Leadership, Change & Human-Scale Design

The Open Practice Academy

Megan Zara

Relational Leadership & Change Coach, Human-Scale Systems Design

The Threshold Check: 4 Questions Before You Announce Change

PhD researcher & leadership consultant, human-scale systems design

Walk through the four questions to ask before you announce any change, using a live example from the room.

The Threshold Check

Learn to tell the two apart, then build a real pathway your team can actually follow, not just read.

Invitation vs. pathway

Leave with a downloadable worksheet, and run your own change through it before the week is over.

A tool you can use today

See the framework run against a corporate rollout and a higher-ed policy change, start to finish.

Two real-world cases, applied

Confidently lead change, influence stakeholders and drive adoption with practical techniques you can use immediately.

Change Leadership Specialist, PROSCI

Swiss Re

Rachel Nantono

Change Leadership Specialist PROSCI, Specialist Mindset Change Coach, Consultant

September 2026

“I will show you exactly how enterprise change leaders deliver successful transformation in organisations worth millions of pounds."Organisations don't fail because they lack strategy.They fail because people don't adopt change.After leading enterprise transformation programmes for more than 15+ years, I have learned something that most Change Management certifications don't teach.The hardest part isn't creating the plan.It's:<ul><li> Getting executives aligned</li><li>Winning stakeholder trust</li><li>Managing politics</li><li>Handling resistance</li><li>Influencing without authority</li><li>Driving adoption</li><li>Recovering projects when everything starts going wrong.</li></ul>This programme is built from real enterprise experience and not academic theory.You will learn exactly how experienced Change Leaders navigate difficult stakeholders, influence senior leadership, overcome resistance and deliver change that sticks.This is the playbook I wish someone had given me fifteen years ago.

Become The Change Leader Executives Trust To Deliver Complex Transformation

Lead enterprise transformation from strategy to adoption

Influence executives and secure stakeholder buy-in

Build stakeholder support and navigate organisational politics

Manage resistance with confidence

Drive adoption and sustain change

Recover struggling change initiatives

Whether you are already leading change or stepping into a larger transformation role, this programme will give you immediate practical tools

You want to lead change with greater confidence

This is a live, interactive programme, not a series of lectures. You will take part in discussions, real-world exercises and coaching

You enjoy learning by doing

If you're tired of theory and want proven approaches, templates, and frameworks that work in real organisations, you'll feel right at home.

You are looking for practical solutions

The Aspiring Change LeaderReady to step up and lead change confidently with practical tools, skills, and real-world experience.

The Experienced Change ProfessionalWant to strengthen influence, manage stakeholders better, and lead larger, complex transformations.

The Project or Transformation ProfessionalLeading adoption, overcome resistance and turn project delivery into real business change success.

From pushback to ownership: conversations that drive real change

Executive Coach - Ex-Google, Indeed

Google

Indeed

Linda Scotti 

Executive Coach Driving Measurable Leadership Effectiveness and Behaviour

July

September

You know the conversation you need to have. The one you keep replaying in your head between meetings or while trying to fall asleep.You’ve tried being direct, you’ve tried being empathetic, and you've explained the "why" five different ways. Yet, you still get:<ul><li>“I can’t because…”</li><li>“It’s not my fault…”</li><li>Silence, shutdown, or a polite “Sure” followed by zero change.</li></ul>This workshop is for that moment. In 3 hours, you'll learn to hold the line on standards while lowering the defensiveness that makes accountability conversations fail.Why “brain-friendly” is the differentiator Most models assume people are calmly processing data. In reality, when someone feels threatened (status, autonomy, fairness), their nervous system shifts into protection mode. That’s when resistance and victim language take over, turning your coaching into an energy drain.The Outcome You’ll leave with a system to:<ul><li>Move people from pushback to ownership in one conversation.</li><li>Lead change without it collapsing into "this won't work here."</li><li>Create clear follow-up that actually sticks.</li></ul>No "tips." Just scripts, templates, and a practiced plan.

Turn pushback, blame, and victim mindset into clear agreements, ownership, and measurable next steps.

Reduce employee defensiveness in the first 60 seconds.

Deliver clarity that drives behavior change using SBI + N.

Turn resistance and victim language into personal ownership.

Make accountability stick with a repeatable follow-up loop.

Use AI to scale ownership and increase follow-through.

The Rescuing Manager: Exhausted from "fixing" team problems. Ready to stop being the solution machine and start building team ownership.

The Direct High-Performer: A leader who values results but feels direct feedback is triggering defensiveness rather than behavior change.

The Change Leader: Navigating team resistance to new tools and processes. Needs a system to move people from resistance to possibility.

Turn hidden AI resistance into real team adoption using proven scripts, resistance patterns, and a practical 30-day playbook.

Leadership & HR Transformation Expert

OLX Group

InPost

Wayfair

Delivery Hero

Blacklane

Konstantina Mourgkogia

HR transformation leader helping managers lead teams through change

Org Psychologist | AI & Leadership Coach

Refurbed

TU Wien

Ricoh Australia

Würth Group

Breathe Battery Technologies

Alessandro Wärzner

Psychologist and coach bridging AI strategy and the human reality of team change

Cohort 1

Managers are expected to lead teams through transformation, uncertainty, and role shifts, yet very few are taught how to handle the human side of change in real work situations.The hardest part is rarely the strategy or the new tools. It’s the day-to-day leadership moments: announcing change, navigating silence or resistance, discussing evolving roles, and keeping momentum when the first excitement fades.This course gives managers a practical playbook of conversations, rituals, and team habits that turn uncertainty into trust, ownership, and real adoption.Participants leave with tools they can immediately apply in team meetings, sensitive career conversations, and a focused 30-day transformation plan for their own team.

The human side of change: what managers were never taught to lead

Diagnose what’s truly happening in your team before adoption stalls.

Lead the change conversation without losing trust or authority.

Run role-evolution and resistance conversations that move people forward.

Build a 30-day AI adoption plan without burning yourself out.

Team managers in scale-ups or mid-market firms driving AI adoption with 5–15 reports and facing silent resistance or stalled usage.

You will walk into any AI conversation able to read the proposal, ask the questions that matter, and shape the decision in your own voice.

AI Transformation Leader & Educator

Deloitte

University of Exeter

Lloyds Bank

Deidré Luzmore

Founder of Your AI Journey

LIMITED SEATS! (Use code: earlybird for $500 off ) ♾️ A free seat in every future cohort, for life🏫 AI Leadership community included.📚 24 lessons across 8 modules. 16 hours live with Deidré.🧰 3 artefacts you build on your own AI proposal and take to work✉️ Private team training available: info [@] youraijourney.comYou are sitting in another meeting about AI. A vendor is presenting, a technical colleague is nodding, and someone says the word agentic. You have twenty years of experience in your field, and right now none of it feels like it counts.What you have to contribute still counts. You are not behind. Yours is the missing voice in the room. This course is for the leader who has to live with AI decisions made by other people. It teaches you to spot weak AI thinking before it becomes weak AI rollout, ask the questions others miss, and shape the decision from your own seat without being labelled obstructionist.Over eight weeks you build a framework for thinking, practise it on a realistic case study, then apply it to a real AI proposal in your own organisation. You leave able to shape the decisions you used to absorb.

The non-technical leader is the missing voice in nearly every AI decision.

Speak the language of AI without bluffing

Read any AI proposal and form a defensible position

Choose the right intervention with the Five Routes framework

Ask the questions that stop weak AI rollouts

Define where humans stay in the loop, and design safe pilots

Lead the adoption conversation on your home turf

<pre><code class="language-markdown">The People &amp; Culture leader- You lead HR, People or Internal Communications. You have been asked to represent the workforce in AI decisions.</code></pre>

<pre><code class="language-markdown">The Finance, Risk or Legal leader signing off the exposure- You lead Finance, Risk, Compliance, Legal or Internal Audit.</code></pre>

<pre><code class="language-markdown">The Operations, Marketing or CX leader living with the AI tools you never asked for- You lead Operations, Marketing or Customer Experience.</code></pre>

Agentic AI

Coding with AI

AI Workflows

Claude Code

OpenClaw

Vibe Coding

AI Evals

AI Transformation

RAG & Search

AI for PMs

AI for Engineers

AI for Designers

AI for Marketers

AI for Founders

Product Sense

Product Discovery

User Research

Prototyping

Growth

Analytics

Tech Foundations

Strategy

Influence

Leadership

Career Growth

Machine Learning

LLM Ops

Context Eng

Security

System Design

Figma

Design Systems

Visual Design

Design Strategy

Automation

Content Marketing

Demand Gen

Go-to-Market

Product Marketing

Positioning

Social Media

Brand

B2B Marketing

SEO & AEO

AI for Leaders

AI Governance

Communication

Management

People Operations

Exec Presence

Storytelling

Goal-setting

Personal Brand

Fundraising

Everyone

Operators

Data Scientists

Business Analysts

User Researchers

Customer Success

Project Managers

HR Professionals

Sales People

Lawyers

Finance

Investors

Real Estate

Educators

Creators

Executives and senior leaders who set strategy, lead teams, and drive organizational outcomes.

Executive communication — presenting to boards, writing memos, running all-hands, and high-stakes messaging.

Developing leadership skills — inspiring teams, building culture, navigating organizational complexity, and driving results through others.

Day-to-day people management — 1:1s, feedback, performance management, hiring, and team operations.

The Threshold Check: 4 Questions Before You Announce Change

What you'll learn

Why this topic matters

You'll learn from

Megan Zara