Change Communication Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Change Managers, Project Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CM-119

Before you join: Participants should have experience working on, managing or supporting a change initiative, project, departmental improvement or policy implementation.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Change programmes fail or stall when people receive incomplete messages, hear different accounts from different leaders, or cannot see how decisions affect their work. Poor communication creates rumours, resistance, repeated clarification work and weak adoption. Communication leaders must turn programme decisions into credible messages, equip managers for difficult conversations, and create channels through which concerns can influence implementation.

This course develops the communication discipline needed to support organisational change from early announcement through adoption and reinforcement. Participants use ADKAR, Kotter’s eight-step process, the Bridges Transition Model, stakeholder mapping, message maps and communication planning techniques. They learn to segment audiences, identify change impacts, write plain-language messages, plan manager cascades, handle uncertainty, respond to misinformation and measure whether communication is producing awareness, understanding and action.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with cases drawn from restructures, technology implementations, policy changes, service redesign and mergers. Participants analyse stakeholder concerns, assess messages, develop communication plans, practise manager responses and interpret communication data. Each participant leaves with a reusable change communication plan, stakeholder analysis, message map, manager briefing pack and measurement dashboard structure that can be adapted to a current workplace initiative.

The course is suited to managers and specialists who must communicate change, whether they work in government, financial services, NGOs, healthcare, infrastructure, technology or multinational operations. It is particularly useful where change affects multiple employee groups, regulated communications, frontline delivery teams or geographically distributed workforces.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose communication risks using change impact assessments and stakeholder analysis
  • Segment stakeholders using power-interest grids, personas and salience criteria
  • Apply ADKAR, Kotter’s eight-step process and the Bridges Transition Model
  • Create message maps with evidence, audience value propositions and calls-to-action
  • Build an integrated change communication plan with channels, owners and milestones
  • Equip sponsors and managers with cascade briefings and difficult-question responses
  • Design two-way communication channels and feedback-loop processes
  • Measure communication effectiveness through surveys, pulse checks and adoption indicators

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produces credible change messages from complex programme information
  • Handles employee concerns without speculation or defensive responses
  • Gains a repeatable method for planning communication across change milestones
  • Builds confidence briefing managers, sponsors and affected employee groups
  • Uses communication evidence to recommend corrective actions to programme leaders

For your organisation

  • Reduces rumours and inconsistent messages during significant organisational change
  • Improves manager readiness to explain local impacts and required behaviours
  • Targets communication investment at high-risk audiences and adoption barriers
  • Creates visible feedback loops between employees and programme decision-makers
  • Provides evidence on communication reach, understanding and behavioural adoption

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can distinguish change communication from project reporting and identify communication risks affecting adoption.

  • Communication failures that create uncertainty, rumour, resistance and implementation delay
  • The sender, message, channel, receiver and feedback model applied to change
  • Distinguishing project information, change communication and employee engagement
  • Case for change linked to operational, customer and risk outcomes
  • Early communication risks identified through force-field analysis
  • Communication accountabilities across sponsor, programme, manager and change-agent roles

Participants can identify priority audiences and determine their communication needs, influence and adoption risks.

  • Stakeholder segmentation using power-interest grids and change impact assessments
  • Persona cards capture affected groups' needs, concerns, language and access
  • Salience model distinguishes power, legitimacy and urgency among stakeholders
  • Map informal influencers, union representatives and sceptical opinion leaders
  • Prioritise audiences by adoption risk, operational dependence and communication need
  • Validate stakeholder assumptions through interviews, observation and listening channels

Participants can sequence communication according to stakeholder readiness and transition stages.

  • ADKAR diagnoses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Kotter's eight steps translated into communication milestones and leadership actions
  • Bridges Transition Model separates endings, neutral zone and new beginnings
  • Match messages to recipient readiness, losses, motivations and confidence
  • Sequence communications around decision points, training and go-live dates
  • Identify transition risks requiring targeted manager conversations or sponsor intervention

Participants can create audience-specific messages that explain change credibly and prompt action.

  • Message map structures core statement, proof points and calls-to-action
  • Write case-for-change messages without jargon, false certainty or untested claims
  • Tailor value propositions for executives, frontline teams, customers and partners
  • Translate technical design decisions into operational consequences and required behaviours
  • Use plain-language principles to improve readability, comprehension and recall
  • Test messages for credibility, relevance, consistency and emotional impact

Participants can build a governed communication plan linked to programme milestones and responsibilities.

  • Communication strategy defines objectives, audiences, messages, channels, owners and measures
  • Build a communication plan aligned to the integrated change plan
  • Channel selection balances reach, richness, accessibility, confidentiality and feedback
  • Create communication calendars tied to milestones, dependencies and decision gates
  • RACI clarifies approval, drafting, delivery and escalation responsibilities
  • Governance routines manage version control, sign-off and message consistency
  • Plan translations, accessibility formats and local adaptations without changing intent

Participants can equip leaders and managers to deliver consistent local change communication.

  • Executive sponsors communicate visible commitment through repeated, specific actions
  • Manager cascade briefings equip supervisors to explain local implications
  • Leader talking points distinguish confirmed facts, assumptions and pending decisions
  • Train managers to handle questions using acknowledgement, clarification and follow-through
  • Change-agent networks provide peer explanation, sensing and feedback routes
  • Escalation protocols route sensitive questions, misinformation and unresolved impacts

Participants can establish feedback channels that surface concerns and support responsive implementation.

  • Two-way communication converts employee feedback into visible change decisions
  • Listening sessions surface concerns, workarounds, equity issues and adoption barriers
  • Open-question techniques elicit evidence rather than defend predetermined answers
  • Psychological safety supports candid questions during uncertain transitions
  • Resistance analysis separates legitimate concerns from misinformation and active opposition
  • Close feedback loops by publishing actions, rationale and outstanding issues

Participants can communicate difficult decisions and uncertainty while protecting trust and confidentiality.

  • Rumour-control protocol identifies, verifies, responds and monitors recurring misinformation
  • Risk communication explains uncertainty, mitigations, ownership and review dates
  • Prepare messages for restructures, technology failures, delays and policy reversals
  • Non-defensive responses preserve trust when leaders cannot disclose details
  • Conflict de-escalation uses interests, options and agreed next steps
  • Media and social-media boundaries protect confidential change information

Participants can evaluate communication results and recommend corrective actions using relevant evidence.

  • Communication objectives translated into measurable awareness, understanding and action indicators
  • Baseline surveys establish comparison points before major communication interventions
  • Pulse checks measure message recall, confidence, concerns and channel usefulness
  • Dashboard combines quantitative data, qualitative themes and operational adoption signals
  • Analyse segment differences to target remedial communication and manager support
  • Report findings with recommendations, owners, deadlines and decision implications

Participants can prepare a practical first-stage communication plan for a live change initiative.

  • Integrated communication plans connect stakeholder needs, milestones, channels and measures
  • Review message maps against change impacts, risks and leadership commitments
  • Prioritise first 30-day actions using urgency, dependency and audience exposure
  • Define weekly governance checkpoints, listening routes and escalation thresholds
  • Personal application plan identifies a live change, sponsors and next conversations
  • Quality assurance criteria test plan feasibility, coherence and stakeholder response

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Change communication plan template
  2. Stakeholder segmentation and impact analysis
  3. Audience message map
  4. Manager cascade briefing pack
  5. Rumour and difficult-question response checklist
  6. Communication measurement dashboard template

Who should attend

  • Change Managers — responsible for communication workstreams within transformation programmes
  • Project Managers — need communication plans aligned to delivery milestones and risks
  • Internal Communications Managers — translate programme decisions into credible employee communications
  • HR and People Managers — communicate workforce changes, policy updates and operating-model transitions
  • Operational Managers — explain local impacts and sustain adoption through manager conversations
  • Programme Sponsors — need visible, consistent communication that builds confidence and accountability

Skills and tools covered

Stakeholder segmentationChange message designCommunication planningManager cascade briefingResistance communicationCommunication measurement

Tools and standards

ADKAR Model, Kotter's Eight-Step Process, Bridges Transition Model, RACI Matrix

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce frameworks, followed by case work, group exercises, simulations and structured application planning. Cases include system implementations, restructures, policy changes and service redesign. Participants assess stakeholder risks, draft messages, select channels, prepare manager briefings and respond to difficult questions under realistic constraints. Facilitated peer discussion compares approaches across sectors while retaining attention on confidentiality, credibility and operational consequences. Time is reserved to adapt the methods and templates to a live or recent change initiative.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working on, managing or supporting a change initiative, project, departmental improvement or policy implementation. They should understand basic organisational structures, reporting lines and the purpose of project plans. Familiarity with internal communication channels, employee briefings or stakeholder meetings is useful but not essential. No formal change management qualification is required. The course does not assume expertise in public relations, marketing, behavioural science, survey design or specialist software. Participants benefit most by bringing a current or recent change scenario to use as a reference.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience of working within a project, change initiative, departmental improvement or policy implementation. No formal change management qualification or specialist communications background is required.

Bring details of a current or recent change initiative if confidentiality permits, including its objectives, affected groups, milestones and known concerns. You can also work from the course cases if you cannot discuss workplace information.

It is designed for change managers, project managers, internal communications specialists, HR professionals, operational managers and programme sponsors. It suits people responsible for explaining change or helping others adopt new processes, systems, structures or policies.

A general change management course covers the wider discipline of sponsorship, governance, impact assessment, readiness and adoption. This course concentrates on communication: stakeholder messages, manager cascades, feedback channels, difficult conversations and communication measurement.

The templates can be used to assess a change communication workstream, prepare an announcement, brief managers or improve feedback arrangements. Participants leave with materials structured for adaptation to their own organisation’s approval processes and channels.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. The five days progress from stakeholder analysis and message design to planning, manager communication, difficult issues, measurement and workplace application.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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