Change Management Skills for Project Managers Training Course

Course overview

Project managers are often accountable for delivery milestones while adoption risks sit outside the formal schedule. A new process, system, operating model or governance change can be technically complete yet fail because affected teams were not prepared, managers were not equipped to lead the transition, or resistance was discovered after rollout. This course helps project managers integrate structured change management into project planning, governance and delivery so that business readiness receives the same discipline as scope, cost, schedule and risk.

Participants learn to diagnose the people-side impact of a project, segment stakeholders, assess readiness, and build a practical change strategy. The course applies the Prosci ADKAR Model alongside project management artefacts such as stakeholder registers, risk logs, integrated plans and status reports. Participants practise impact assessment, sponsor engagement planning, communications design, resistance management, change network planning, training needs analysis and adoption measurement. They also learn how to present change risks and readiness decisions clearly to steering committees.

Instruction combines facilitated teaching with a running project case study, worked examples, peer review and hands-on planning workshops. Each participant develops a Change Management Integration Plan for a live project or supplied case, including stakeholder analysis, change impact matrix, sponsor and communications plan, resistance actions, readiness measures and a 90-day implementation roadmap. The completed plan is structured for use with a project charter, RAID log and delivery schedule rather than as a separate HR document.

The course is designed for intermediate project professionals leading business, digital, process or organisational change initiatives. It is particularly valuable where project success depends on new ways of working, system adoption, cross-functional collaboration or behaviour change across multiple stakeholder groups.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Conduct a change impact assessment that identifies affected roles, processes, behaviours and transition risks
• Map stakeholders using influence, impact and readiness criteria to prioritise engagement actions
• Build an ADKAR-based change strategy aligned to project scope, milestones and governance gates
• Create a sponsor engagement plan with defined leadership actions, messages and escalation points
• Develop a targeted communications plan using audience segmentation, channels, timing and feedback loops
• Manage resistance through structured diagnosis, coaching conversations and documented response actions
• Define readiness and adoption measures for dashboards, RAID logs and steering committee reporting
• Produce a project-ready Change Management Integration Plan and 90-day adoption roadmap

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Project Managers — who must deliver projects whose benefits depend on stakeholder adoption
• Senior Project Managers — who lead complex cross-functional transformations with significant people impacts
• Programme Managers — who need to coordinate change activity across multiple projects and business areas
• PMO Managers — who establish governance, templates and assurance for change-enabled delivery
• Business Analysts — who translate process and system changes into role-level impacts and requirements
• Implementation Managers — who prepare operational teams for system, process or service transitions

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience working on projects and be familiar with core project concepts such as scope, milestones, stakeholders, risks, issues and governance reporting. Experience using a project plan, RAID log or stakeholder register is helpful because exercises connect change activities to these artefacts. Participants should bring details of a current or recent project if possible, although a realistic case study is provided. Prior formal change management training, certification in Prosci or PMI standards, and expertise in organisational psychology are not required. No specialist software configuration skills are needed.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses instructor-led explanations to establish each method, followed by guided application to a running transformation case and, where appropriate, participants’ own projects. Workshops use stakeholder maps, impact matrices, ADKAR assessments, communications calendars and RAID-log entries rather than abstract discussion. Small groups test sponsor messages, respond to resistance scenarios and review each other’s plans against delivery milestones. Daily outputs are progressively assembled into an end-of-course Change Management Integration Plan and a prioritised 90-day application roadmap.

Course outline

Day 1: Integrating change management with project delivery

• Project delivery success versus business adoption success
• Change management roles within project governance
• Prosci ADKAR Model and project lifecycle alignment
• Change complexity and people-risk assessment
• Linking change risks to the RAID log
• Defining change deliverables and workstream ownership
• Establishing baseline readiness and adoption assumptions

Workshop: Participants analyse a transformation case and produce an initial change risk profile linked to project milestones and RAID entries.

Day 2: Stakeholder and change impact analysis

• Stakeholder identification across operational and leadership groups
• Influence-impact-readiness stakeholder segmentation
• Role-based change impact assessment
• Process, technology, policy and behaviour impact categories
• Change impact matrix design and prioritisation
• Stakeholder personas and engagement needs
• Dependency mapping across project workstreams

Workshop: Participants create a stakeholder map and role-level change impact matrix for the case project, then prioritise the highest-risk groups.

Day 3: Sponsorship, communications and engagement

• Sponsor coalition assessment and activation planning
• Visible sponsorship behaviours and leadership routines
• Audience-specific communication objectives
• Message architecture for awareness and desire
• Communication channel selection and campaign timing
• Change champion network design
• Feedback loops and stakeholder listening methods

Workshop: Participants build a sponsor action plan and phased communications calendar with messages, owners, channels and feedback measures.

Day 4: Readiness, resistance and capability development

• ADKAR diagnostics for individual and group readiness
• Resistance signal identification and root-cause analysis
• Resistance response planning and escalation routes
• Manager coaching conversations during transition
• Training needs analysis by role and task
• Performance support and reinforcement mechanisms
• Readiness criteria for pilot, deployment and handover

Workshop: Participants work through a resistance scenario and produce a readiness assessment, response actions and role-based learning plan.

Day 5: Measurement, governance and implementation planning

• Adoption metrics and leading readiness indicators
• Benefits realisation and behavioural outcome measures
• Change dashboard design for steering committees
• Integrating change actions into Microsoft Project and Jira plans
• Change control implications for people-side impacts
• Sustaining reinforcement after go-live
• Ninety-day change implementation roadmap

Workshop: Participants present their completed Change Management Integration Plan and produce a prioritised 90-day roadmap for sponsor review.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Project, Jira, Miro, Prosci ADKAR Model

A typical training day

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

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions