
- Change and learning
- The leader’s role in sustaining change
- Tools for sustaining change
- Create your action plan to sustain and amplify change

Measurable Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the training participants will:

Create a clear vision of the change(s) they want to create in themselves, their team and their business
Understand the stages people go through in dealing with change and transition and the needs associated with these stages
Be able to identify what stage their employees are at based on the emotions and behavior they are seeing
Identify the specific actions they can take as leaders to help their team learn to thrive during the transition rather than getting stuck in resistance or creating chaos
Identify the key leverage points for managing their own stress and enhancing their ability to thrive during the change
Clearly articulate a change vision, change management strategy and change management plan for a change initiative they are working on
Have tools for implementing and adjusting their change plan
Be prepared to sustain and amplify the change once initial change goals are achieved
Note: Participants will submit three assignments (Change Strategy, Change Plan, Personal Change Plan) over the course of the program that will solidify their ability to successfully apply the desired change in their business. These assignments are evaluated as either complete or incomplete depending on whether or not they are sufficient to guide the small business owners change efforts successfully. If this is not achieved from initial submission, feedback is given to the participant and they have an opportunity to re-submit their assignment. The goal of this program is to have participants leave feeling equipped to manage change in their business, so usability of the assignments is what our evaluation is based on.

Program Dates and Duration:

The program runs for 10 weeks from 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Upcoming start dates:

April 22nd, 2021
July 8th, 2021
To register email info@kyoseiconsulting.com with the name of the course and your preferred dates and you will be sent a registration and payment link.
E-mail waitlist@kyoseiconsulting.com to be notified of future dates. Please include the full name of the program in the subject line.
Investment is $5997 plus GST