Leading for Organisational Impact Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Senior Managers, Department Heads and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-151

Before you join: Participants should have experience managing a team, workstream, project, service or significant improvement initiative.

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

Leaders are often held accountable for results that depend on people, functions and decisions beyond their direct control. A service improvement may require cooperation from operations, technology, finance, risk, suppliers and frontline teams; a strategic priority can stall when ownership, measures and decision rights remain unclear. Leading for organisational impact means converting strategic intent into coordinated action, while managing trade-offs, resistance, dependencies and evidence of value.

This course develops the practical leadership methods needed to connect team activity with organisational priorities. Participants assess strategic context, define outcome measures, translate priorities into OKRs, map stakeholders, build influence plans and establish cross-functional accountabilities. They also apply systems thinking, scenario planning, RACI, risk management, change leadership and benefits realisation methods to initiatives where delivery relies on several parties.

The five-day instructor-led course uses short briefings, sector-based cases, facilitated group work, decision simulations and structured peer challenge. Participants work with a current or planned workplace initiative throughout the course and leave with an organisational impact plan containing priorities, stakeholder actions, governance arrangements, delivery milestones, risks, measures and a 90-day application plan. The course is available in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online and includes a certificate of completion.

It is designed for managers, senior specialists and project or programme leaders who need to achieve results through others, influence decisions outside their reporting line and make strategic priorities operational.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose organisational performance issues using systems thinking, stakeholder analysis and strategic issue statements
  • Translate strategic priorities into OKRs, team accountabilities and measurable outcome indicators
  • Build stakeholder influence plans using power-interest analysis, value propositions and coalition strategies
  • Define cross-functional decision rights, governance routines and escalation routes using RACI and RAPID
  • Create initiative charters, milestone plans, risk registers and execution review routines
  • Lead change adoption using ADKAR assessments, sponsor actions and targeted communication plans
  • Measure benefits realisation through logic models, baselines, benefits registers and outcome dashboards
  • Produce a 90-day organisational impact plan for a current workplace priority

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A clearer method for connecting daily leadership decisions to strategic outcomes
  • Greater confidence influencing peers, sponsors and senior stakeholders
  • Practical language for discussing priorities, trade-offs, risks and benefits
  • A repeatable approach for leading cross-functional initiatives
  • A documented 90-day plan for applying learning to a workplace priority

For your organisation

  • Stronger alignment between strategic priorities, team commitments and performance measures
  • Earlier identification of dependencies, decision bottlenecks and delivery risks
  • More consistent stakeholder engagement on high-priority initiatives
  • Clearer ownership and escalation across cross-functional work
  • Better evidence of adoption, outcomes and realised benefits

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define meaningful organisational impact and distinguish outcomes from activity.

  • Organisational impact defined through outcomes, beneficiaries, constraints and strategic priorities
  • Systems thinking identifies reinforcing loops, delays, dependencies and unintended consequences
  • Distinguishing activity metrics from outcome indicators and decision-relevant evidence
  • Purpose-to-priority line of sight tested against current team commitments
  • Value chain mapping traces how departmental outputs create customer outcomes
  • Boundary choices clarify ownership, influence, escalation routes and external dependencies

Participants can assess the conditions shaping strategic choices and leadership priorities.

  • PESTLE signals translated into leadership implications, assumptions and monitoring questions
  • Porter's Five Forces assesses competitive pressures affecting strategic choices
  • SWOT converted from inventory into prioritised strategic issues
  • Scenario planning develops plausible futures, signposts and contingent responses
  • Assumption mapping separates known facts, uncertainties and beliefs requiring validation
  • Strategic issue statements frame choices, trade-offs and consequences

Participants can convert strategic aims into prioritised, measurable team commitments.

  • Strategy maps connect mission, outcomes, capabilities, processes and measures
  • Balanced Scorecard perspectives prevent financial targets displacing customer and capability needs
  • OKRs distinguish outcome objectives from measurable key results
  • Priority filters assess value, urgency, feasibility, risk and capacity
  • Stop-doing decisions release capacity for agreed organisational priorities
  • Translation conversations link enterprise aims to team accountabilities

Participants can develop stakeholder strategies that build commitment to shared priorities.

  • Stakeholder mapping ranks influence, interest, impact and relationship strength
  • Power-interest grids determine engagement approaches for critical stakeholders
  • Stakeholder value propositions articulate benefits, concerns and required commitments
  • Interest-based negotiation separates positions from underlying needs and constraints
  • Influence plans combine evidence, reciprocity, coalition building and timing
  • Resistance diagnosed through loss, risk, identity and trust concerns

Participants can establish clear accountabilities and decision routes across organisational boundaries.

  • RACI matrices assign responsible, accountable, consulted and informed roles
  • Decision rights clarify authority thresholds, consultation requirements and escalation points
  • RAPID identifies recommend, agree, perform, input and decide accountabilities
  • Cross-functional operating agreements specify handoffs, service levels and meeting cadences
  • Dependency maps expose critical-path risks between teams, suppliers and approvals
  • Conflict protocols address disputed priorities before delivery commitments fail

Participants can organise, monitor and adjust initiatives that deliver strategic priorities.

  • Initiative charters define outcomes, scope, sponsors, milestones and success measures
  • Milestone plans distinguish leading indicators, lagging indicators and review triggers
  • Risk registers record probability, impact, owners, mitigations and contingency actions
  • Kanban boards visualise work-in-progress limits, bottlenecks and flow constraints
  • Weekly execution reviews resolve blockers, trade-offs and resource reallocations
  • After-action reviews capture evidence, lessons and changes to standard work

Participants can plan leadership actions that support adoption and sustained behaviour change.

  • Change impact assessments identify affected groups, processes, skills and controls
  • ADKAR diagnoses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Change narratives explain rationale, consequences, choices and immediate actions
  • Sponsor roadmaps specify visible actions, decisions and communication responsibilities
  • Communication matrices match messages, channels, senders, timing and feedback
  • Adoption measures track behaviour change, proficiency and benefit realisation

Participants can lead team conversations that strengthen ownership, challenge and follow-through.

  • Psychological safety enables challenge, error reporting and informed dissent
  • SCARF identifies status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness triggers
  • Delegation levels match authority, competence, risk and decision reversibility
  • Coaching questions surface assumptions, options, commitments and accountability
  • Feedback using SBI describes situation, behaviour and observable impact
  • Team norms establish candour, inclusion, follow-through and escalation discipline

Participants can define evidence that shows whether leadership action is producing intended value.

  • Benefit maps link interventions, outputs, outcomes and measurable value
  • Logic models test causal assumptions between activities and intended results
  • Baselines establish starting performance, variance and measurement conditions before implementation begins
  • Benefits registers assign owners, measures, targets and review dates
  • Dashboards combine outcome indicators, operational data and qualitative feedback
  • Evaluation questions distinguish contribution, attribution, learning and accountability

Participants can create an evidence-based plan for leading a current organisational priority.

  • Impact plans integrate priorities, stakeholders, milestones, risks and measures
  • 90-day action plans sequence commitments, owners, dates and review points
  • Personal leadership commitments specify behaviours, triggers and accountability partners
  • Peer challenge tests assumptions, feasibility, dependencies and intended outcomes
  • Learning transfer plans schedule workplace application, feedback and adaptation
  • Impact reviews define evidence sources, decision forums and adjustment criteria

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

What you take back to work

  1. Organisational impact diagnostic
  2. Strategic priority and OKR template
  3. Stakeholder influence plan
  4. Cross-functional governance checklist
  5. Benefits realisation register
  6. 90-day organisational impact plan

Who should attend

  • Senior Managers — responsible for converting strategic priorities into coordinated delivery
  • Department Heads — need clearer alignment between team plans and enterprise outcomes
  • Programme Managers — coordinate dependencies, sponsors and benefits across multiple workstreams
  • Project Managers — require stronger influence and governance beyond project administration
  • Business Partners — shape decisions across functions without direct reporting authority
  • Senior Specialists — lead high-impact initiatives requiring stakeholder commitment

Skills and tools covered

Strategic alignmentStakeholder influenceCross-functional leadershipExecution governanceChange leadershipBenefits realisation

Tools and standards

OKRs, RACI matrix, ADKAR model, Balanced Scorecard

How the course runs

Training methodology

Facilitators combine focused briefings with realistic cases from public services, financial institutions, multinational businesses and mission-driven organisations. Participants analyse strategic choices, stakeholder dynamics, operating dependencies and change risks in small groups. Decision simulations test influence, escalation and trade-off skills under time pressure. Structured peer challenge strengthens each participant's workplace application. Individual planning sessions produce practical materials for use after the course, including an impact plan, stakeholder actions, governance arrangements and measures.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience managing a team, workstream, project, service or significant improvement initiative. They should be familiar with their organisation's objectives, reporting relationships and common delivery constraints, and should be prepared to consider a current workplace priority during the course. No formal leadership qualification is required. Prior study of strategy, project management, finance or change management is not required. The course does not assume responsibility for enterprise-wide strategy, but participants should have opportunities to influence decisions or coordinate work beyond their immediate role.

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 leading work, people, projects or improvement activity and understand your organisation's basic priorities. No formal leadership qualification or prior training in strategy, change management or project management is required.

Bring a current or planned initiative where results depend on several stakeholders, teams or functions. You may use non-confidential notes on objectives, measures, delivery issues and key stakeholders.

The course suits managers, department heads, programme and project managers, business partners and senior specialists. It is particularly relevant where participants must influence beyond their direct reporting line.

General leadership courses commonly focus on leading individuals and teams. This course concentrates on turning strategic priorities into cross-functional action, using stakeholder influence, governance, execution, change and benefits methods.

Participants develop materials around a real workplace priority, including stakeholder actions, accountabilities, risks, measures and review routines. The final 90-day plan identifies specific actions to take after the course.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor briefings, case analysis, group work, simulations, peer challenge and individual application planning.

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

Related courses in Leadership Development