The start
Steve (site HR Director) invites us to deliver a 3 day Navigating Change workshop to 12 senior managers. His Glasgow site has enjoyed years of profitable success: a flagship in a global chemical firm. Recently losing their local marketing operation to centralisation, and shortly afterwards their 2 biggest customers (40% of their sales), dealt a heavy blow. In response the site leadership team has developed a 5 year "view" and 6 "must win battles" to create a sustainable future. This entails closing production lines, 77 redundancies from a workforce of around 650, new shift patterns and innovating to provide new income. Success depends on senior managers becoming capable leaders of change.

What happened?
The site leadership team attended a 1 day run-through, during which they faced up to their sense of powerlessness. They learned about transition, practised working through resistance and benchmarked their progress against an 8 step model of change, and discovered a renewed sense of alignment, control and optimism.

A month later 12 participants arriving at the 3 day workshop felt overwhelmed by the enormity of projects they were due to lead and their energy was low. They worked in trios as coaches to one another, understanding their personal reactions to change, developing practical project plans and practising difficult conversation with stakeholders. Our lunchtime walk on the hill above the factory provided fresh air and a new perspective.

When Peter the site MD visited for a Q&A session the second evening, the strength of the group was palpable and in his words "I had difficulty in prising my way in". This was not what he or we had intended. Some of the questions seemed "a bit aggressive" and he found himself reacting defensively.

By the end
By the third day participants were aligned and enthusiastic, sharing the burden (see participants’ feedback). In a follow-up meeting 3 weeks later participants were "on the same page", ready to work together, but afraid and doubtful about their capability. The leadership team committed to provide direct input to projects, and continuing peer to peer support.