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EventTraining course | Online (Teams)

Change Agent

Date & time

  1. 4 December 2023 09:00 - 16:30
  2. 5 December 2023 09:00 - 16:30
  3. 6 December 2023 09:00 - 16:30
  4. 7 December 2023 09:00 - 16:30
  5. 8 December 2023 09:00 - 16:30

Location

  1. Teams
  2. Teams
  3. Teams
  4. Teams
  5. Teams

Primary partners: Microsoft (opens in new tab)

Overview

Get the knowledge and confidence you need to help guide and deliver change.

This free programme is a collaboration between Microsoft and Socitm. You do not need to be a Socitm member to attend this programme.

The Change Agent programme is a collaboration between Microsoft, Socitm and all local government we work with.

Our aim is to train at least one person in every local government to be a catalyst for change, connecting them with others in similar roles to innovative create communities of practice.

‘I wasn’t sure what I was going to learn on this course. However, I would 100% recommend it. It has to be one of the best courses I have been on...”

One of our 2022 Change Agents.

The Change Agent programme is designed to work alongside existing change efforts, with some authorities planning to use this as their main catalyst for change.

The programme provides a foundation, even intermediate understanding, of a range of tools that authorities are deploying or already benefiting from, such as SharePoint, Teams and the Power Platform – including Power BI.

As a Change Agent you will:

  • Learn skills that to make your service more efficient and sustainable
  • Develop technical abilities to help yourself and your service
  • Learn how to get the most from your data assets
  • Gain an understanding of the opportunities to automate processes
  • Become more aware of the technology available to you and your colleagues to save time, remain compliant and support colleagues & residents
  • Join a community of Change Agents in similar roles from across the UK
  • Gain skills that will support you throughout your career
  • Understand how people can make or break any change initiative and how to gain more support from them

Duration: Five days
Sectors: All local government
Career level: This programme is aimed at staff members or junior managers.  A specific manager version is also available.

Structure

This programme is spread over 5 days, Monday to Friday. 

The programme will be held virtually on Teams. Tech support is available to anyone that needs it ahead of the session.

Further resources and opportunities to engage in the programme and with other councils will be available beyond the initial week’s training.

Benefits

For individuals

As a change agent you will: 

  • Learn skills that to make your service more efficient and sustainable 
  • Develop technical abilities to help yourself and your service 
  • Learn how to get the most from your data assets 
  • Gain an understanding of the opportunities to automate processes 
  • Become more aware of the technology available to you and your colleagues to save time, remain compliant and support colleagues and residents 
  • Join a community of Change Agent in similar roles from across the UK 
  • Gain skills that will support you throughout your career 

For your organisation

The programme: 

  • is designed to work alongside existing change efforts, with some authorities planning to use this as their main catalyst for change. 
  • provides a foundation, even intermediate understanding, of a range of tools that authorities are deploying or already benefiting from, such as SharePoint, Teams and the Power Platform – including Power BI. The work compliments your implementations and your facilitators can localise the change.  
  • will add the most value if you have facilitators, managers and end-users on the programme.

Agenda

  1. 09:00 Skills to change

    Learn a range of skills from expert tutors at Socitm on how to understand, introduce, manage and lead change.

    The topics we will cover are:

    • The Change Agent programme
    • Learning styles
    • Growth mindset
    • Leadership
    • The human side of change
    • Change management
    • Design thinking

Trainers

Partners

Who is this course for?

Everyone.

You don’t need to be a Socitm member, just have an existing arrangement with Microsoft and be a local public service provider.

What do we need from you?

We’re looking for people who:

  • Are curious and enjoy learning.
  • Want to help their service be more sustainable.
  • Enjoy helping others.
  • Recognise technology as an enabler to change.
  • Enjoy problem solving.

You don’t need to be particularly technical (a basic level of ability is helpful), just come along with a keenness to learn.

FAQs

How many Change Agents can we send on the course?

As many as you want! But please note, it’s best to consider the capacity your ICT, Change or Business Relationship Management (BRM) function have to support your Change Agents, as they’ll likely want to use some of the technology they’ve been shown (such as Shifts in Teams, Lists or Power Automate). So ensuring you land short-term wins and keeping up the momentum is important (Kotter’s Change Model on day 1 covers this!).

I’ve already attended the course. Is it worth doing again?

As much as we’d love to have you back, places are limited and we want to upskill as many new people as possible.

I’m not very ‘techy’, but I’d like to learn more, can I attend?

100% yes! In your question you’ve stated you want to learn more, which shows a Growth Mindset (covered on day 1), so please come along and if you get stuck, just ask, as we can guarantee someone else will be hoping for some help.

Do I have to have my camera on?

You don’t have to… but it’s nice to have it on for as much of the course as you can cope with. We all have little challenges that mean it’s useful to keep our cameras off, but it’s so much more rewarding for those presenting if they can see people on the call. Most people have their cameras on in breakout rooms (groups of 4-8) and sometimes for the main sessions.

How interactive is it?

To keep things interesting there’s a lot of questions, discussions, breakout rooms, and use of Teams tools such as polls and quizzes. If you’d prefer not to be asked questions that’s absolutely fine. Let us know before or as the course starts – we want to make the sessions as welcoming and accessible as possible.

If I have an urgent meeting or call during the course is that a problem?

Things happen, life happens, work happens, it’s fine. We ask that you have your manager’s blessing to attend, and hopefully that gives you the time to commit to the course, but we understand life is a juggling act.

What technology is covered that requires a license beyond those included with E3 or E5, or that incurs a cost for using cloud services?

We show the Power Platform, with a focus on what you can achieve with the functionality everyone has with E3/E5. But we do detail all the functionality. Otherwise, we’d only be telling a fraction of the story. With the data and AI sessions, there are references to cloud services, but not specifically aligned to products as those sessions are about the art of the possible. Most of the course demonstrates technology you have, and how to approach a transformation programme.

We’ve got an existing internal Change Programme, should we send colleagues to this one too?

One of the key benefits of the Change Agent course, that has been noted time and time again, is the opportunity to collaborate with other councils. We tend to have 35+ councils on each course. For that reason alone, it’s worth sending people, and we’re sure they’ll learn something new.

Can I have a list of my colleagues who’ve signed up?

Yes, if you contact the Socitm team we can help with a list for your local authority.

Got a question, a thought, or an idea? Let us know.