An educational process for change and improvement efforts

"Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject." - Thomas Mann, early twentieth-century German novelist and essayist

Once a management team has established a plan for change and improvement, there are many ways to help everyone in the organization understand what is happening and why. These include one-on-one discussions, group presentations, workshops or seminars, videos, printed materials, and the like.
The best approach is personal and interactive. Rather than simply present the changes or improvement plan, education and effective communication involves all discussions that deepens understanding and provides feedback, options and other ideas to the team that is driving the improvement effort. That's why workshops or seminars with presentations and discussions by leaders are such an effective educational tool in the improvement process.

The following are the major components in approximately the order in which they could be used in an educational workshop or seminar. Obviously the points that will be the most important to the public, the organization's culture, direction and management is trying to move toward needs to be underlined or highlighted.
Why should we change or improve? - This is the first and most critical step. Changes and improvements that do not appear to have solid reasons behind their extravagant look. They (and should) be challenged. These reasons should speak in terms of public interest.

Balancing Leadership, Management, and technology - all need to understand this critical balance. Managers can identify where the organization or the team is now, and what must change to move to a better balance.

Self-Leadership - Leadership is an action not a position. The organization needs to be "Leaderful". In today's rapidly changing world, we all need to be proactive and take initiative to continuously improve themselves, their teams, and organization.

Focus and context - the team or the organization's vision, values, and purpose must be clear and convincing. We can also help everyone to develop their staff and focus on the context and look for ways to align with those of their own team and the organization.

Customers and partners - understanding and designing a customer-chain partners (with data gaps in performance if available) that puts the audience we are working with in the middle of the picture.
Organizational learning and innovation - outline and discuss how the organization is looking for the deepest needs latent / unmet, exploring new markets, experiment and learn from clumsy attempts. Then clarify the role and involvement of the public.

Team objectives and priorities and the organization - to present and discuss the team and / or organization's strategic imperatives, goals for improvement, and key measures. Outline and discuss the goals and objectives cascading through the process of ongoing review the public will be involved in.

The Model Improvement Plan and process - to introduce, update or clarify the improvement model in use and why. Walk through all sub-components and plans that have been developed (or are developing) for this programming period. These should include the structure and process improvement, process management, teams, skills development, measurement and feedback, organizational structure and systems, continuing education and communication strategies, rewards and recognition, and plans for regular review, assessment, celebrating, and redirect the process of improvement.

Improvement tools, techniques, principles and practices - introduce or review the methods the team and / or organization will be used. Talk about how this group will be trained and plans to use the tools and approaches for improvement.

Next Steps - explain what's going to happen and how the public can expect - and need - to become more involved in efforts to improve .......