What happens when theory becomes reality

It’s not everyday an executive interrupts your workshop for your participants to join a company-wide surprise announcement from the CEO. When the workshop reconvened after a short break, it was immediately apparent the leaders were digesting the announced multi-million dollar budget cuts and likely staff layoffs rather than the next section of the five-day leadership program.

Most would agree that some of the most effective learning outcomes come from working through scenarios and examples which are relevant, concrete and readily applicable to the participants involved. This is often achieved by drawing them out of participants through discussion or creating ‘real-life’ case scenarios. So considering this very real-life scenario had presented itself, the opportunity to facilitate an ‘in the moment’ change management session was an opportunity not to be missed. In addition to being a fantastic learning opportunity, there was also a true and justified urgency for these leaders, as they faced the challenge of communicating and leading their teams through a tumultuous time for this organisation.

After a complete reshuffle of the day’s itinerary the session catapulted into change management, with talks around change theory and discussion of what this change meant for them as leaders, their teams and the organisation as a whole. As we talked through some of these concepts we could see some people actually experiencing what we were talking about at that very moment—the importance of emotional intelligence and self leadership became glaringly apparent. Using our concept of Community of Leaders, we got them to start working in small groups on exactly what they needed to do to effectively lead through this sudden, imposed and out-of-their-control change. Each person was in a slightly different situation, but they all knew they had real leadership challenges ahead of them.

Using frameworks we gave them and using the expertise and experience of the different people in the Community of Leaders group, each person was able to discuss their situation as well as help others with theirs. This sharing of ideas, experiences and expertise was invaluable in many different ways. By the end of the afternoon, each leader had carefully thought through the change and had formulated a plan and a number of solutions. It was rewarding to sense the tension and stress dissipate from the room and be replaced by a real sense of purpose and belief that effective leadership through this change, although challenging, was highly achievable.

As one participant noted, if we had presented this change situation as a scenario or role play, it would have been dismissed as unrealistic for this organisation. It certainly made for an exciting and effective day of leadership development.