TMP Course Descriptions: Period 2

General Summary: Most organizations do not lack analytics, ideas, or change processes–they struggle with the people side of executing. This course promises you will better understand why change fails and the adjustments you can make to lead change successfully.

Primary objective: Help students understand the emotional processes that lead to engagement with and commitment to change. As organizations and the environments in which they operate get more complex, change management is becoming exponentially important.

Outcomes: While the focus is not on change theory, students will be introduced to a cursory review to understand the emotional process’s significance better as it relates to change. Students will learn to embrace resistance, be a non-anxious presence during change, understand how leaders get sabotaged and diagnose systemic dynamics that undermine change initiatives.

Course Outline:

Day One: We will explore change theory and popular change processes. Particular emphasis will be on white water, a metaphor change leadership expert Peter Vaill uses to explain the dynamic environment in which change occurs. He argues, “No sooner do you begin to digest one change than another one comes along to keep things unstuck.” We will discuss why people naturally resist change and strategies for embracing the resistance.

Day Two: We will cover why leaders resist embracing change feedback. Ironically, the more things change for the better, the more discontent people become. Abraham Maslow referred to the phenomenon as the Theory of Rising Expectation. We will learn strategies for receiving critical feedback and interpreting it. We apply the concept of Force Field Analysis to a change initiative.

Day Three: We will discuss how leaders create a sense of urgency about the need to change. Ronald Heifetz suggests, “The role of leadership is to create enough discomfort that people feel the need to change and to create a safe enough environment in which they can change.” We will talk about how to create a safe environment for change.

Day Four: We will explore the concept of incremental change and its relation to transformational change. The day will focus on the managerial leader as a change agent and exercising transformational leadership. The four stages of transformational leadership critical to leading change are self-leadership, one-on-one leadership, team leadership, and organizational leadership. We will discuss each of the stages and self-reflect on strengths and weaknesses.

Day Five: We will discuss the importance of empowerment in the execution of change. Recognizing when people and organizations are stuck is critical to understanding how to initiate and manage change. The life cycle of organizations, products, and processes indicates how emotionally ready an organization is.

The content of this course is theoretically based, and practitioner-proven (the why and how of successfully leading change). Participant learning will result in self-efficacy and observed competence.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to appreciate the wisdom of NASA’s Rule #15: “A review of failed projects and project problems indicates that the disasters were well planned to happen from the start. The seeds of problems are laid down early. Initial planning is the most vital part of a project.”

This course features a strategic approach to initial project planning that is missing from conventional Project Management methods. The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) offers a powerful interactive planning/action tool and a step-by-step process to successfully tackle complex problems, projects, issues, and opportunities of all types.

The LFA combines key concepts from Strategic Planning, Project Management, Team-building and the Scientific Method into a practical system that adds exceptional value and clarity in virtually any setting.

This flexible system enables you to:

• Get great ideas off the ground faster to achieve results quicker
• Eliminate project–stopping problems in advance
• Get everyone on the same page and focused on key Objectives
• Clarify success in advance to reduce finger-pointing and blame­­­­­­
• Improve cross-functional teamwork and accountability
• Reduce the stress and frustration
• Develop achievable plans everyone can believe in and follow
• Increase ability to execute and multiply the odds of project success.

Psychology has traditionally studied individuals, couples, and organizations in difficulty. Most theories and therapies are based on the work with these groups. But this problem-oriented focus has limited the usefulness of psychology in helping people to create and sustain success. There is a body of research that has sought to understand the traits and behaviors of people and organizations that succeed in the areas of career; building healthy, productive work relationships; and maintaining good physical health. The studies reach surprisingly consistent conclusions regarding the skills that allow us to create, maintain, and enhance success. In this hands-on course, you learn the skills of creating and sustaining excellence in the workplace through a lively mix of lecture, film, live demonstrations, case studies, and role-play scenarios.

Topics include:

• The 4 Skills of Successful People and Organizations
• How Successful People Change
• Strategies for Coping with Adversity in the Workplace
• The Essential Skill to Look for in an Employee or Colleague
• Preventing Conflict and Maximizing Collaboration
• Dealing with the Emotional Challenges of Managing People

Skilled communication impresses colleagues and customers, promotes the effective flow of information, and creates a more harmonious and productive business environment, while poor communication skills can cause confusion, frustration, misinterpretation, inefficiency, and lost business. Moreover, ineffective communication can limit a technical professional’s potential growth and value to the organization.

This course provides a set of communication tools, techniques, and strategies to address communication challenges, including:

• How to cultivate and strengthen relationships with colleagues
• How to effectively communicate and interact with people whose personality and behavioral styles are different from yours
• How to get colleagues/clients to make and keep commitments
• The key elements of effective and productive meetings
• Strategies and techniques to establish and strengthen credibility
• How to avoid ambiguity, assumptions and confusion
• Dealing with indecision—how to get decisions so you can move forward
• How to motivate colleagues (in spite of lack of authority)

Self-assessment surveys are used so you can learn about your communication tendencies and how to be more effective in dealing with colleagues who are different. Best practices are stressed along with a set of tools and techniques that can be applied immediately to improve your confidence, credibility and effectiveness when interacting with others. Real-life scenarios are included to assist with the application process.