TMP Course Descriptions: Period 2

General Summary: Most organizations do not lack analytics, ideas, or change processes–they struggle with the people side of executing. This course promises you will better understand why change fails and the adjustments you can make to lead change successfully.

Primary objective: Help students understand the emotional processes that lead to engagement with and commitment to change. As organizations and the environments in which they operate get more complex, change management is becoming exponentially important.

Outcomes: While the focus is not on change theory, students will be introduced to a cursory review to understand the emotional process’s significance better as it relates to change. Students will learn to embrace resistance, be a non-anxious presence during change, understand how leaders get sabotaged and diagnose systemic dynamics that undermine change initiatives.

Course Outline:

Day One: We will explore change theory and popular change processes. Particular emphasis will be on white water, a metaphor change leadership expert Peter Vaill uses to explain the dynamic environment in which change occurs. He argues, “No sooner do you begin to digest one change than another one comes along to keep things unstuck.” We will discuss why people naturally resist change and strategies for embracing the resistance.

Day Two: We will cover why leaders resist embracing change feedback. Ironically, the more things change for the better, the more discontent people become. Abraham Maslow referred to the phenomenon as the Theory of Rising Expectation. We will learn strategies for receiving critical feedback and interpreting it. We apply the concept of Force Field Analysis to a change initiative.

Day Three: We will discuss how leaders create a sense of urgency about the need to change. Ronald Heifetz suggests, “The role of leadership is to create enough discomfort that people feel the need to change and to create a safe enough environment in which they can change.” We will talk about how to create a safe environment for change.

Day Four: We will explore the concept of incremental change and its relation to transformational change. The day will focus on the managerial leader as a change agent and exercising transformational leadership. The four stages of transformational leadership critical to leading change are self-leadership, one-on-one leadership, team leadership, and organizational leadership. We will discuss each of the stages and self-reflect on strengths and weaknesses.

Day Five: We will discuss the importance of empowerment in the execution of change. Recognizing when people and organizations are stuck is critical to understanding how to initiate and manage change. The life cycle of organizations, products, and processes indicates how emotionally ready an organization is.

The content of this course is theoretically based, and practitioner-proven (the why and how of successfully leading change). Participant learning will result in self-efficacy and observed competence.

You’ve mastered your craft—but what about your life? In this empowering course, you’ll tap into your core values, build your personal leadership identity, and design a future that excites you. It’s you—2.0. This isn’t fluff—it’s a grounded, guided process to elevate how you think, feel, and lead. You’ll come out clearer, braver, and ready to thrive in work and life. 

You already know how to solve external problems. This course helps you solve the internal ones—the doubts, the drift, the outdated identity. Through guided exercises, unique challenges, and real conversations, you’ll gain the mindset and methods to reinvent your life and career from the inside out. If you're stuck or ready to evolve, this course is your launchpad. 

Learning Outcomes: 

• Uncover your authentic life mission and align your choices, energy, and goals to what truly matters most 
• Craft a personal leadership identity—a compelling “prototype of excellence”—and embed it into your daily mindset and behavior 
• Break free from limiting paradigms and install empowering beliefs and behaviors that support your evolution 
• Develop high-performance habits based on intentionality, emotional intelligence, and strategic self-leadership 
• Access peak states of motivation and focus, even in the face of stress, fear, or change 
• Learn how to act decisively in uncomfortable situations, building the courage to lead without waiting for conditions to be perfect 

Psychology has traditionally studied individuals, couples, and organizations in difficulty. Most theories and therapies are based on the work with these groups. But this problem-oriented focus has limited the usefulness of psychology in helping people to create and sustain success. There is a body of research that has sought to understand the traits and behaviors of people and organizations that succeed in the areas of career; building healthy, productive work relationships; and maintaining good physical health. The studies reach surprisingly consistent conclusions regarding the skills that allow us to create, maintain, and enhance success. In this hands-on course, you learn the skills of creating and sustaining excellence in the workplace through a lively mix of lecture, film, live demonstrations, case studies, and role-play scenarios.

Topics include:

• The 4 Skills of Successful People and Organizations
• How Successful People Change
• Strategies for Coping with Adversity in the Workplace
• The Essential Skill to Look for in an Employee or Colleague
• Preventing Conflict and Maximizing Collaboration
• Dealing with the Emotional Challenges of Managing People

Skilled communication impresses colleagues and customers, promotes the effective flow of information, and creates a more harmonious and productive business environment, while poor communication skills can cause confusion, frustration, misinterpretation, inefficiency, and lost business. Moreover, ineffective communication can limit a technical professional’s potential growth and value to the organization.

This course provides a set of communication tools, techniques, and strategies to address communication challenges, including:

• How to cultivate and strengthen relationships with colleagues
• How to effectively communicate and interact with people whose personality and behavioral styles are different from yours
• How to get colleagues/clients to make and keep commitments
• The key elements of effective and productive meetings
• Strategies and techniques to establish and strengthen credibility
• How to avoid ambiguity, assumptions and confusion
• Dealing with indecision—how to get decisions so you can move forward
• How to motivate colleagues (in spite of lack of authority)