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Change Management Training Session July 28th, 2014
Written by Leah Tussman, Co-Director of Training and Development
On Tuesday, July 8, 2014, Endeavour Volunteer Consulting for Non-Profits (Endeavour) held a training session for its consultants and engagement managers participating in its 14th round of engagements.
Before each round Endeavour provides an orientation session and two training sessions to support consultants and engagement managers. The two and a half hour training sessions address topics that are relevant to the volunteers for their particular round. Often, one of Endeavour’s Advisory Committee subject matter experts will present on a specific topic and provide valuable insight and expertise. The training sessions are a great opportunity for consultants and engagement managers in different groups to meet one another, work together on different activities, and learn from one another’s experiences.
In this round, the engagements range from marketing and rebranding strategies to strategic planning. The last training session focused on creating an effective marketing strategy and team building. As groups are now more than halfway through their engagements, the training session addressed preparation for the final client presentations and change management.
Change management is an important component of any consulting engagement where recommendations include actually implementing change. Change management was identified as an important training topic since the majority of clients are seeking to do things differently, whether it is improving communications, expanding, or rebranding. Judy Fantham, Head of Talent Management at the Ontario Nurses’ Association and former Endeavour Advisor and current Advisory Committee member, led a session called Managing Change on Endeavour Projects.
During her presentation, Judy led the consultants and engagement managers through an activity that illustrated the discomfort and awkwardness that often accompanies change. This activity provided a useful basis for the “change map” she discussed. The “change map” is a framework that is applicable to any consulting engagement. It includes assessing the purpose for change, understanding the context for change, ensuring that all parties impacted are aligned and supportive, exploring what is in and out of scope and finally, figuring out how to involve everyone.
Throughout her presentation, Judy referred to different projects and explained how change management was important in each context. She discussed change management through the case study of the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families in Harlem as well as through her own experiences with change management in various roles throughout her career. The feedback from the consultants and engagement managers on Judy’s presentation was very positive and many felt that the session was relevant to their projects and informative.
In the second half of the training session, I provided some guidance on the final client presentation where the groups will close out their projects with their clients. While the projects will not be finalized for a few months, the last training session provides an opportunity to examine, as a group, any outstanding aspects of a consulting project and reflect on work that has already been completed.
The session addressed best practices for the final client presentation and outlined Endeavour’s expectations such as ensuring that the project advisor and an Endeavour executive attend the presentation and provide Endeavour with an evaluation matrix to measure the success of the engagement. One of the most valuable parts of the session were the testimonies of the senior consultants who were able to speak to the group about their own experiences in past final client presentations.
At the end of the training session, we asked everyone to fill out a feedback form. This provided the Training and Development team with insight into what went well, areas for improvement, and ideas and suggestions for future training sessions. I want to thank everyone for their participation and feedback and I wish all the groups a rewarding engagement!
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