Tools and Techniques 
for the Management of Change

Course Objective:

The course aims to provide people with an understanding of a variety of techniques for coping with change in their organisations; exposure to some lightweight software to support these techniques; and an awareness of the state of the art in the integration of separate tools.

Content

The content is based on the 2.6M pound Enterprise project, which has been led by AIAI at The University of Edinburgh. The work has focused on providing frameworks for people to build and share integrated views of their organisations, and has identified a new generation of management techniques which have helped major organisations throughout the world to cope with new pressures for change. IBM, Unilever, Lloyd's Register and Logica were partners in the work, and Pilkington Optronics have applied the techniques in a case study for public demonstration. Particular techniques covered include:

• Systems thinking
• Cognitive mapping
• Understanding variation
• Strategic decision making
• Understanding motivation
• Effective communication and integration

Each technique is introduced in lectures or practised in workshops. This is followed by demonstration of and hands-on exposure to at least one easy-to-use software tool.

Duration

3 days

Target Audience

People in positions of senior management who have to deal with significant complexity, who are likely to be faced with managing change, who are interested in applying modern techniques and who want to take advantage of easy-to-use software.

Prerequisites

Applicants should be in a position of senior management in an organisation of some complexity. Usually this will mean at least 25 people, but it depends on the kind of business. We are happy to discuss these issues with you in advance.

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