Feeling the pain of being at the centre of change?...

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Do you work in a role that puts you in the middle of organisational change? If so, you know all about the mess, tension, and soup of confusion and contradictions that come with being a 'change agent'. Senior leaders may instigate change, but the people tasked with that are often internal (and external) consultants, business partners, Organisation Design and Development practitioners, business architects and change managers.

 

What's in a name?

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The different labels mask the similarities. All these roles put you front and centre of change initiatives, and often make you the node through which the tension and crazy flows. That can be by turns exciting, stimulating and challenging, and at its worst downright stressful, confusing and exhausting. Doing your job well may mean having the courage to ‘speak truth’ to those with more power than you: doing the 'right thing' may feel like – and in some instances be – a career-limiting move. Unlike external consultants, you don't have other clients to fall back on.

 

Getting support and challenge is not always as easy as it seems

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Being a change consultant or practitioner can be a lonely experience. Organisations are often poor at making the distinction between functions, departments and roles that 'do' change, and the practice of facilitating change in human systems. That's worse when an organisation frames change as something to be 'landed', 'driven', 'managed' and 'delivered', whilst simultaneously in denial of (or overriding) disagreements, tensions, conflict and differences to deliver the 'To Be'. If going from an 'As Is' to a 'To Be' were that easy, then all we would need would be a Programme Office and a project plan…

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In this interview, I share my OWN experiences and thoughts on what it means to be at the centre of change. 

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The offer

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Develop alongside peers, whether inside or outside of your organisation, through attending a series of practice supervision groups. This kind of space is rare, and we’ve designed this programme to plug a gap. It’s an opportunity to:

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• Bring the questions and challenges that you are wrestling with;

• Chew over the prickly and thorny issues that arise when you are working across multiple levels and functional boundaries;

• Explore the contradictions and absurdities that arise when organisations try to change;

• Work on your relationship with power, and how to challenge (up) effectively;

• Make sense of your ethical stance and choices around where you need to go and what you are prepared to do;

• Get support and challenge to help you make sense of how things are;

• Work with others who are in a similar boat and learn that you are far from alone.

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So in a nutshell this is a rare chance to experience jargon-free peer learning grounded in the messy and dirty reality of what it means to be asked to change organisations.

 

Who you will be working with

 

Steve Hearsum has over twenty years' experience spanning internal and external consulting roles. In recent years, he has spent a lot of time working with internal change practitioners to develop their consulting skills. This spans accredited programmes, working with intact teams and coaching individual practitioners. In short, he knows being on the inside is not easy.

 

It's a win for organisations as well 

 

Being part of these sessions will support you in several ways:

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• Fulfil better the purpose of your role(s), not just your job description;

• Gain access to the 'useful difference' of collaborating with peers on the challenges you face;

• Increase your ability to disrupt the narrative around you appropriately;

• Use the viewpoints of others to reveal how things are;

• Design interventions that make a difference.

 

How it works

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There are two options, on-line and face-to-face, the latter being longer to allow for the way conversations inevitably unfold and need more time in a physical space. 

 

1. On-line. Maximum group size of eight, meeting once a month for six months and each session will be three and a half hours long, typically running 1:30pm to 5pm.

2. Face-to-face. Maximum of ten people, and each session a day long, meeting at 9:30am for a 10am start, ending at 4:30pm. 

 

We will cover

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• Session one grounds and connects people and the context(s) you bring;

• After that, we experiment with different ways of 'flexing your practice muscles', building capability to run similar groups yourselves and, crucially, helping you find your edge and stretch, personally and in your practice;

• Models and theories will be offered to support inquiry and build and blend with personal and group learning. There will be no Silver Bullets and guaranteed solutions on offer, as they do not exist.

 

Pricing is simple

 

Face-to-face: If an organisation is paying for you, the cost is £1,900 + VAT. If paying for yourself, it is £1,140 + VAT or the equivalent of £190 + VAT per session.

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On-line: If an organisation is paying for you, then the cost is £1,300 + VAT for all six sessions. If you are paying for yourself, it is £840 + VAT or the equivalent of £140 + VAT per session.​

 

Dates

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Cohort #6 (face-to-face), 9:30am for 10:00am start until 17:00pm:

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• 7th Jan 2025

• 4th Feb

• 7th Mar

• 4th Apr

• 16th May

• 13th June

 

Venue: TBC, likely Farringdon area in London.

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Cohort #7 (on-line) - 1:00pm to 5:00pm each day.

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• 14th Jan 2025

• 11th Feb

• 18th Mar

• 22nd Apr

• 20th May

• 24th June

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