Change Communication Skills Training

Using communication to help drive change

Change is constant in today's workplaces — and communicating it well can be the difference between a smooth transition and a frustrated, disengaged workforce.

This training is designed to give your team a practice framework for developing effective change communication, grounded in behavioural science.

At the end of this workshop, your team will:

  • understand how different people respond to change, and what that means for your communication

  • know how communication fits into the broader change management discipline - and what’s in scope, and what’s out of scope as communicators

  • know how to use our EPIC Change Communication Framework to design and deliver change communication that actually works

  • understand how to craft and deliver messages to give your communication the best chance of success.

What to expect from your Change Communication Skills training session

  • Understand how our brains work, especially when there is change and uncertainty

  • Understand how different people respond to change, and what that means for your communication

  • Know the difference between internal communication and change communication

  • Understand how communication complements the other elements of change management

  • Learn about everyone’s different communication styles and preferences

  • Learn how to apply lessons from behavioural science to your messaging and channels.


Who should attend

This workshop is for people who…

  • are professional communicators already and want to add change communication to their toolkit

  • Project Managers and Change Managers who are likely to take on communication as part of their remit

  • Team leaders who will need to lead people during change, and want the communication skills to help them do that successfully.


How the course is run

To get the most out of your Change Communication Skills training, this workshop is facilitated in person for four hours. Please note that hybrid workshops (some people online / some in person) are not ideal for this type of training.

If required, we can run the workshop as two 90-minute sessions with everyone joining online. To make sure everyone gets the most out of this training, numbers are capped at 15 people.

Course Outline

Module 1: Foundations of change communication

  • The five elements of effective change management

  • The differences between internal communication and change communication

  • The EPIC Change Communication Framework

Module 2: Focus on people

  • What happens in our brains when we are faced with uncertainty and a lot of change

  • How people respond to change, and what that means for your team’s communication

  • Understand the components of our communication preferences

  • Discover different communication style and what that means for your communication during change.

Module 3: Evaluating change

  • Learn how to take a great brief - and the importance of the reverse brief

  • Discover the questions you’ll need answered in order to create an effective change communication strategy

Module 4: Planning and positioning

  • Learn how to make a compelling ‘case for change’

  • Develop key messages that resonate with your audiences

  • Create a change communication strategy and plan that’s centred on people’s experiences

Module 5: Implementation

  • Prepare, support, and coach leaders who need to communicate change

  • Use the PIE framework to enhance your communication

  • Understand how to use language and visuals to make your communication resonate.

  • Tap into behavioural science techniques to level up your communication skills.

Module 6: Check & Correct

  • Learn how to measure the effectiveness of your change communication

  • Know how to understand what’s working and what’s not

What you’ll get as part of this training

  • Each participant will receive printed tools during the training to help make the learning stick

  • Your leaders will receive a copy of the slides presented

  • If required, we can supply a Certificate of Completion for each participant.

Your questions answered

About your facilitator

Mel Loy SCMP

Founder and Director, Cuttlefish; IABC Asia-Pacific Region Board Member; IABC Asia Pacific Academy Partner

Mel Loy is a self-confessed serial ideator, obsessed with how humans behave and what that means for effective communication. After studying journalism she discovered a love not for reporting but for the power of communication — and went on to spend more than 20 years in increasingly senior corporate communication roles across emergency services, construction and mining, early learning, retail and more.

In late 2020, after leading her team through the COVID-19 pandemic, Mel started her own agency. Today her small-but-mighty team at Cuttlefish provides consulting and training to clients across Australia and overseas, specialising in internal, change, crisis and strategic communication.

Mel is the author of two books — Change Isn't Hard and Less Chatter, More Matter — and host of the Less Chatter, More Matter podcast. An international award winner for her training programs and strategies, a sought-after facilitator and keynote speaker, and a certified Strategic Communication Management Professional (SCMP), and a volunteer Board member for IABC Asia-Pacific. When she’s not obsessing over words and human behaviour, Mel is teaching group fitness classes and yoga at her local gym.