The Inside Path to Change™

Emotional Intelligence skills to help leaders and change agents manage the "people side" of successful change.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to effectively interpret and use emotions. Emotional intelligence, or EQ, has been shown to improve efficacy, interpersonal communication, and enhance decision-making. The Inside Path to Change helps leaders more effectively initiate, manage, and sustain change, provides provide valuable emotional intelligence concepts and tools.

The workshop provides a powerful perspective on change, showing how the emotional drivers and barriers for change can be managed with emotional intelligence.

In an engaging, meaningful process, the program achieves three primary objectives:

1. Learn Six Seconds' EQ Change Model to assist in managing organizational change.

2. Develop self-awareness to improve personal and leadership effectiveness in the change process.

3. Increase the ability to manage the emotional components of change.

The Inside Path to Change integrates the leading thinking on change. These theories are distilled into a practical action-learning model called the “EQ Change Cycle” that helps leaders guide and sustain change. The focus is on skillfully managing the emotions that either cause people to resist or embrace change. The process helps managers develop a commitment to shared vision of a better organization, implement new initiatives while managing resistance, and then build clarity and alignment in a continuous improvement process.

The EQ Change Cycle maps the change process through three stages: Engage (develop clarity and buy-in), Practice (implement change strategies), and Reflect (refine strategy and learn). The key point of this workshop is that emotions are a valuable part of change. “Negative” emotions can give us insight and push us for change. “Positive” emotions can fuel change and sustain the change process.

Program Logistics

Audience: Managers, leaders, individuals charged with planning, leading, and/or supporting change efforts.

Three Versions are Available:

Full: Four hour pre-course elearning, two-day on-side program followed by three 1:1 coaching calls. Post-course e-learning page provided to recap key concepts.

Intro: 1-day introductory program focuses on the vocabulary and key concepts. Sr managers should be trained to deliver this 1-day version in-house.

Certification: 3-day plus eLearning; available for change-managers and internal trainers to deliver the 1-day introduction. Complete trainer kit is available with Certification.

Background

While essential for organizational success, change is always challenging. Although most approaches to change recognize that these challenges are both strategic and emotional, the usual premise is that with a sound strategy people will fall into line. This passing regard to the people who must execute the change leads most change efforts to fail. In contrast, Six Seconds' approach is based on understanding the human and emotional drivers of change and engaging those to assist in forming and executing effective strategy.

Six Seconds' approach integrates leading thinking on change. Kurt Lewin, the pioneering social psychologist and author of Group Decision and Social Change, recognized that behavior is driven by the interaction of people and their environment. Applying his Force Field Analysis, Lewin identified that successful organizational change begins with “unfreezing,” an essential process of both strategic and emotional planning. The model is compatible with change theory from William Bridge (author of Managing Transition who advocates for leaders to attend to the emotional transition of change), and John Kotter (author of Leading Change whose model begins with the importance of emotional engagement).

These theories are distilled into a practical action-learning model called the “EQ Change Cycle” that helps leaders guide and sustain change. The focus is on skillfully managing the emotions that either causes people to resist or embrace change. The process helps managers develop a commitment to shared vision of a better organization, implement new initiatives while managing resistance, and then building clarity and alignment in a continuous improvement process.

EQ Assessment

To help individuals understand their own competencies for managing the emotional side of change, an optional assessment can be integrated into this programs. During the workshop, facilitators will explain how to interpret the results and enable participants to discover the personal value of the workshop materials. Six Seconds Certified Consultants provide a 1:1 debriefing via phone during the week following the workshop for nominal cost per participant. This will assist them to better understand their own emotional intelligence and areas for development. The debrief will conclude with a personal action plan that can be shared with management.

Methodology

Using an experiential exercises, reflection, and dialogue, Six Seconds' training provides a transformational learning experience where participants develop powerful new awareness and are guided to create practical action plans.

Drawing on over three decades of proven experience in emotional intelligence instruction, the training draws on brain-based learning, multiple intelligences theory, positive psychology, and groundbreaking research on emotions. The training model comes from a curriculum called Self-Science, first published in 1978, which was hailed as one of two models for teaching EQ in Daniel Goleman's 1995 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence, Why It Can Matter More than IQ.