Cohort
Change Management Simulation
Be better equipped to succeed with change management through risk-free experiential learning. The Cohort Change Management
Business Simulation helps managers and leaders learn the valuable skills needed to manage a prospective change with senior
stakeholders. Cohort is conducted using a highly structured approach that blends gamification, informal/social learning,
behavioral economics, and business simulation.
You need to engage with everybody to make change happen – nobody is unimportant.
Participant
The Challenge
Players must strategize and plan a major change management project with senior stakeholders. As the stakeholders are
likely more senior than you, you lack direct authority to tell them anything! To mitigate this lack of authority you
need to develop indirect influencing skills and the ability (and courage) to be able to "borrow authority" whenever
you get stuck. Players must build relationships and have authentic communication with stakeholders to succeed with
the proposed change.
People can be influenced and influential in many different ways – be creative!
Participant
Tools
Dashboard to track progress
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Change projects runs for 9 months over 3 rounds. Track your results each month on a visual dashboard and review
learning at the end of each round.
Stakeholder interactions
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Each stakeholder has a talking avatar that offers information about themselves to help you build relationships
and determine next interactions with them.
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Optional off-simulation role play with facilitator can offer further information.
Stakeholder analysis
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In-simulation Stakeholder Mapping App allows you to analyze stakeholders across two critical dimensions — their
attitude to the change versus their influence on the change. This helps determine your engagement priorities.
Skill sets developed:
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Understanding hierarchical and social power
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Using Stakeholder analysis to plan change
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Developing rapport as a prerequisite to change
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Dealing with different attitudes to change
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Decision making under pressure
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Time management
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Managing change with agility
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Managing new information effectively
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Making effective indirect and group interventions
Participants commented how they quickly developed valuable insights in key areas such as how to influence others, working effectively in teams, and
operating successfully under constant time pressure and change…
Davy McAlinden, Programme Director, at The William J Clinton Leadership Institute
Case Studies
Cohort can optionally be tailored for companies that runs the simulation, allowing participants to start in a familiar context.
Cohort is led by a facilitator and can be run over half a day or over one full day if you choose to add additional theory and exercises. It also has internet
resiliency to avoid loss of simulation information during internet outages. The book A Systematic Guide to Change Management in Organizational Teams
may also be included to support the underlying theory of the simulation.