Blog

Working in the change management space can sometimes feel incredibly demanding and stressful. Within high pressure environments, the successful delivery of large or complex change initiatives relies on many different factors, many of which are out of your control. 

Change managers can also feel responsible for the change and spend a lot of energy helping stakeholders navigate big emotions through the change journey. These are just some of the reasons why I believe change managers are susceptible to burnout, which is what I’m talking about today. 

I believe that intentional energy management is the key to helping us protect ourselves from burnout. This is why I developed the Energy Management Toolkit, a practical step by step model to help you protect yourself from burnout and maximize your energy. 

In this episode I’m taking you through this model and how you can use it every single day in really practical ways to increase your ability to be productive and make better decisions. When you know how to manage your energy, it leads to better outcomes for the entire organisation, increased engagement and a much more positive work environment for everyone. 

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One of the most critical stakeholders involved in every single organisational change is the corporate communication team. From personal experience, I understand how challenging it can be to work with the corporate communication team, but this doesn’t have to be a frustrating process.

When you develop a solid and genuinely collaborative relationship with the corporate communication team, your change program will be a raging success. 

Today I’m sharing 5 ways to help you build stronger relationships with this important stakeholder.

These are practical tips you can put in place to create a fun, productive partnership with the communication team. I talk about trusting the experts, being open to receiving feedback from the communication team and creating opportunities to actively collaborate and brainstorm with them.

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Strategic thinking allows you to take a step back and look at the big picture. It involves analysing and evaluating a situation in order to make informed decisions about the future. When you think strategically, you're thinking critically about the long-term implications of different options and developing a plan that takes those implications into account.

So, why is this important for change managers?

Well, when you're tasked with implementing major organisational changes, you need to be able to anticipate potential roadblocks and prepare for them in advance. You also need to be able to identify opportunities for improvement and develop plans to take advantage of them. 

Without strategic thinking, change managers may find it difficult to achieve their goals and meet the expectations of stakeholders. You might end up running into unexpected challenges or missing out on opportunities that could have been leveraged with a bit of foresight.

In today’s episode, I'm gonna share how you can do strategic thinking in a really visible way as a change manager. Strategic thinking is a skill like any other - it can be practised and improved with focus and dedication. 

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Today I’m sharing 4 big trends that I think change managers need to be watching out for this year. As far as I’m concerned, these trends are non-negotiables and because they are relevant to every industry and all kinds of organisational change, you’ll want to be sure that you’re on the front foot with these. 

My goal with this episode is to share how these 4 trends are going to impact change management efforts this year, and to share a bunch of practical suggestions that you can incorporate into your change strategy and tactics. If you want to roll out a successful change program this year, listen in. 

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AI has been getting a lot of attention in recent months, in particular, ChatGPT which is a large language model developed by a company called OpenAI. If you’re a professional working in the change management or communication space, I believe that this tool can be incredibly useful if you know how to use it.

So today, I’m sharing some of the ways ChatGPT can be used to provide an incredible level of support and some key guidelines to get the most out of this technology. I share some useful examples of how ChatGPT can be used to benefit your workflow and organisation and 3 ways I’ve been using this AI program every day.

I share examples of how ChatGPT has been helping me to research complex topics, repurpose content and generate new ideas. This technology is definitely not something we should ever use directly for client work or recommendations but acts more like a brainstorming tool. 

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What would you say was a major highlight for you this year?  What about a low? Do you want to know mine?

In this week’s episode - the last one for 2022 - I thought it would be fun to reflect on 2022 and do a year in review with you. 

You should know: this isn’t a practical change management ‘how to’.  

Instead, in this week’s episode, I’m opening up as the founder and managing director of a growing small business, and sharing some of the biggest ups and downs of the past year.  

I share 2 big lows and a few of my favourite things that happened this year in our business, EVER Change and Communication.

Each low came with its own silver lining and resulted in incredible growth - but at the time, these experiences were absolutely gut wrenching and I was challenged in a way I’d never been before.

I love listening to these types of episodes when other folks are brave enough to do them. I hope you do too!

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Now that so many folks are working from home regularly and part of hybrid teams, what is the purpose of the workplace? What role does it play when it comes to the experience of employees and your organisational brand?

If you’re a change leader supporting big changes in the work environment - perhaps downsizing your footprint and moving to a new location, or moving to activity based work arrangements - what are the key things you need to keep in mind to support your stakeholders and deliver?

I know these are questions that a lot of change leaders are grappling with at the moment, so I’m excited to have Melissa Marsden on the show today.

Melissa is the Director and workplace dynamics strategist behind COMUNiTI. Her consultancy reimagines workplaces across the globe to bring brands to life, connect people and empower teams to perform at their best.

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Organisational change can be a complex beast involving many different perspectives, impacts and moving parts - so an important question for every change leader to ask themselves is:

How are you working with your stakeholders to help them make sense of complexity, collaborate, think better together and problem solve?

It can be tricky!

I reckon improving our visual communication capability is a big opportunity for change leaders and change managers - and in this episode, you’re going to see why.

Visual communication is a movement I’ve become more and more interested in, and that’s why I’m stoked to welcome Ben Crothers to the show today.

Ben is a visual thinker, facilitator, trainer, author of 3 books, and speaker. He helps teams solve problems and generate winning ideas for strategy, products and services, with workshops, training, and lots of sketching. Ben is the Principal Facilitator at Bright Pilots, his visual facilitation consultancy.

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How intentional are you about the content that’s being created to support your change program?

Do you know what content you should focus on at different stages of the change journey?

How do you handle it when a senior leader rushes in excited about a cool type of content that they like the sound of that worked for a colleague of theirs? Should you immediately get to work creating it or not?

Getting content right can be a minefield! That’s why I’m excited to have Matt Fenwick on the show today.

Matt is the founder and managing director of True North Content, a Canberra-based strategic content consultancy.

Matt and his team help government departments, peak bodies and consultancies solve messy communications and content problems. He's a regular conference speaker on content, strategy, and human-centred design. He’s presented at TEDx Canberra, UX Australia and Copycon. He has also lectured at University of Newcastle, Sydney University and University of Canberra.

You can see why I’m excited to pick his brain on all things content!

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We all know that most public sector organisations have official accounts on social media.

Of course, those are carefully operated by teams of social media experts inside the organisation, but… what about your own account?

Our digital reputations are more impactful than ever, so should senior public servants and change leaders be active on social media?

As the change sponsor, can participating online and being active on social media from your personal account help support your organisation’s transformation program?

And if it can help, why are so few public sector leaders participating online?

These are questions I’ve been pondering for a while, so I’m thrilled to be chatting with Roger Christie on the podcast today.

Roger is Founder and Managing Director of digital reputation advisory firm Propel – a multi award-winning firm that helps leaders protect and enhance their digital reputation.

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There’s no getting around it. These days any convo about leading and managing organisational change is also a conversation about organisational culture.

Culture is the unavoidable element change leaders must keep in mind these days (no matter how simple or technical the change program).

Organisational culture is such a hot topic at the moment, isn’t it? But, when it comes to improving organisational culture, it can be tricky to distil concepts into genuinely useful how-to frameworks, and practical road maps.

That’s why I’m excited to have Shane Michael Hatton on the podcast today. Shane is an author, trainer, coach and speaker based in Melbourne. He is a member of the Forbes Global Coaches Council, a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and the author of two books. Shane’s most recent book is called Let’s Talk Culture, and that's exactly what we did in this conversation!

In this conversation, Shane shares an absolute gold mine of practical tips for those interested in improving their organisational culture.

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If the communication strategy for your organisational change is feeling a bit stale or is not hitting the mark when it comes to behaviour change, this episode is for you!

My fabulous guest today is Samara Kitchener, a multi-award-winning strategic communications specialist who has a passion for health, technology and behaviour change. With 20 year’s senior marketing, communication and engagement experience working across government, food, defence and health sectors, Samara has deep expertise in integrated planning for significant campaigns and the know-how to execute across multi-channel platforms. She is also the founder and leader of the House of Kitch - a dynamic communication agency that specialises in imaginative communications to inspire behaviour change on things that matter.

In our conversation, we talk about how communication can change behaviour. We also explore key considerations to keep in mind when developing communications strategies when your intent is to change behaviour. We cover how to get more creative with your communication campaigns, how to get your senior leader on board with your ideas, and so much more.

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I have a quick question for you:

How much research do you do when you’re putting together the communication strategy for your change program?

If you’re like most change managers I know, the answer is probably - not all that much.

Don’t feel bad if that’s you. Communication research can be tricky to understand, let alone master!

But for any organisational change to work, knowing how our key messages are landing, our events are being received, or if our support materials are hitting the mark, is essential.

The truth is an effective communication strategy all comes down to whether smart research and analysis underpin our efforts.

That’s what I’m talking about with my guest on The New Way podcast today. Sarah Illy is the Founder and Director of communications and marketing consultancy SAIL Communications.

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We can’t deliver successful change or embed new ways of working without compelling, smart communication… BUT so many change managers and change leaders aren’t professional communications experts.

That’s why I’m excited to welcome Mel Loy onto the podcast today. Mel is a communication professional who heads up a team of communication professionals at her consultancy Hey Mel! Comms and Training.

Mel’s passion is building communication capability in others. She’s a gold mine of knowledge.

This episode is brimming with practical tips. I know you’ll gain a huge amount of knowledge and tactical takeaways for your change management programs.

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Can you believe last week was the 50th episode of my little podcast, The New Way with Dr Kate Byrne?

I have to pinch myself when I think about the incredible calibre of all the guest experts that have joined me on the show.

So many great, eye-opening / thought-provoking / game-changing conversations!

I’ve learnt so much from the ideas and wisdom my guests have shared so generously (and I hope you have too!).

In fact, as I reflected back, I realised there are 5 big lessons for change leaders from the last 50 podcast episodes….and I’m sharing them today.

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What data do you use when shaping a change management strategy or plan? Are your recommendations grounded in evidence?

Of course, as a change manager or leader, experience, qualifications and best practice concepts and methods can guide you.

But what about the game-changing contextual insights into your organisation, stakeholders, and challenges the change program you’re delivering is working to solve?

How do you get your hands on the evidence-based, insights or knowledge you need, to help you develop tailored, robust change management strategies and plans, and make confident decisions?

Today I’m exploring these ideas with Krishan Jogia, founder and MD over at Evolve and Amplify - a business and enterprise architecture consultancy.  This isn’t Krishan Jogia’s first time on The New Way Podcast - and I hope it won’t be his last!

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Does your change program include running workshops, webinars, listening tours, panel discussions, steering committees, training sessions, or meetings?

If it does, you’ve got to make sure you’re thinking about how to make these experiences as engaging as possible for your stakeholders. I mean, we all know how important employee engagement is to the success of our organisational change or transformation programs.

Learning how to take experiences to the next level for our change program stakeholders is exactly what I’m diving into with my guest today on The New Way Podcast.

Leanne Hughes is an entrepreneur and high-performance business consultant. She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education (and obsession) with Group Dynamics and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

In fact, in 2021 Leanne was the winner of the Asia Pacific Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year, so this is a great opportunity to learn from the best!

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How much real thought did you put into the training plan for your last change initiative?

So many change managers and trainers I know just seem to wheel out the same old approach to training over and over again.

And look, it’s not their fault - they’re change managers, not learning specialists and they’re under the pump.

It’s easier to stick to stale old school learning options…. But, so much has changed in this space over the past few years.

Are traditional approaches to training and learning relevant these days? And if they’re not, when it comes to learning at work, what’s working now?

This is exactly what I cover with my wonderful guest Steph Clarke on The New Way Podcast this week. We dive into how to develop a smart learning and development strategy for your change program.

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How connected do your team and stakeholders feel to you and your change initiative?

As the change leader, do you focus on creating connection with your team and impacted stakeholders?

Why is creating ‘connection’ even something we need to intentionally consider?

Today on The New Way Podcast we’re talking about how being a fully connected leader can help deliver your transformation program.

My guest is Mel Kettle. Mel is an expert on fully connected leadership and communication. She works with leaders, teams and organisations that want to achieve real connection and sustained engagement.

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What’s the employee engagement level like in your organisation?

Have you ever thought about the relationship between your organisational culture, employee engagement and how that impacts the success of your transformation programs or change initiatives?

Today my guest is Professor Karl Treacher. Karl is Group CEO of The Brand Institute, HEDx and The Culture Institute of Australia. He has more than 20 years experience delivering strategic advice to tier-one brands, boards and business leaders.

The Culture Institute of Australia is an insights, education and consulting firm that helps organisations measure, understand and shape culture for the post-covid, digital age.

Karl shared a flood of evidence-based, jaw-dropping insights in our conversation. This is an episode you don’t want to miss!

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