Tool 10 – Change Journey Planner

The tenth tool in the Emerging Stronger series was created not because we need to manage change but that we need to be smarter in navigating it. Many of our modern approaches to L&D involve change if they are to be accepted, adopted and embedded as part of the ‘way we do things around here’.

The previous tools in this series draw on evidence informed learning design principles. Our goal for each of the tools throughout has been to improve the business impact of learning. But however well they are designed or articulated, our initiatives always involve people. Organisations aren’t just complicated, they are complex because people are involved. And when people are involved, things get messy. We do not know how an initiative will land, who will engage, who will fight back or what the repercussions will be.

It makes it very difficult to manage change. But we can make a plan to navigate the change journey. And that is what this tool is about.

Revisit Principle: work within the business!

Whether we are trying to introduce self-directed learning, or encourage learning in the flow of work, or just include more evidence informed practices in our design–we will encounter resistance. It is no surprise that learner and manager engagement has been in the top barriers for L&D for the past 20 years. It is time to shift from inflicting change on the business to noticing the change already happening within the business. 

When we deconstruct the popular change models, a number of core principles emerge to help us navigate change:

• Building on what is already going on in the business
• Establishing a proactive process for engaging and reinforcing
• Recognising we are dealing with the complexity of human emotion
• Being willing to adapt

Getting started

This tool was created by Laura Overton as a framework to think through how to support and encourage the change journey.

The journey planner explores:

Getting ready – noticing and identifying the friction points and key stakeholders
Starting strong – communicating and establishing clear action points for all involved
Progressing well – Ensuring processes are in place to continually adapt
Maintaining momentum – capturing and reinforcing new behaviours as they emerge

A tool to help!

Use this planner when you:

• do not want to leave change to chance
• struggle to engage others with new ways of learning
• feel unsupported by managers who do not make time for learning
• are frustrated by projects that start off strong and then fizzle out

* The Change Journey Planner Tool was created by Laura Overton as part of the Emerging Stronger toolkit to help L&D professionals thrive in the ever changing world of work. It was initially published in conjunction with our publishing partner Go1.