Training middle managers in change communication

An international Danish manufacturing company wanted all middle managers in its procurement department to improve their communication skills when dealing with internal change.

The company wanted to develop and train employees in a common approach that could provide a more consistent approach across the organisation. Purchasing management also wanted to improve internal satisfaction with the department through better communication. The requirement was to train middle managers together, even though they had different levels of fluency in change communication.

We developed a simple change communication approach with templates to help managers in practice. The materials and training were structured according to the ADKAR concept, but it was not an aim that the participants had to be familiar with this concept. We ran a three-hour workshop for 20 procurement managers, where they had the opportunity to test the concept and templates in practice using real cases from their own daily work.