Change Management Training Workshop - Phase 1

Hoorah!  On Wednesday afternoon I delivered a change management (based on ITIL) training workshop to the IT managers of multiple councils as they are working in partnership to deliver shared IT services.  I spent quite a lot of time preparing the materials for it as, knowing my audience, I wanted to be sure I had things they could take away and refer to when I'm not around and to consider which questions were likely to arise that I would need to answer.  The training packs were made up of some change management basics, process framework document, process diagrams, copy of presentation slides and a little 7Rs of Change Management laminated card.

I'd originally scheduled 3 hours for the session to allow for lots of discussion (again, knowing who would be present).  I surprised myself by keeping everyone on-track so that we actually finished in just over 2 hours.  I think this was due to a few factors,  My preparation headed off potential questions and that facilitation training continuing to pay off (thank you Cathy) ;)  My agenda for the afternoon was:

1. Purpose of session
2. Presentation - 'Let's Have Some Change Management - with a Dash of Pragmatism'
3. Normal Change Process (using process framework documentation)
   
4. Emergency Change Process (using process framework documentation)
5. Exercices (1: Name that change 2: Roleplay an emergency change with some curveballs throw in)
   
6. Wrap-up Discussion
   
7. Feedback forms (I believe in self-improvement)
   

I was expecting quite a hard time from some of them - so I was pleasantly surprised that each manager present was taking notes and asking pertinent questions.   The only negative feedback I had was that some of them think we should wait until we have the new ITSM tool in place before introducing change management.  As all you ITSMers out there will know it's crucial to get the process agreed, documented and tested before implementing it in a tool - so I'm not too concerned about this point (although it certainly would be great if a more appropriate tool were in place to support the process in the meantime (and no - this is not an invitation for vendor spam thanks!).

Only time will tell how effective or not the workshop was.  The next stage is rolling out training to all the IT staff.  It certainly achieved it's objective in educating them in the basics of change management, terminology, process, etc.  One of the feedback forms actually showed that they thought they knew a lot going into the session, then coming out realised how much they didn't know and have yet to learn ;)

It's times like this that I wish I would be there for the duration of the journey - letting go is never easy is it?