WorkplaceCodex
Deliver90 min · v1.0

Leadership and manager rehearsal

Original workshop design for pilot use. This format has not been validated for effectiveness.

Summary and decision

Prepare leaders to make decisions, model practices and remove barriers.

Decision: Agree observable leadership commitments and escalation routes.

Preparation

  • Bring approved decisions, unresolved concerns and support routes.
  • Ask managers which conversations they find difficult.

Audience

6-12 sponsors and managers, with HR and the change facilitator.

Agenda

Agenda in minutes
#BlockMinutes
1Opening10
2Evidence10
3Exercise A25
4Break5
5Exercise B25
6Decisions15
Total90

Exercises A and B

Exercise A: Leadership commitments

  1. Specify what leaders must explain, decide, demonstrate and enable.
  2. Name an observable action, timing and evidence for each commitment.
  3. Remove commitments that exceed the leader’s authority.

Exercise B: Difficult conversation rehearsal

  1. Work in trios: employee, manager and observer. Rotate roles.
  2. Practise acknowledging a concern, clarifying facts and agreeing a next step.
  3. Use the observer to identify promises without authority or missing listening.

Worksheets

Worksheet A

Leadership responsibility
Visible action
Resources or decision required
Owner and evidence date

Worksheet B

Concern and underlying need
Known facts and unknowns
Response and support route
Follow-up commitment

Illustrative example

Illustrative, not a real case

  • Illustrative: an employee cannot find a workable quiet setting.
  • The manager asks about the task and routes the provision problem to FM.
  • They agree when the employee will receive a response.

Completion criteria

  • Managers can explain what is fixed and still open.
  • Commitments have owners and dates.
  • Unresolved issues have a route beyond the manager.

Follow-up

  • Publish the manager support sheet and maintain an issue owner.
  • Review commitments at the next leadership meeting.

Points of attention

  • Do not rehearse manipulation or compulsory enthusiasm.
  • Separate personal support from public issue reporting.

Workplace phase and change activities

Workplace: Deliver (phase in the Workplace method)

Change Management

  • Prepare

    Why this workshop helps: Prepares leaders to decide, model practices and remove barriers; sets escalation routes.

    Adapting outside a workplace setting: Replace workplace examples with situations from your own change; the structure can stay.

These links and notes are editorial guidance of the Codex, not a new or validated template. The workshop text and files on this page are unchanged.

Planned sessions

No sessions are planned.

Sources and downloads

Sources

S02TheoryNot effectiveness evidence

Weiner (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change

Why here: Informs the attention to leadership commitment and resources as part of organisational readiness. The workshop does not measure readiness and does not use the ORIC questionnaire. It does not validate this workshop.

Finding:
Shared commitment and confidence in collective capability are distinct aspects of readiness.
Limitation for workplace:
A conceptual theory, developed for collective implementation. A workshop conversation is not a validated readiness measure.
Reviewed 2026-10-02
S04Determinant frameworkNot effectiveness evidence

Damschroder et al. (2022). The updated Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research

Why here: Informs the view of leadership engagement and escalation routes as implementation determinants. The leadership commitments are our own design and are not CFIR. It does not validate this workshop.

Finding:
CFIR supports structured examination of context, barriers and facilitators, with attention to recipients and equity.
Limitation for workplace:
Use selected relevant constructs. The 7P lens is our organising synthesis, not the CFIR structure or a validated scale.
Reviewed 2026-10-02

Downloads

Last reviewed: 2026-10-02