Increase engagement and performance during change by improving communication throughout your organisation over the next 30 days.
Feel confident that your team know how to support their people during change.
A one day program for your nominated leaders, HR or Change teams.
Storytelling for Change
“Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people.”
- Stephen Covey
It’s hard to know what to say when things are changing
You’re a good leader that cares about your people and wants to get it right. You’ve got lots of change happening, that you know is going to impact your team but you don’t know how to best help them through it.
With increasing workplace complexity and information overload, effective communication about change has never been more important.
For many change programs, lack of clarity and poor expectation setting for leaders at the beginning of a change program cause real delays and damages further down the road.
Often senior leaders or middle managers who are impacted by the change and also expected to lead it become paralysed or overwhelmed by the change and feel disempowered, so the very people you need to own and lead the change become passengers. We also know that times of change can be really stressful for the people in your business, which can really impact their wellbeing – as well as the organisation’s performance.
Trust is at the centre of any change
People’s perceptions are based on what they hear and see from you as their leader. They are constantly assessing what you say and what you do to try and understand what it means for them and whether they trust you to look out for their interests. In the absence of information from you, they will make up stories that make sense to them - true or not.
Does this sound like you?
You worry that if you tell the team what’s really happening, they’ll leave.
You worry that the team will get distracted by the change and you’ll struggle to get through everything you need to do.
You know that last time the change was received really badly, so you don’t want the team to think the same thing is happening again.
You know a lot of decisions haven’t been made yet so think there’s no point saying anything.
You don’t agree with the changes that are being made - so struggle to talk to your team about them.
Are you implementing a change and worried about what your team are going to say about it?
Are you trying to explain what the change means for your team when you do not yet know what it means for you?
Is the emotional load of answering everyone’s questions wearing you down?
Understanding how your leaders feel about telling the story of the change can help determine what support they might need.
The Journey
You’ll walk away from this program with….
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Storytelling Skills
Understanding what makes a good story and how to use storytelling to create trust, engagement and empowerment.
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Diagnosis
Understand the concerns and challenges your team face with communication for change and agree what to do about them.
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Agreed Principles
Some agreed principles tailored for your organisations that outline how you will communicate about change.
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Your own change story
Draft and test your own change story during the session.
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Three stories to help you with change
Develop three stories to tell during the change program to help you and your team communicate effectively for change.
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A common message
Agree a common message for your leaders as the foundation of the change program.
This program is ideal for you if:
● You genuinely care about getting outcomes for both the business and people
● You have a difficult change to implement and are worried about how it will be received
● You want to build capability for future change programs
● We connect and know we can work in partnership
● You can commit the time for your leaders to work on this
This program is not ideal for you if:
● You can’t make the time to get your leaders together to work on this.
● You want someone to help you deliver or do it for you.
● You want to keep the change completely secret until you know everything
Clarity: Your team want clarity about what is changing, what is staying the same, and why.
Trust: Every time you talk to your team they are assessing how much they can trust of what you say.
Empowerment: It’s important that as a leader you create an environment where people have a say in the decisions that affect them, and the opportunity to actually do something when the decisions are made.
Trusted change stories
How the day works
A one day workshop with your nominated leaders, built on three themes: create clarity, build trust and empower your team. Leaders work on your actual change throughout, so they leave with messages they can use the next day.
Also available as a keynote or webinar, or as a half day workshop.
Program Components
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Trust
What actually creates trust during change, and why your people are assessing everything you say against their experience of the last change.
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Clarity
The ten questions your teams want answered, and how to be clear and consistent when not everything has been decided, using the Comms Builder.
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Everyone has a role to play
How to help your teams make sense of the change, and a simple weekly routine that keeps the messages consistent from one layer to the next.
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Telling your change story
A simple, reusable storytelling framework and the three stories every change leader should have. Leaders draft and test their own change story in the room.
What’s included:
The Program Includes:
A full day communications and storytelling workshop with your nominated leaders setting the fundamental principles of good communication and how to create engagement, while workshopping the key messages for you and your team.
Supporting Collateral:
The Storytelling for Change workbook, one per leader
The Practical Guide to Storytelling ebook, one per leader.
A short email series after each workshop to reinforce learning
The Adaptive Change Leadership Diagnostic for every leader.
The Communicating Change ebook, one per leader.
A one page tips card for every leader.
The communications builder to help you build your comms messages
What People Are Saying
“Percolating on the need for storytelling in organisational change. I can think of many ways to adopt the 3 things she talks about, that resonated well. Thanks for the opportunity to go deeper in the conversation.”
Senior leader, NSW
“I loved your research and reminder how important it is to equip supervisors and managers, and how to do it. As change people we know this but it often falls into the too hard basket.”
Manager, NSW
“I thought the presentation was very good in terms of content, duration and your delivery style. The three themes of creating clarity, caring enough to tell the truth, and everyone having a role to play are easy to digest and start the thought process of how to apply. For a 45-odd minute session I got so much out of it and am already planning the application for my team.”
Director, WA State Government
About Dr Luella Forbes
I've spent 25 years delivering and consulting on large transformations, mergers and restructures for global organisations including KPMG, Chevron, Prudential and Mercer. I was a Program Director for one of Australia's largest super-fund mergers, led part of the COVID response for WA and I've helped organisations create engagement, and commitment to deliver significant change my whole career.
What makes me unique. I bring my experience as a leader, program director and organisational change thought leader to find the balance between delivery and culture that creates the best environment for change.
Key achievements. Australian lead for KPMG's global Change Management and Change Leadership methodology for 8 years, now used across all KPMG member firms. Program Director for Mercer's acquisition of BT Super and Advance, a $60m programme moving $65bn of AUM and 880,000 members. Program Director, VaccinateWA, winner of the IPAA WA award for Best Practice in Digital Transformation 2021. At least 15 formal consultation processes run with employees and unions, with no formal issues raised and no delays to implementation. Coached more than 100 leaders through implementing organisational restructures, including KPMG's national Partner in Charge and 60 lead partners through its own 1,400 FTE restructure. Led KPMG's Perth People and Change practice for two years, with a 97 per cent engagement score, the highest nationally.
Change and storytelling expertise. 2 x Doctorates in Change, Leadership and Storytelling. Thesis title: “Storytelling for Change: Telling Trusted Change Stories”.
Media. Reviews from ANZOG and IPAA on the role my leadership played in the VaccinateWA program. Thought leadership on organisational transformation from my KPMG days.