Change Management: Leading Agile Systems Change Management

Change is now and forever. It is not optional any more than breathing and sleeping and doing it well is a requirement of organization health. Learning to capture the competitive advantage of a changing landscape is an essential skill for leaders.

This course is based on the forty five years of experience helping companies like Merck, Shell Oil, Honeywell, Honda and dozens of others to create cultures of engagement and continuous improvement.

There are three major topics of the course. The first two, which may be optional, are the background knowledge of the research on change efforts and the lessons learned, and previous models of change management. The third is a six stage model of leading change in a manner that maximizes engagement and reduces resistance. The method of change presented in this course is whole-system design that engages stakeholders in the creation and implementation of change.

The course contains fifteen assignments that lead the student through the design process, 24 downloadable resources, including the complete set of 180 PPTs.

Two of the most important words in change management are engagement and resistance. Change management consultants are often hired to overcome resistance to proposed changes. The problem is that management often creates that resistance by failing to engage employees and other stakeholders in the analysis and decision process that leads to the change. This course presents a comprehensive and proven method of engaging all stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, and employees in the developing the change that can transform a company's performance and culture. When stakeholders are engaged in creating the change two things happen: first the quality of decisions improve and second, there is little resistance to the implementation of that change.

Lawrence Miller has forty five years of field experience helping companies like Merck, Shell Oil, Honeywell, Coca-Cola, Honda America, Mack Trucks and dozens of other major corporations as well as smaller entrepreneurial companies to create and manage change. He is the author of eleven books and has about 300,000 students in his online courses.