When not to use this session
Redundancy, restructuring and changes to pay, hours or contracts belong with HR and the formal process. Follow your own organisation’s policy and local law; this table is a guide for team leads and trainers, not HR or legal advice.
| Situation | Where it belongs | Why this session is the wrong tool |
|---|---|---|
| Redundancy, restructuring or job losses | HR and the formal consultation process, with employee representatives where they exist | People need facts, rights and a fair process. A team workshop cannot give them, and can harm the process. |
| Changes to pay, hours, contracts or place of work | HR and the formal process | These depend on contract, policy and law, which this kit does not cover. |
| A change that has not been announced yet | The sponsor and the communication plan | The team would learn the news in a workshop. Announce first, then run the session a few days later. |
| A change that is still being decided | A consultation or design session, if the decision is open | This session plans support for a decided change. Asking for views on a closed decision looks like consultation and is not. |
| One person who is very distressed by the change | A private one-to-one with their manager, and any employee support service your organisation offers | A group room is not the place. The lead is not a counsellor and should not act as one. |
| A formal complaint or grievance about the change | The person who runs that procedure | A side discussion can harm the procedure and the people in it. |
The five reaction piles
The piles sort written concerns by what would help. They are not stages, they do not describe people, and they do not say how anyone should feel. A concern that fits two piles goes where the writer puts it.
| Pile | What it sounds like | What usually helps | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Know: I need information | “What happens to the bookings we already have?” “Who do I ask when it goes wrong?” | A clear answer, or a named person and a date for the answer. Write it on the parking list if nobody knows yet. | Guessing. An honest “I do not know yet, I will tell you by Friday” is better than a wrong answer. |
| Do: I need to be able to | “I have only seen two screenshots.” “I am not sure I can run the report.” | Practice time before the change, a person to ask, a short guide, a buddy for the first attempts. | Telling people it is easy. If it were, nobody would have written the slip. |
| Miss: something I value is going | “I will miss talking to learners when they book.” “I could see the whole month at a glance.” | Saying out loud what is going. Asking whether some of it can be kept in a new form. | Arguing that the old way was worse. The slip is about what the person valued, not about a vote on the change. |
| Load: I need time or tools | “Go-live is in induction week.” “For a while we will check two places.” | Moving or dropping other work, an extra pair of hands in week 1, a date when the double work stops. | Adding support sessions on top of a full week without taking something away. |
| Not sure, or not for this room | A question about jobs or contracts. A slip that fits no pile. | Answer what the fact sheet already says. Questions about jobs, pay or contracts go to HR; say so and give the route. | Speculating about the future of anyone’s role. |
Words for hard moments
Short answers for moments that can come up in a session about change. Keep them honest: if you do not know, say so and give a date.
| Moment | What the facilitator or lead can say or do |
|---|---|
| Someone asks whether jobs are at risk | “That is a fair question. What I have been told is on the fact sheet: roles and hours are not part of this change. Anything about your contract or role goes to HR, and I will give you the name today.” Do not speculate. |
| Someone argues against the decision | “I hear that you disagree. The decision is made, and today is about what we need to make it work. I will pass your point on to the sponsor in writing, without your name if you prefer.” Add it to the parking list. |
| The lead does not know the answer | “I do not know. I will find out from the project lead and tell you by Wednesday.” Write it on the parking list with a name and a date. |
| Nobody speaks | Move to writing. “Take two minutes and write it on a slip. You can leave it blank.” Read slips aloud without names. |
| Someone is upset in the room | Offer a pause to the whole group, not to the person. Afterwards, offer a private conversation and say what support exists. Do not ask the person to explain their feelings to the group. |
| A slip names a colleague | Read only the need, not the name: “Someone needs to know who to ask about bookings.” Talk to the writer privately if it is about behaviour. |
Filled example: change fact sheet
A fictional learning operations team of six: a team lead, two course coordinators, a venue coordinator, a trainer and a data and reporting officer. Their course bookings move from a shared spreadsheet to a new booking system. The session runs on Wednesday 21 October 2026. The team, the system and the dates are invented.
| Question | Our answer |
|---|---|
| What is changing, in one or two sentences | From Monday 2 November, learners book courses themselves in the new booking system. The shared booking spreadsheet and the bookings inbox close for new bookings. |
| Why, as we have been told | The head of learning wants one record of bookings and attendance. In September two courses were double-booked because two copies of the spreadsheet were in use. |
| What is decided and will not change | The system, the go-live date, and that the spreadsheet becomes read-only on 2 November. |
| What is still open, and when we will know | Who books for staff without a computer login: the head of learning decides by Friday 30 October. Whether waiting lists move across: the IT project lead confirms by Wednesday 28 October. |
| What is not changing for us | The course catalogue, the trainers, the venues, our team, our roles and our hours. |
| The key dates | Practice version opens Monday 26 October. Go-live Monday 2 November. Team review Friday 13 November. |
| Who to ask about what | System questions: the IT project lead. How we work: the team lead. Anything about your own contract or role: HR. |
Filled example: stop, start, keep map
The rows the pairs and threes agreed, one per task: 5 stops, 5 starts, 5 keeps and 3 unclear items, which went to the parking list or were answered from the fact sheet.
| Task or part of the job | Stop | Start | Keep | Still unclear |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taking bookings (course coordinators) | Typing bookings from emails into the spreadsheet. | Checking the daily booking report. Helping learners who cannot book online. | The welcome email to each learner. | |
| Catering and rooms (venue coordinator) | Counting names in the spreadsheet for catering. | Taking numbers from the system report every Wednesday. | Booking venues as now. | When the numbers count as final. |
| Running courses (trainer) | Printing the attendance list. | Taking attendance on a tablet in the system. | A paper list as a backup. | What to do if the wifi fails. |
| Reports (data and reporting officer) | Merging two spreadsheet copies each month. | Running the monthly report from the system. | The quarterly report to the head of learning. | Whether old records move across. |
| Approvals (team lead) | Approving bookings by email. | Approving waiting-list places in the system. | The weekly team meeting. |
Filled example: concern slips sorted
14 slips from six people: Know 4, Do 3, Miss 3, Load 3, Not sure 1. 8 went to the support plan, 4 to the parking list and 2 were answered in the room. No slip was left without a next step.
| # | Concern or question | Pile | Taken to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What happens to the bookings already in the spreadsheet? | Know | Parking list P3 |
| 2 | Who books for staff who have no login? | Know | Parking list P1 |
| 3 | Do waiting lists move across? | Know | Parking list P2 |
| 4 | Who do I call when the system is down? | Know | Answered in the room: the IT service desk |
| 5 | I have only seen two screenshots of the attendance screen. | Do | Support plan S5 |
| 6 | I am not sure I can run the booking report. | Do | Support plan S1 |
| 7 | I do not know how to fix a booking a learner got wrong. | Do | Support plan S1 |
| 8 | I will miss talking to learners when they email to book. | Miss | Support plan S6 |
| 9 | The spreadsheet let me see the whole month at a glance. | Miss | Parking list P4 |
| 10 | I liked knowing each learner’s name before a course. | Miss | Support plan S6 |
| 11 | Go-live is in the same week as the November induction. | Load | Support plan S2 |
| 12 | Two places to look for a while means double checking. | Load | Support plan S4 |
| 13 | Learners will phone us when they cannot log in. | Load | Support plan S3 |
| 14 | Is this the first step to cutting the team? | Not sure | Answered in the room from the fact sheet; HR named for contract questions |
Filled example: help-and-hinder board
Helps total 8, hinders total 11. The rank covers only hinders that are Ours or Influence: one plus the number of those hinders with a higher strength. X2 ranks first and X3 and X5 share second place, so those three were picked. X1 is outside the team’s control; S2 plans around it.
| # | Side | What it is | Strength | Control | Rank | Picked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 | Helps | The practice version of the system opens on Monday 26 October. | 3 | Ours | – | |
| H2 | Helps | The IT project lead works on our floor on Mondays. | 2 | Influence | – | |
| H3 | Helps | Two coordinators used a similar system in an earlier job. | 2 | Ours | – | |
| H4 | Helps | The course catalogue does not change. | 1 | Outside | – | |
| X1 | Hinders | Go-live falls in the November induction week. | 3 | Outside | – | |
| X2 | Hinders | Nobody in the team has run the booking report yet. | 3 | Ours | 1 | Yes |
| X3 | Hinders | Staff without a login have no way to book yet. | 2 | Influence | 2 | Yes |
| X4 | Hinders | The tablets in the training room are old and slow. | 1 | Influence | 4 | |
| X5 | Hinders | The old spreadsheet stays open read-only, so there are two places to look. | 2 | Ours | 2 | Yes |
Filled example: support plan
Go-live is Monday 2 November 2026. 1 item before go-live, 5 in week 1 and 2 in week 2. Linked items: Know 2, Do 3, Miss 1, Load 4, plus the review, which covers all piles.
| # | Support | For whom | Given by | Date | Week | Linked to | How we will know it helped |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | A 30-minute practice run of the booking report and of fixing a wrong booking, in the practice version. | Everyone who reads bookings | Data and reporting officer | Thu 29 Oct | Before go-live | X2, Do | Each person has run the report once on their own. |
| S2 | A 10-minute stand-up at 09:30 each day of week 1 for system questions. Induction tasks shared out at the same time. | Whole team | Team lead | Mon 2 Nov | Week 1 | Load, Know | Every question is answered by the next day or is on the parking list with a date. |
| S3 | One named coordinator each day on the phone line for learners who cannot log in, on a written rota. | Learners and coordinators | Course coordinators | Mon 2 Nov | Week 1 | X3, Load | Nobody misses a course because they could not book. |
| S4 | The old spreadsheet renamed “archive, read-only” and moved out of the shared bookings folder. | Whole team | Data and reporting officer | Mon 2 Nov | Week 1 | X5, Load | No booking is entered in the spreadsheet after 2 November. |
| S5 | The trainer and a coordinator take attendance on the tablet together at the first course, with a paper list as backup. | Trainer | Course coordinator | Tue 3 Nov | Week 1 | Do | Attendance for that course is in the system the same day. |
| S6 | Coordinators keep a short welcome call to first-time learners, with one hour a week protected for it. | Course coordinators | Team lead | Wed 4 Nov | Week 1 | Miss | At the review the coordinators say whether to keep it. |
| S7 | A mid-point check: each person tells the lead, aloud or by message, one thing that is harder than expected. | Whole team | Team lead | Mon 9 Nov | Week 2 | Know, Do, Load | Each answer has a reply by Wednesday 11 November. |
| S8 | Team review: 20 minutes in the team meeting with the two-week review sheet. | Whole team | Team lead | Fri 13 Nov | Week 2 | All piles | Each support item is marked keep, change or stop. |
Filled example: question parking list
Four questions nobody could answer in the room, each with a name and a date. Days are counted from the session on Wednesday 21 October 2026, and every answer is due before go-live. The question about the team’s future was answered from the fact sheet, with HR named for contract questions.
| # | Question | Who finds out | By when | Days after the session | How the answer reaches the team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | Who books for staff who have no login? | Team lead asks the head of learning | Fri 30 Oct | 9 | Team meeting and a message in the team channel |
| P2 | Do waiting lists move across? | IT project lead | Wed 28 Oct | 7 | Message in the team channel |
| P3 | What happens to the bookings already in the spreadsheet? | IT project lead | Wed 28 Oct | 7 | Message in the team channel |
| P4 | Can the system show a whole month of courses on one screen? | Data and reporting officer tries it in the practice version | Tue 27 Oct | 6 | Shown at the stand-up on Monday 2 November |
What you'll leave with
By the end of 90 minutes the team has a stop, start, keep map for each main task, every written concern sorted and given a next step, up to three hinders picked from a help-and-hinder board, and a first-two-weeks support plan in which each item has a giver, a date and a sign that it helped.
Before the session
- For team leads, and the trainers or HR partners who support them, running a session with their own team of 4–12 people after a decided change is announced: a new system, process or way of working.
- Check the change against “When not to use this session”. Fill in the change fact sheet with your manager or the sponsor; do not run the session without it.
- Print one stop, start, keep map and one slips page per person, and one of each other sheet for the group, or share the workbook on screen. If the lead decided the change, ask a colleague to facilitate.
- Send the fact sheet as plain text a day early on request. Every activity is seated and written, concerns carry no names, piles are named by word, not colour, cameras are optional and anyone may pass.
The run of show
Open: what this session is for and what it is not
Two minutes: the team lead says why you are meeting. Say: “The change is decided. Today is about what it means for each of our jobs, what we need, and how we support each other in the first two weeks. It is not a vote on the change.” Three minutes: show the table “When not to use this session” and say: “Questions about jobs, pay or contracts go to HR. I will give you the name before we finish.” Three minutes: agree the rules. Talk about tasks, not about people. Every concern is written without names. Anyone may contribute aloud, in writing or in the chat, and anyone may pass.
Read the change fact sheet
Four minutes: the team lead reads the fact sheet aloud, row by row, and does not add opinions. Three minutes: questions of fact only. If the answer is on the sheet, point to it. If nobody knows, write the question on the parking list with a name and a date. Say: “If I do not know, I will say so and find out.” Opinions about the change wait for the reactions sort.
Stop, start, keep map
One minute: show a row from the filled example. Six minutes of silent writing: each person writes their main tasks down the first column, then what they will stop, start and keep doing, and what is still unclear. Six minutes: people with similar tasks compare in pairs or threes and agree one row per task. Five minutes: each pair or three reads its rows. The facilitator copies every “still unclear” cell onto the parking list or answers it from the fact sheet. Say: “Keep is as important as stop. It tells us what not to break.”
Reactions sort
One minute: explain the slips. Say: “Write up to three concerns or questions, one per slip, without your name. A blank slip is fine.” Four minutes: silent writing. Collect the slips face down, or ask people to send them to the facilitator by private message. Six minutes: read each slip aloud without comment and ask the group which pile it fits: Know, Do, Miss, Load or Not sure. The writer may move it without saying it is theirs. Four minutes: count the slips in each pile and ask: “Which pile is biggest, and what would help with it?” Write the answers on the board for the support plan. Questions about jobs or contracts go to Not sure and get the HR route, not a guess.
Break
Five minutes away from the table or the screen. The facilitator writes the pile counts and the parking list where everyone can see them.
Help-and-hinder board
Two minutes: say: “List what will help us and what will get in the way in the first two weeks. Facts about the work, not about people.” Five minutes: in pairs or threes, write at least two helps and two hinders. Four minutes: read them out and number them H1, H2 and X1, X2. For each, agree a strength from 1 (small) to 3 (large) and whether it is ours to change, ours to influence, or outside our control. Three minutes: add up the strengths on each side. Three minutes: pick up to three hinders that are ours or that we can influence, strongest first. Say: “Taking away a hinder often does more than adding another help.”
First-two-weeks support plan
Two minutes: read one row of the filled example. Eight minutes: as one group, write at least one support item for each picked hinder and for each pile that has slips. Each item says what the support is, for whom, who gives it, the date and how you will know it helped. Five minutes: the person named for each item says yes aloud or in writing before the name stays. Check that week 1 is not overloaded and that something was taken off people’s plates.
Read back and close
Two minutes: read back the support plan and the parking list with names and dates, and name the HR contact for questions about jobs or contracts. One minute: set the review date, about two weeks after the change starts. Two minutes: each person says or writes one sentence about what will help them most in week 1, or passes.
Participant worksheet
Copy this table into a document, or print the worksheet from the bundle. Share only what you choose.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Change fact sheet | What is changing, why, what is decided, what is open and when, what stays, who to ask |
| Stop, start, keep map | For each main task: what I stop, start and keep doing, and what is still unclear |
| Concern slips and sort board | Up to three concerns, one per slip, without names, counted in five piles: Know, Do, Miss, Load and Not sure |
| Help-and-hinder board | What helps and hinders in the first two weeks, strength 1–3, ours, influence or outside |
| First-two-weeks support plan | Support, for whom, given by, date, linked pile or hinder, how we will know it helped |
Debrief questions
- Which “keep” on the map surprised you, and what would we have broken if nobody had written it down?
- Which pile held the most slips, and does our support plan give that pile enough?
- Which hinder did we decide to remove rather than work around, and who will notice first if it is gone?
- What did we take off people’s plates for week 1, and is it enough?
Adapt it for your group
- For four or five people, do the map as one group, and ask everyone for at least two slips so that no slip can be traced to its writer.
- For a 60-minute version, send the fact sheet two days early and drop the read-through to 3 minutes, give the map 13 minutes, the reactions sort 12, the help-and-hinder board 12 and the support plan 12, keep the opening at 6 and the close at 2, and skip the break.
- Online, share the fact sheet and the workbook on screen. People send concern slips to the facilitator by private message, and the facilitator pastes them without names. Pairs use breakout rooms for the map and the board. Cameras are optional.
- For people who prefer not to speak, every step has a written route: the map and the slips are written, ratings can be sent by message, and the closing sentence can be written or passed. Read every slip aloud for people who cannot see the board. Nobody is asked how they feel.
- For a team spread across shifts or sites, collect the map and the slips as pre-work over two days, then use a 45-minute meeting for the sort, the board and the support plan.
After the session
Send the fact sheet, the map, the support plan and the parking list to the team within one working day. Tell the team each time a parking-list answer arrives. In week 1, the team lead checks the support plan at the daily stand-up or by message. About two weeks after the change starts, run a 20-minute review with the two-week review sheet: mark each support item keep, change or stop, and look again at what is still unclear on the map. If someone raises a question about jobs, pay or contracts at any point, give them the HR route and do not answer it yourself.
Questions people ask
What are good change management activities for a team?
Activities that turn a decided change into concrete work: a map of what each person will stop, start and keep doing, concerns collected in writing and sorted by what would help, a list of what helps and hinders, and a support plan with names and dates. This kit puts those four into one seated, written 90-minute session.
How is this different from the stakeholder mapping template and the communication skills activities?
The stakeholder mapping template is for the people planning a change: it lists the groups a change affects and plans who to ask and who to tell. This session is for one team after the change is announced: it works out what changes in each job and what support the team needs. The communication skills activities include a role-play about explaining a change; this kit has no role-play.
Can I use this session for a restructuring or redundancy announcement?
No. Redundancy, restructuring and changes to pay, hours, contracts or place of work belong with HR and the formal process, with employee representatives where they exist. A team workshop cannot give people the facts and rights they need, and it can harm the formal process. Use this session for decided changes to systems, processes or ways of working.
Do I need a change model, such as the change curve?
No. The session uses no stage model and does not predict how people will feel. Change-curve diagrams, often adapted from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s 1969 work on grief, are optional background if your organisation already uses one. The help-and-hinder board is in the spirit of force-field analysis, credited to the psychologist Kurt Lewin; the wording and worksheets here are written for this kit.
What if the lead does not know the answers, or the team disagrees?
Say “I do not know yet” and put the question on the parking list with a name and a date. The session does not reopen the decision: record any disagreement and pass it to the sponsor in writing, without a name if the person prefers.
What is included in the free and editable files?
The open PDF has the table of situations this session is not for, the change fact sheet with a question parking list, the stop, start, keep map, concern slips with the sort board, the help-and-hinder board, a two-week review sheet, the support plan, five filled examples and the 90-minute facilitator plan. Subscribers also receive the editable Word file, an Excel workbook with a sheet for each tool that counts, totals and dates the entries, with a filled example of each, and a CSV of the session plan.
How to use the files
Print the PDF, edit the Word file in Word or Google Docs, or open the CSV or XLSX in a spreadsheet. Open files need no email.
Can I use this with paying clients?
Yes. Use and adapt this original Superglue kit in your own training, including paid client sessions. Please share this page rather than redistributing the unmodified kit. Read the full usage terms.