Manager enablement · Workshop packet
The Change Crucible
Facilitator guide for a 90-minute manager session
Audience
People managers leading a change already announced
Duration
90 minutes, single session
Group size
6–16, in pairs at a laptop
Prerequisite
None. Prior ADKAR exposure optional
Original portfolio sample: a facilitator guide for my interactive simulation "The Change Crucible." Created to demonstrate design capability. Not affiliated with or produced for any employer or institution. ADKAR is a model published by Prosci; this guide references it and does not reproduce proprietary Prosci materials.
1 · Session Overview
Why this session exists. Managers who can name the stages of adoption still freeze in the room where the change lands. The gap is not knowledge, it is practice under social consequence, which almost no one gets before the real conversation. This session gives them three of those conversations in ninety minutes, with the cost of a wrong move made visible and survivable.
Your role as facilitator. You are not teaching the model. The simulation carries the instruction; your job is the debrief, where participants say out loud why they chose what they chose. Resist supplying the right answer, the design deliberately withholds one, and a facilitator who restores it removes the reason the session works.
2 · Learning Objectives
Given a stated objection, identify which element of adoption is missing rather than treating all resistance as unwillingness.
Select a response proportionate to that diagnosis, without defaulting to positional authority or to concession.
Explain what each unchosen option would have cost, evaluating trade-offs rather than eliminating wrong answers.
Commit to naming the missing element before responding, in one named conversation within thirty days.
Objectives ladder from analysis to evaluation, closing on a transfer commitment. Objective 4 is the one that carries the session past the room.
3 · Competency Alignment
| Objective | Manager competency | Where it is exercised |
|---|---|---|
| Obj. 1 · Diagnose the gap | Situational judgment; active listening | Act I: one person, one stated objection that is not the real one |
| Obj. 2 · Respond proportionately | Influence without authority | Act II: nine people, competing loyalties, no agreed agenda |
| Obj. 3 · Weigh trade-offs | Decision quality under ambiguity | Design insight panel after every choice |
| Obj. 4 · Transfer | Managing upward; personal accountability | Act III and the closing commitment card |
Replace the competency column with your organisation's own framework language before running the session, the mapping matters more than the wording.
4 · How the Simulation Supports the Learning Science
Every option is one a real manager would give. Learners must weigh trade-offs instead of eliminating obviously wrong answers, which is what makes the choice a judgment rather than a quiz.
Say to the room: "If one option looks obviously right to you, say so, I want to hear why."
The scene plays out first, what the person says next, how the room shifts, and only then is the mechanism named. Feedback that arrives before the consequence is felt gets read as instruction and forgotten.
Do not pre-empt the panel. Let them sit in the outcome first.
One person, then a room of nine, then a call from the dean. The difficulty rises socially rather than cognitively, which is how the difficulty actually rises at work.
Expect confidence to drop between Act I and Act II. That is the design working.
5 · Session Flow: 90 Minutes
Open with a question, not an agenda: "Think of a change you had to sell that you didn't get to decide. What did the first pushback sound like?" Take three answers, write the exact words on the board, and leave them up, you will return to them in the close. State that there is no scoring and no right path, and that you will not be telling them the answer.
and debrief
Pairs play Act I (8 min), one driving and one arguing for a different option. Debrief in the full room (12 min) using the Act I protocol overleaf. Do not move on until at least one pair reports choosing an option they now regret, that admission sets the tone for the rest of the session.
and debrief
Switch driver. Pairs play Act II (10 min), then debrief (15 min). This is the centre of the session: nine people with competing loyalties is where positional authority stops working and most managers reach for it anyway. Use the capture sheet here.
Individually, not in pairs (8 min), Act III puts the participant's own standing on the line and the reflection is more honest alone. Debrief (12 min) on one question only: what did you protect, and what did you spend?
Return to the words on the board from the opening. Each participant writes one commitment card: a named person, a real conversation coming up, and the question they will ask themselves before responding. Cards are theirs to keep, collecting them converts a commitment into a compliance exercise.
6 · Debrief Protocol
Run each debrief in this order. The sequence matters: describing the choice before judging it keeps participants from performing the answer they think you want.
What did she actually say she was worried about?
What do you think she was worried about?
Which of those did your response answer?
What would it have cost to ask one more question first?
Who in the room were you actually talking to?
Who did you lose while you were doing it?
Did you use your title? What did that buy, and for how long?
What would you have needed to know before walking in?
Whose interest did you put first?
What did you promise that you cannot fully control?
Where did your own standing enter the decision?
What will you tell your team on Monday?
7 · Participant Capture Sheet
When someone pushes back, what are they actually missing, and does my response give them that, or something else?
For each act, record before you choose:
1 · What they said, in their words
2 · What I think is missing for them
3 · The option I chose, and the one I nearly chose
4 · What it cost
Commitment card: complete at the close:
The person: ______________________
The conversation, and when: ______________________
The question I will ask myself first: ______________________
8 · Assessment & Transfer
The path is the assessment. Note which act each participant first diagnoses correctly, and whether they revert to authority once Act III raises the stakes. No post-test is needed, and adding one would tell participants the session was a quiz after all.
Thirty days out. Send one message: "Did the conversation happen? What did you ask yourself first?" Two sentences back is a sufficient measure of transfer, and a far better one than a satisfaction score collected while people are still in the room.
What not to measure. Enjoyment. Branching scenarios score well on it regardless of whether anything transfers, and a high score here will be mistaken for evidence. If you must collect a reaction measure, ask about recognition instead: "Have you had this exact conversation?"
9 · Facilitator Tips & Common Failure Modes
Answer honestly: none of them, and that is the point. Then turn it back: "what would have made your choice the right one?" If you supply a correct answer once, the room stops deliberating for the rest of the session.
Move to pairs before the full-room share, so everyone has already said their answer once. Rank in the room reproduces exactly the dynamic Act II is about, name that out loud if it happens.
Usually a framing failure in the first ten minutes. Restate that nothing is scored, and ask what they would do if this were Thursday and the person were real.
This is common and useful, but it can turn personal fast. Redirect to the behaviour rather than the person: "what is that kind of pushback usually protecting?"
Cut Act I to five minutes, never the closing commitment. A session that ends without a named conversation transfers nothing, however good the discussion was.
The simulation works alone; the debrief is what most of the learning sits in. If there is no session, send the four Act II questions afterwards and ask for written answers.
10 · Logistics
Setup
One laptop per pair, browser only, no install, no login, no LMS. Tables of four so pairs can turn and compare. A visible board or flipchart for the opening words.
Accessibility
All choices are keyboard operable with visible focus states, and the simulation respects reduced-motion settings. Read the Act II hierarchy aloud for anyone who prefers not to read on screen.
Preparation
Play all three acts yourself at least once, choosing badly on purpose. You cannot facilitate the debrief credibly without having felt the consequence panel land.