70% of workplace change initiatives fail. It's not the strategy. It's the people.
A workshop built around The Change Play - bringing the four classic reactions to change into the room so your team can navigate them honestly. Restructure, system rollout, strategy pivot, leadership transition - the play brings the human reactions into the open before they harden into resistance.
Blue, Hal, Cam and Bree
Change lands differently on every person in the room. The Change Play follows four characters reacting differently to the same announcement. By the end, participants can name their own response, name the responses around them, and choose how to support each one through the change.
Blue has worked there forever. Hal likes things the way they are. Cam is excited about anything new. Bree is already living in the future. Your team comes back able to recognise each response in themselves and each other - and equipped to support colleagues through the next disruption.
The Change Play is best delivered as part of a wider change-management strategy - after the change has been communicated, but before it has been implemented. The session is tailored to your specific change, with embedded space for critical information delivery and facilitated Q&A on your change journey.
Blue
Has worked here forever. Sees change as a threat to what has always worked. Needs to feel that what they built is honoured, not erased.
Hal
Likes things the way they are. Will go along with change once convinced, but slowly. Needs information, patience and clear explanation of the why.
Cam
Excited about anything new. Volunteers early. Risks burning out or pulling ahead of the group. Needs to be channelled, not just enabled.
Bree
Already living in the future. Frustrated by colleagues who are not. Needs to learn the leadership skill of bringing others along at their pace.
When organisations book this
The Change Play lands hardest at specific moments in the change cycle. After the announcement but before the rollout. After a leadership transition. When a culture program needs an opener that surfaces the actual reactions in the room.
- A restructure has been announced and leaders need to bring teams with them
- A new system, platform or process is rolling out workforce-wide
- Merged organisations are reconciling two ways of working
- A leadership transition is reshaping team culture
- A new strategy needs operationalising in the work
- A culture program needs an opener that surfaces the actual reactions in the room
“We were two months into the restructure and the team was stuck. The Change Play named the four reactions in the room and gave us a shared language. Conversations that had stalled started moving the next week.”
— Head of People & Culture, ASX-listed utilities company
Frequently asked questions
After the change has been communicated but before it has been implemented. That is when the reactions are forming and there is still room to shape them. Too early and the room cannot engage with the specifics; too late and you are processing damage rather than supporting transition.
Yes. We adapt scenario context, language and characters to your industry and your specific change moment. Restructure, system rollout, merger, strategy pivot - each gets its own variant. We brief in your terminology before delivery.
The play is one substantive moment within a wider strategy. It works alongside your communication plan, your training rollout and your leader coaching. We are not trying to replace your change methodology - we are bringing the human side into the room so the methodology lands.
The play is short enough (70 minutes minimum) to fit inside existing meetings. Leaders who think they are too senior for it often find themselves recognising their own response in the room. Bree is everywhere in executive teams.
Yes. The play works in person, virtually and in hybrid formats. The Q&A and the facilitator-led debrief flex to whichever format fits your workforce best.
Training Delivered Differently
What change is your team navigating right now?
Tell Jacob what is moving and who needs to come with it. Twenty minutes to scope the right session for your specific change moment.