SIG Templates & Toolkits
The Communications
and Change Kit
One free workbook for helping people through a change: who it affects, what they need to hear, and how you’ll know they’re ready. Use it for a system rollout, a reorganization, a new process or any program that changes how people work.
Why It Matters
Delivered isn’t the same as adopted.
A program can hit every date and still miss its value if people don’t understand the change, don’t know what it means for them, or aren’t ready on go-live day. That’s usually not a technology problem. It’s a planning problem.
This kit gives your program a simple way to see who the change affects, plan what each group hears and when, and check readiness with evidence before you make the Go/No-Go call.
What’s Inside
One workbook, one change plan.
Groups, messages, training and readiness live in one file, so you enter each impacted group once and every tab stays in sync.
Excel
Change Workbook
Why it helps. Everything for the people side of a change in one place: who it affects, what they hear and when, how they learn, and whether they are ready on go-live day.
What’s inside
- Change impacts and stakeholders, rated for impact and readiness, with an automatic At risk flag
- Readiness summary by group, picked from a dropdown, ready for your Go/No-Go
- Key messages, a communication calendar preloaded with a typical sequence, and a feedback log
- Training needs and sessions on one tab, plus a go-live readiness checklist
How the Pieces Fit
Work through it in this order.
Map the impact
List every group the change touches and rate how much it changes their work.
Plan the messages
Agree on the key messages and schedule who hears what, from whom, and when.
Prepare people
Plan training by role, run the sessions and track who has attended.
Confirm readiness
Work the go-live checklist and bring the Readiness Summary to the Go/No-Go meeting.
Pairs Well With
Other free SIG resources.
These guides and templates fit naturally alongside the kit.
- Program Management Toolkit: the governance charter, RACI, RAID log and backlog that the change plan plugs into.
- SIPOC Workshop: find every group your change touches before you rate the impact.
- Strategic Themes Workshop: get clear on the why, which becomes your first key message.
- Lean Coffee Workshop: run open listening sessions that feed the feedback log.
Need help leading
the people side of change?
SIG can facilitate impact and readiness workshops, coach your leaders and managers, or embed a fractional program leader to run the change with you.