Management
Leading change with the Kotter method
Reorganisations, relocations, new processes, new tools — change programmes fail on adoption far more often than on strategy. Two days on Kotter's eight steps, applied to a change you are actually running, so you leave with a sequenced plan rather than a model.
What you will be able to do
- Understand the human mechanisms of change, and adapt your posture as a manager accordingly
- Master the 8 steps of the Kotter method to steer a transformation project in a structured and effective way
- Identify and lift individual and collective resistance using communication tools and transactional analysis
- Mobilise key people around a shared vision and a coherent action plan
- Anchor change durably in the culture of your team or organisation
Programme
Opening and framing: where do you stand on change?
- Cross-introductions and the change projects each participant brings
- Your personal relationship to change: anchors, beliefs, posture
The natural stages of change: why people resist
- The main psychological phases of change (the change curve, behavioural models)
- Identifying which stage each team member has reached
- Practical tools: ownership, factual communication, transactional analysis
- Role-play: adapting what you say to the other person's profile
- Workshop: mapping your team in the face of change
The Kotter method, the frame that structures everything
- The 8 steps, from a felt sense of urgency to cultural anchoring
- Why each step matters, and what happens when one is skipped
- Concrete examples: reorganisations, relocations, service changes, customer transformation
Workshops: your change plan in action
- Working groups by project or by team, with canvases, step sheets and analysis grids
- Creating urgency, forming the coalition, building the vision
- Communicating, removing obstacles, creating quick wins, anchoring
- Trainer feedback on every piece of work, and public-speaking tips built into the workshops
Putting it into action and commitments
- Sequencing the change over time and choosing progress indicators
- The actions to launch the following week
- Three concrete commitments per participant, and cross-presentation of the action plans
Why this course
Reorganisation, relocation, process transformation, a changing customer journey: change is everywhere. Yet transformation projects most often fail for lack of method and buy-in rather than for lack of strategy.
Built on the Kotter method, the course is designed as a real, immersive working experience you can use immediately. You work in real time on your own change, with your team, alongside an expert, and leave with a clear vision, concrete tools and an action plan ready to deploy.
What you will work through
- Understanding why your team members resist, and how to bring them on board
- Structuring your change project step by step with the Kotter method
- Working in workshops on your own project, real or simulated
- Leaving with a concrete action plan, tested and validated by the group
- Developing your posture as a leader of change
One day or two
The one-day format covers the 8 steps, tests the method on a concrete case and gives you an initial action plan. The two-day format is recommended for structuring and launching a change with your team: the workshops go further, and each of the 8 steps is worked through in depth.
Questions about this course
Can we run this with an entire management team on our own project?
That is the format we recommend. In-company, with the team that will actually carry the change, the two days stop being a course and become a working session facilitated by a third party. The output is a plan the team has argued over and agreed, which is worth considerably more than the same plan written by one person.
What if our change is already under way and going badly?
Then bring it. Kotter's sequence is just as useful for diagnosing which step was skipped as for planning from scratch — and in practice most stalled projects skipped the coalition or the vision. Expect the first half day to be less comfortable than in a greenfield group.
Is one day enough instead of two?
One day covers the model and gives each participant a first draft plan. Two days add the workshop where the plan is tested and rewritten, which is where most of the value is. We run the one-day version when a group needs a shared vocabulary quickly, and the two-day version when there is a real project to move.
Do participants need prior management training?
No. This course is about the mechanics of a transformation rather than about day-to-day management, and project leads with no line-management responsibility get as much from it as managers do. Bringing both to the same session usually improves the room.
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