Imagine Your Change Efforts Running Smoothly!
… where your senior leaders are aligned behind the change’s
direction and strategy, and the people effected by the change
support its intended outcomes
… where your effort has been given adequate resources to
succeed, and people have freed up enough time and work capacity
to effectively make the change happen
... where course corrections to your change strategy and plan
occur effortlessly, and people pursue what is best for the
enterprise rather than their own self-interests
What would it take to make all of the change initiatives in your organization run this smoothly? Executive-level sponsorship is key.
Excellent Change Sponsorship Delivers Tangible Results
- Greater alignment throughout your organization about what is best for the enterprise
- Increased clarity of organizational priorities and commitment to them
- Increased speed of change and reduced human and capital costs
- Less politicking at the executive level, and reduced resistance to providing required support across boundaries
- Increased collaboration regarding the best use of resources, and less unhealthy, internal competition
- Increased stakeholder engagement
- Sustained momentum throughout the challenges of implementation
- Faster and smoother course corrections to your change strategy and plan
Discover What Sponsorship Really Requires
Being First has been researching what makes transformational change efforts succeed and fail for nearly thirty years. One key fact emerges:
Sponsorship is a bigger and more critical role than most executives believe or understand.
In this program, your executives discover what sponsorship really means, and identify the gap between their current sponsorship activities, and what is truly required of them to succeed. They see the value of good sponsorship and develop the necessary skills to excel at it.
Keep Your Change Efforts from Faltering
When change efforts sputter, the cause can all too often be traced back to inadequate executive sponsorship. Traditionally, sponsors set direction for the change, provide resources, and determine the timeline. Then they hand off the change to others to execute with little further participation.
On the surface, because of their executive role, that makes sense. But in fact, it is inadequate, and will limit the success of your
transformational change efforts every time.
Good sponsorship is especially critical when your change efforts are transformational, because in transformation, people and process challenges arise that only executive sponsors can resolve. This program will teach your executives the unique dynamics of transformation, and how to identify the challenges to which they must respond.
Determine Your Sponsors’ Best Level of Involvement
You do not want your sponsors to micro-manage or be too involved, yet you cannot afford them to be too distant either. When you need them, they have got to be there.
In Sponsoring Transformation, your executives learn how to identify their ideal level of involvement. For instance, project teams often discover after the hand-off that the direction the sponsor specified lacks definition or is too narrow in scope, as are the resources provided and the timeline for completion. But they are stuck with these requirements because the sponsor is inaccessible to them. The change effort then struggles because the required course corrections cannot be made.
These types of road blocks will no longer occur in your change efforts after
Sponsoring Transformation, because your sponsors will understand their unique role, responsibilities, and ideal level of involvement. They will know how to interface with their senior change leader and his or her project team(s). They will understand how best to work with their executive peers to ensure sustained resources and support through implementation. They will be clear about who is responsible for what, and just when, where and how they as sponsor should contribute strategically to the change.
Learn the Eight Key Skills of Effective Change Sponsorship
Change sponsorship carries specific responsibilities and requires unique skills. In this program, your executives will
dramatically increase their ability to sponsor transformation successfully by developing skills in these eight critical areas:
- Set the Direction
Your executives learn to: (1) articulate clear desired outcomes for the change, including organizational/technical and human/cultural requirements;
(2) clarify how the change supports the business strategy execution; and
(3) ensure that a viable change strategy is developed and communicated.
- Get People’s Attention
They discover how to: (1) overtly demonstrate early on, through word and action, that this change effort is real;
(2) champion the change over time so people realize that it has staying power and will continue to receive the required attention and resources, and
(3) wake up stakeholders to the realities of the change by clearly articulating how the change effort will impact them personally.
- Ensure Executive Support
They learn how to develop and sustain support from their executive peers by:
(1) articulating how the desired outcomes serve the business strategy;
(2) keeping their peers abreast of what will be required of them, their people and resources to support the change throughout implementation; and
(3) providing mechanisms to manage the interface of the change with the ongoing operations for the combined good of both.
- Model the Way
They discover why they must: (1) model your desired culture in word, behavior and action;
(2) actively engage in his/her own personal mindset and behavioral changes as required by the change; and
(3) frequently ask for feedback about his/her personal style and its impact on others and the success of the change.
- Secure the Resources
They gain insight about their role in: (1) committing the resources required to achieve the change;
(2) adjusting the resources as needed throughout the change effort; and
(3) ensuring that the effort is staffed with adequate change support skills (i.e., change leadership, project management, employee engagement, and communications.)
- Free Up the Capacity
Your executives learn to: (1) reprioritize operational goals as needed to make room for the change;
(2) reprioritizes people’s workloads who must devote time to the change: and
(3) establish a realistic pace and timeline for the change given the resources available.
- Monitor the Process
They learn to establish mechanisms to: (1) stay informed about the change effort’s progress;
(2) adjust the direction and scope as needed; and (3) hold change leaders accountable for fulfilling their agreements and meeting objectives.
- Remain Actively Engaged
Your executives learn how they can best: (1) keep the change leaders and key stakeholders informed of information impacting the change:
(2) remove organizational barriers as needed; and (3) participate in critical change tasks as requested.
Real Skills, Real Actions, Real Results from Change
Sponsoring Transformation teaches your executives the real skills they need to champion change efforts that deliver maximum results. This program transforms their understanding of sponsorship, and develops their commitment and ability to excel as a sponsor of transformational change. This will impact the quality of their leadership on everything else they do in your organization…guaranteed!
Audience
This program is designed for executives who are or might become sponsors of change in your organization.
Format
Two days, conducted on or off site.
Program Materials
Program materials, included in the tuition, are
The Change Leader’s Roadmap Overview and a Training Manual complete with all key models and tools.
Presenters
Linda Ackerman Anderson or Dean Anderson—authors of Being First’s extensive
body of work—or senior consultants from Being First, Inc.
Call us to discuss how this program can fit your specific
change leadership development needs: 970-385-5100
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