A Better Way to Build Change Management Capability Across Your Team
We’ve had several organisations ask us recently:
Can you deliver your Agile Change Manager Certificate as in-person training for our team?
Our answer is no.
We’ve deliberately designed a different approach to change management training for teams.
Instead of taking people out of the business for two intensive days, our approach combines:
- short online microlearning
- immediate application to real change work
- time to reflect and experiment
- virtual coaching
- peer learning
- recognised Agile Change Manager certification
The model is simple:
Learn → Apply → Reflect → Coach → Apply again.
It allows organisations to build practical change capability while people continue to do their actual jobs.
And it works particularly well for teams spread across cities, countries and time zones.
What is the best way to build change management capability?
Change management capability develops when people can apply new knowledge to real organisational change, receive feedback, adjust what they are doing and try again.
Traditional intensive training can provide knowledge quickly. The challenge comes when participants return to work and have to translate that knowledge into practice.
Think about the conventional model. Bring 10 people into a room. Give them two days of intensive change management training.
That’s 20 person-days away from the business in one hit.
There is plenty of information. Plenty of discussion. Plenty of enthusiasm.
Then everyone returns to work.
The stakeholder issue is still there. The sponsor still isn’t doing what they need them to do. The communication isn’t landing. The transformation has changed direction again.
And the question becomes:
How do we actually use what we just learned?
That’s the gap our approach is designed to address.
How does the Agile Change Leadership Institute’s team change management training work?
The Agile Change Manager Certificate from the Agile Change Leadership Institute (ACLI) uses short, online microlearning rather than intensive blocks of classroom training.
Your people learn a concept or practice.
They apply it to the change they are currently working on.
They see what happens.
They reflect on the result.
Then they continue learning.
For organisational teams, we can combine the online Agile Change Manager learning with six one-hour virtual coaching sessions.
And these aren’t another six hours of presentations.
Bring us the real work
The messy work – bring the stakeholder problem, the sponsor challenge, the communication that is not cutting through. Bring us the resistance you were not expecting, the engagement approach that needs rethinking, the thing you tried last week that didn’t quite work.
We work through it together. This means people aren’t simply learning about change management.
They’re building change capability while delivering change.
Why use microlearning for change management training?
Microlearning gives people access to practical knowledge in smaller pieces that can be used when it is needed.
For busy change practitioners and leaders, that has several advantages.
Faster access to useful knowledge
People can learn a practice when it becomes relevant rather than waiting for the next scheduled training program.
Easier to fit around work
Short learning episodes reduce the amount of time people need to spend away from projects and operational responsibilities.
Immediate application
People can take an idea directly from the learning environment and test it on a current change initiative.
Time for reflection
Instead of absorbing dozens of practices at once, learners have time to discover what works, what doesn’t and what they need to adapt.
Greater opportunity for peer learning
When a whole team participates, people can compare experiences, share approaches and develop a common language for change.
Can virtual change management training work for distributed teams?
Yes.
In fact, one of the advantages of this approach is that your team doesn’t need to be in the same room. Or the same city. Or even the same country.
You might have change practitioners in Melbourne, Singapore, London and New York.
They can undertake the learning where and when it suits them, while scheduled virtual coaching gives the group an opportunity to come together around real organisational challenges.
That makes the model particularly useful for:
- national organisations
- global organisations
- hybrid teams
- transformation offices
- distributed change teams
- communities of practice
- organisations building a consistent approach across business units
You can create shared change capability without flying everybody to one location for training.
What does an organisation get from team-based Agile Change Manager training?
Participants can complete the Agile Change Manager Certificate, but certification isn’t the only objective.
For an organisation, the bigger opportunity is to build a team that can:
- make better decisions about how change should be approached
- choose practices that suit the context rather than rigidly following one methodology
- work through difficult stakeholder and engagement challenges
- communicate change more effectively
- experiment and adapt when circumstances change
- learn from one another
- build a shared language and approach to change
- apply new practices immediately
- develop confidence through experience
The learning becomes connected to the work the organisation actually needs delivered.
Who is this approach designed for?
Our team-based change capability approach can work particularly well when:
Your change or transformation team has grown quickly.
You want greater consistency without imposing another heavyweight methodology.
Practitioners have different levels of experience.
The learning provides common foundations while the coaching allows more experienced practitioners to explore complex problems.
You have a distributed or global change team.
People can learn from anywhere while still developing a common approach.
Your organisation is facing substantial transformation.
The team can develop capability while applying it to current digital, cultural, structural, technology or operating model change.
You’re implementing AI and need people to manage the adoption side.
Agile change practices are particularly useful where organisations need to experiment, learn quickly, engage people, adjust approaches and respond to uncertainty.
You want to strengthen internal change capability.
Building internal capability can reduce long-term dependence on external change resources while creating greater organisational consistency.
Your people are simply too busy to disappear into training for days at a time.
Learning happens around the work rather than instead of it.
Is this the same as buying multiple online course licences?
No.
Organisations can certainly purchase the Agile Change Manager Certificate for multiple employees.
But the team capability model adds something different.
The learning becomes a shared experience.
The coaching connects the concepts to the organisation’s real challenges.
And participants have opportunities to learn from each other’s application of the practices.
The aim is to move beyond individual course completion toward organisational change capability.
Why doesn’t ACLI offer the Agile Change Manager Certificate as a two-day classroom course?
To start with, we teach you 50 agile change practices and this would be totally overwhelming in two days without time to pause, reflect, try things and assess. But more importantly, capability isn’t built simply by attending training.
It develops through repeated practice:
Learning.
Applying.
Reflecting.
Adjusting.
Trying again.
Over time, new practices become more familiar.
Eventually, they become part of how the team works.
That’s why we’ve deliberately built the Agile Change Manager Certificate around microlearning, practical application and reflection, with virtual coaching available for organisational cohorts.
New ways of working need new ways of learning.
Build change capability in the work, not away from it
So, can we bring the Agile Change Manager Certificate into your organisation and deliver it as two intensive days of in-person training?
No.
But if you’re looking to build practical, modern change capability across a team, we’d very much like to talk.
Tell us:
- how many people you want to develop
- where they’re located
- the level of experience across the team
- the types of change they’re working on
- and what you’d like them to be better able to do
We can then explore a capability pathway combining Agile Change Manager microlearning, practical application and virtual coaching around the work your team is already delivering.
Build capability in the work, not away from it.
Frequently asked questions
Can the Agile Change Leadership Institute (ACLI) train an entire change management team?
Yes. ACLI can provide the Agile Change Manager Certificate to organisational cohorts and combine the online learning with virtual coaching focused on the team’s real change challenges.
Is the Agile Change Manager Certificate delivered virtually?
The certificate uses online microlearning that participants can complete flexibly. Organisational cohorts can also add scheduled virtual coaching sessions.
Does everyone need to be in the same location?
No. The model is designed to work with distributed teams across different cities, countries and time zones.
Can the training be applied to a current transformation?
Yes. Applying the practices to current organisational change is a central part of the approach. Coaching sessions can focus on real stakeholder, communication, engagement and implementation challenges.
Is this suitable for AI transformation?
It can be. Agile change practices can help organisations manage the people and adoption aspects of AI-enabled change, particularly where experimentation, uncertainty, rapid learning and continuous adjustment are required.
What is the difference between change management training and change capability building?
Training primarily develops knowledge and skills. Capability building goes further by helping people apply those skills repeatedly in their work, learn from experience and develop consistent organisational practices.
What about our non-change managers? We need to build change capability across the whole organisation.
Of course! We have two programs that do that – Change is Everybody’s Business and Leadership Disrupted. You may have something else in mind so drop us a note at [email protected] and we’ll have a chat with you about your best option.
