A CLIENT CENTERED APPROACH

TO

Managing Change, Leading and Consulting

The Concept

This programme will help anyone who works as a change agent, helping, influencing or advising individuals or teams. They could be:

Leaders and line managers who want to adopt a more collaborative style to maximise the commitment of their people to change initiatives

Internal Consultants who facilitate change in their own organisations without formal authority and who are committed to working with their clients in a client centred way. They are likely to work in functions like

H.R. Training, IT, Business Consulting, Finance and Audit, Continuous Improvement, Marketing, Change Management, Customer Care, Systems Development.

Successful Change Management

To manage change successfully you have to work hard to:

• Increase everyone's ownership of and commitment to change
• Empower people rather than manipulate or coerce them
• Clarify the implications of change and its impact on the people
• Focus on strategic rather than tactical change, moving away from the ‘quick fix' to long term solutions
• Acknowledge and work with organisational culture and its effect on change initiatives
• Solve problems so they stay solved
• Acknowledge that change is not just about imposing procedures, it involves dealing with people and their resistance to change

Aims

We aim to help participants learn:

• How to build effective working relationships with their clients
• To negotiate and clarify a working contract
• Which intervention style to use
• The best methods for giving feedback to clients
• How to help clients diagnose the problem and make a decision
• How to maximise client commitment
• What to do when clients fail to implement the solution

As well as helping them to develop a high level of self awareness and self-esteem.

The Programme is Successful Because

• The event is treated as a real change management assignment not a course.
• There are no role plays or simulations; instead participants build practical skills working with real clients with real problems
• There is an opportunity to experience every phase of the consulting process.
• Participants receive constructive feedback throughout the programme.
• We help participants increase confidence and develop the underlying self-awareness needed to confront new and difficult situations.

We run six 5 day open programmes each year and can provide in-house events over 3-5 days depending on specific objectives.

Mike Buckley of Tearfund came on the programme recently and said:

Client Centred Consulting and Change Management was unlike any other course I’ve been on. I learned a huge amount during the five days about consulting skills, about myself, and about how I can implement my learning, in large part because the course is so practical. There’s no sitting around and gazing at powerpoint, its action based learning from the start. The focus is on becoming competent in consulting skills rather than simply on learning information which you have no idea how to apply. The opportunity to engage with my own and other participants’ real life issues meant that doing the best consultancy job during the week mattered; this too contributed to my learning as I really wanted to do a good job for the others involved. In conclusion I would highly recommend this course. It has changed the way that I work and given me a new set of tools to use in my professional life which I have already been able to use effectively.