Herding Big Cats | Transitioning the Reluctant Organisation
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Why attend
We’ve all been there. The boardroom has approved the plan. The budget has been allocated. Then, momentum slows and progress disappears.
In Herding the Big Cats, Jon will explore why agreement at the top doesn’t always lead to action across an organisation, and how to engage the middle and senior managers who carry change through its corridors.
The challenge isn’t always the strategy itself. It can be the politics around it: whose support matters, who is reluctant, and who has influence that doesn’t show on the organisation chart.
How do we move from a boardroom “yes” to people making change happen?
What conversations do we need to have, and who have we overlooked?
Who should attend
Change Leads
Transformation Leaders
Senior Managers
Those transforming reluctant organisations
Learning objectives
By the end of the session, attendees will be able to:
Understand why formal approval can become informal resistance, and how transformation fatigue develops.
Build a live influence map for a real transformation they are trying to land, to review at least quarterly.
Identify their “grey eminence” – the person whose informal influence could determine whether the change succeeds.
Leave with one honest conversation to have this week, informed by the workshop’s three levers and seven principles for bottom-up change.
Workshop Host
Workshop outline
The Corridor Problem
Explore what happens when an approved transformation meets everyday organisational life, and why fatigue sometimes sets in before the first sprint ends.
The Politics of Reluctance
Understanding influence maps and the seven archetypes of resistance. Who isn’t on the programme plan but can decide whether a project lives or dies?
Exercise: Map Your Landscape
Build a live influence map to understand your current transformation landscape. Who needs to be engaged? Where is the reluctance? Who has influence that isn’t on the org chart?
Herding Big Cats in the Real World
Moving from the project focus on the ‘what’ to the long term ‘how’ of making it happen. You’ll leave this workshop with a plan to put into action.
Pre-event resources
Herding Big Cats: A conversation with Jon Ward
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