SME Advisor Middle East ? Managing change in the workplace

Adapting to a constantly changing marketplace and fostering a culture of innovation are two of the biggest challenges facing UAE businesses today, according to biz-ability, the Middle East?s leading corporate leadership training and development company. However, the firm says these are challenges which can be overcome with simple behavioural adjustments by workplace leaders.

To help business leaders make those adjustments, biz-ability has partnered with international training provider ExperiencePoint to bring its proven experiential business simulations on change management and innovation to the region. The workshops,?ExperienceChange and Design Thinker,?equip participants with the skills and processes to implement change and accelerate innovation in unpredictable business circumstances.

Commenting on the company?s new training solutions, Hazel Jackson, biz-ability CEO said, ?Companies usually incorporate ?continuous improvement? in their business strategy but fail to implement this in the workplace. We are often asked by clients about specific behaviours and creative tools that can help leaders and management trainers to apply change quickly and encourage innovation within teams. These simulation-based trainings are a perfect solution for growth businesses as they provide practical guidelines and techniques that can be used in any business scenario.?

At a recent business forum conducted in Dubai by top international business school IMD, experts stressed the need for business leaders in the Middle East to adapt to change quickly in order to remain competitive. Recent research published by McKinsey & Co. suggests that only 30% of change management programmes implemented by global organisations are successful. A major contributor to this high failure rate is the lack of motivating factors that those leading the change should apply to ?unleash latent organisational energy? into the change programme.

Last month, biz-ability invited clients to trial the new training workshops and, following their overwhelmingly positive feedback, the company decided to add ?ExperienceChange? and ?Design Thinker? simulations to its corporate training product portfolio.

Delivered as an in-class exercise or through a single-user online assignment, ?ExperienceChange? is an eight hour exercise that helps leaders and managers explore and apply change in a crisis situation quickly. The programme helps participants to track progress on change initiatives and build behaviours better aligned to tackle changes in the workplace.

Also developed by Experience Point in collaboration with leading innovation and design firm IDEO, Design Thinker is delivered through an intensive four-hour simulation exercise that challenges participants to solve a complex problem, using the techniques and thought patterns of successful innovators. As the name suggests, the activity encourages participants to adopt the ?design thinking? process naturally used to complete extensive design projects in the real world. The process consists of three steps, Inspire, Ideate and Implement?and helps to accelerate innovation by translating abstract ideas into workable solutions.

Impressed with the previews, Al Futtaim has already started using these simulations at its training centre. ?We are currently using the ExperienceChange simulation for executives and leaders in various departments across Al Futtaim and it is producing excellent results. The hands-on hypothetical scenarios provide a safe and practical learning environment, and make our staff better prepared to apply change in real life situations. Leaders who experienced the simulations have said the training is helping them to carefully assess the implications of change in the workplace and use approaches that get the ?buy-in? of their employees before implementing any change,? said Julie Spence, Learning and Development Consultant, Al Futtaim Group.

For more information on biz-ability?s new training programmes, please visit http://www.biz-ability.com/business-simulations

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For more information visit www.biz-group.ae

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Source: http://www.smeadvisor.com/2012/10/managing-change-in-the-workplace/

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