Strategic Change Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Transformation Directors, Senior 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-131

Before you join: Participants should have several years of management, programme, project, operational improvement, HR, technology, risk or change experience.

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

Strategic change programmes often fail because the strategy is unclear, operating implications are underestimated, or leaders treat communication as a substitute for sponsorship and decision-making. Senior managers must translate strategic intent into choices about customers, services, capabilities, structures, technology, controls and workforce requirements. They must also manage competing initiatives, political interests, delivery constraints and the measurable benefits expected by boards, regulators, funders and shareholders.

This advanced course connects business strategy with the practical disciplines of organisational change. Participants diagnose strategic issues using PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces, value chain analysis and scenario planning; convert choices into target operating models, roadmaps and governance arrangements; and assess impacts on stakeholders, processes, systems, policies and roles. The course covers executive sponsorship, change leadership, stakeholder engagement, communication architecture, workforce transition, implementation planning, adoption measurement and benefits realisation.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with sector-based cases, facilitated group analysis, change leadership simulations and structured application planning. Cases reflect common challenges in banking, government, healthcare, infrastructure, NGOs and multinational operations, such as service redesign, regulatory remediation, digital implementation, merger integration and cost transformation. Participants leave with a strategic change blueprint containing a case for change, stakeholder analysis, target operating model components, roadmap, governance design, change plan, benefits measures and a 90-day application plan. The course is delivered over five days in a classroom or live online, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day, and includes a certificate of completion.

The course serves experienced managers and specialists responsible for shaping, sponsoring or delivering significant organisational change rather than isolated team improvements.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose strategic issues using PESTLE, Five Forces, value chain analysis and causal loop diagrams
  • Formulate strategic choices using scenario planning, strategic assumptions and Balanced Scorecard logic
  • Design target operating model components covering processes, roles, governance, capabilities and controls
  • Assess change impacts, stakeholder readiness, saturation risks and implementation constraints
  • Build a change roadmap with workstreams, decision gates, dependencies, risks and benefit measures
  • Lead executive sponsorship, middle-manager engagement and resistance management through major change
  • Plan communications, training, cutover, hypercare and local adoption support for implementation
  • Measure benefits realisation using baselines, KPI trees, control charts and post-implementation reviews

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater credibility when advising executives on strategic change decisions
  • A repeatable method for linking strategy, operating design and adoption
  • Stronger ability to identify resistance causes before implementation stalls
  • Practical artefacts for leading transformation workstreams and stakeholder discussions
  • Clearer evidence for demonstrating successful change leadership in senior roles

For your organisation

  • Stronger alignment between strategic priorities, operating model decisions and delivery plans
  • Earlier identification of stakeholder, capacity, readiness and dependency risks
  • More visible executive sponsorship and accountable programme governance
  • Higher adoption through targeted communication, manager support and performance reinforcement
  • Better tracking of financial, service, risk and workforce benefits after implementation

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can diagnose strategic issues and construct an evidence-based case for change.

  • Diagnosing strategic intent, performance gaps and change triggers from operating evidence
  • PESTLE and Five Forces testing external pressures and industry economics
  • Value chain analysis locating cost, service and control breakpoints
  • SWOT converted into prioritised strategic issues rather than untested lists
  • Distinguishing symptoms, root causes and constraints through causal loop diagrams
  • Defining the case for change with measurable strategic outcomes
  • Baseline measures for customer, financial, process and people performance

Participants can evaluate strategic options and translate choices into measurable objectives.

  • Translating mission into choices using Playing to Win cascade
  • Strategic objectives structured through Balanced Scorecard perspectives and cause maps
  • Testing options against attractiveness, feasibility, acceptability and stakeholder impact
  • Scenario planning using critical uncertainties, signposts and contingent responses
  • Strategic assumptions logged, challenged and assigned validation owners
  • Making trade-offs between growth, resilience, service and investment capacity
  • Strategy maps linking capabilities, processes and outcomes to priorities

Participants can define the operating model changes required to deliver strategic priorities.

  • Target operating model design across processes, people, technology and governance
  • Customer journey mapping exposes handoffs, failure demand and service delays
  • RACI matrices clarify decision rights, accountabilities and escalation routes
  • Process architecture distinguishes value streams, enabling services and controls
  • Span-of-control analysis informs structural alternatives and management layers
  • Capability heat maps identify build, buy, partner and retire decisions
  • Workforce impacts assessed through roles, skills, location and capacity

Participants can assess change impacts, stakeholder readiness and risks before implementation begins.

  • Change impact assessment maps stakeholder, process, system and policy effects
  • Stakeholder segmentation using power, interest, influence and readiness criteria
  • Change saturation analysis identifies competing initiatives and delivery collisions
  • ADKAR diagnoses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Readiness assessments combine leadership alignment, capacity, trust and change history
  • Equity impacts considered when redesigning access, roles and workforce decisions
  • Change risk register records likelihood, consequences, owners and treatments

Participants can establish sponsorship arrangements and lead effectively through uncertainty and resistance.

  • Executive sponsorship model defines visible actions, decisions and sponsor coalitions
  • Leading through ambiguity using sensemaking, direction-setting and disciplined escalation
  • Kotter's eight steps adapted without treating change as a linear sequence
  • Leadership alignment sessions resolve conflicting priorities, incentives and messages
  • Middle-manager roles translated into local leadership and feedback responsibilities
  • Psychological safety practices surface concerns, dissent and implementation signals
  • Personal leadership commitments linked to milestones and observable behaviours

Participants can plan stakeholder engagement and communication that supports informed adoption.

  • Stakeholder engagement plans match influence strategies to stakeholder commitments
  • Communication architecture differentiates purpose, audience, channel, timing and owner
  • Change narratives connect strategic rationale, personal impact and practical actions
  • Two-way listening channels capture questions, rumours, resistance and ideas
  • Works council, union and employee representative consultations planned appropriately
  • Manager toolkits provide briefing guides, FAQs and conversation prompts
  • Resistance handled through diagnosis, dialogue, choice and consequence management

Participants can build transformation roadmaps and governance arrangements for controlled delivery.

  • Transformation roadmap sequences waves, dependencies, decision gates and benefits
  • Workstream charters specify scope, deliverables, owners, resources and milestones
  • Programme governance establishes steering decisions, escalation thresholds and reporting
  • Agile, waterfall and hybrid delivery selected by uncertainty and control needs
  • Critical path analysis identifies schedule constraints and dependency risks
  • RAID logs integrate risks, assumptions, issues and dependency management
  • Vendor and partner changes governed through contracts, service levels and controls

Participants can plan implementation activities that prepare people and operations for change.

  • Prosci change plan integrates sponsorship, communications, coaching, training and resistance
  • Training needs analysis separates knowledge, skill, process and system requirements
  • Pilot design defines hypotheses, adoption measures, safeguards and scale criteria
  • Cutover plans coordinate operational readiness, data, support and contingency actions
  • Hypercare arrangements set triage routes, ownership and service recovery standards
  • Local change networks recruit champions, super-users and credible peer advocates
  • Adoption barriers removed through workflow redesign, coaching and performance support

Participants can define, track and protect the benefits expected from strategic change.

  • Benefits maps connect interventions, capabilities, outcomes and financial value
  • Benefits realisation plans assign measures, baselines, owners and review dates
  • KPI trees distinguish leading indicators, lagging indicators and outcome measures
  • OKRs align team commitments with measurable strategic results
  • Control charts separate normal variation from material performance deterioration
  • Post-implementation reviews test assumptions, unintended consequences and corrective actions
  • Benefits leakage addressed through accountability, reinforcement and operating discipline

Participants can embed change through reinforcement mechanisms and a structured application plan.

  • Culture assessment examines norms, symbols, routines and informal power
  • Reinforcement mechanisms align performance management, rewards, recognition and consequences
  • Policy, procedure and control updates embed new ways of working
  • Lessons learned converted into standards, playbooks and future change criteria
  • Change portfolio reviews rebalance capacity, sequencing, risk and strategic value
  • 90-day application plans specify commitments, stakeholders, measures and first actions
  • Personal change leadership practices scheduled through reflection, feedback and peer support

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

What you take back to work

  1. Strategic change case template
  2. Target operating model design canvas
  3. Stakeholder readiness and impact assessment
  4. Transformation roadmap and governance pack
  5. Change communication and engagement plan
  6. Benefits realisation scorecard

Who should attend

  • Transformation Directors — responsible for enterprise change portfolios, roadmaps and delivery governance
  • Senior Managers — translating strategic priorities into operating and workforce changes
  • Programme Directors — coordinating complex initiatives with multiple workstreams and dependencies
  • Business Unit Heads — sponsoring service, cost, digital or regulatory transformation
  • Change Managers — strengthening strategic analysis and senior stakeholder advisory skills
  • HR and Organisational Development Leaders — managing workforce impacts, leadership roles and culture change

Skills and tools covered

Strategic diagnosisOperating model designChange leadershipStakeholder engagementTransformation governanceBenefits realisation

Tools and standards

PESTLE analysis, Porter's Five Forces, ADKAR model, Balanced Scorecard

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish frameworks, followed by case analysis, facilitated group work, stakeholder simulations and structured planning tasks. Participants apply methods to realistic transformation scenarios, including regulatory change, digital delivery, service redesign and operating cost reduction. Discussion focuses on decisions senior leaders must make: what to change, how to sequence it, who must sponsor it, and how results will be measured. Individual application planning converts course methods into actions for a current or anticipated change assignment.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have several years of management, programme, project, operational improvement, HR, technology, risk or change experience. They should be familiar with how their organisation sets priorities, makes investment decisions and tracks performance. Experience of contributing to a change initiative, business case, service redesign or systems implementation is useful. The course assumes confidence discussing organisational issues with managers and peers. No formal change management certification, finance qualification, strategy degree, statistical expertise or prior knowledge of the named frameworks is required.

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

Participants should have experience in management, projects, operations, HR, technology, risk or organisational change. They do not need a formal strategy or change management qualification, but should understand how decisions and priorities are set in their organisation.

Bring details of a current or planned strategic change, such as a transformation, restructuring, systems implementation or service redesign. Sensitive information is not required; anonymised examples and high-level facts are sufficient for application planning.

It is intended for experienced managers, transformation leaders, programme professionals, business unit heads, change managers and HR or organisational development leaders. It is most suitable for people working on cross-functional or organisation-wide change.

Project management courses focus primarily on scope, schedule, resources and delivery controls, while introductory change courses focus on basic people-change methods. This course links strategic analysis, operating model decisions, leadership sponsorship, transformation governance and benefits realisation.

Participants can use the templates and methods to assess a live change initiative, improve a business case, plan stakeholder engagement or strengthen a transformation roadmap. The final application plan identifies immediate actions, key stakeholders, measures and decision points.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. The five days progress from strategic diagnosis and operating design through change leadership, delivery planning, implementation, benefits tracking and personal 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

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