The Changemaker's Challenge

The Changemaker’s Challenge is an interactive learning experience that teaches us about what it takes to lead change in our organizations. It moves between activity-based learning, debriefs, and frameworks, and gives us practical tools and insights for moving change forward. Covering a mix of methods from the fields of conflict resolution, design thinking, and human systems, The Changemaker’s Challenge has been run to glowing reviews in the UK, US and Canada, inspiring one participant to call it “an epiphany.”

The Changemaker’s Challenge is for leaders in the middle of it all, active and aspiring changemakers, and “intrapreneuers” in layered organizations. If you find yourself in a place with humans and hierarchy, where your role often involves connecting the dots to make initiatives happen—this is for you.

• You’ll gain a new appreciation for the power of empathy, listening and compassion in our workplaces.
• You’ll discover a new way of changemaking, one that embraces co-creation, and sets the table for authentic inclusion.
• You’ll understand better ways to utilize tools of collaborative engagement, drawing on design thinking and systems thinking.
• You’ll be able to reflect on your own engagement patterns and changemaking modes, to discover your strengths as a change leader.

The Changemaker’s Challenge creates a game-like environment, draws out stories, and invites participants to connect the dots. It uses a blend of interactive scenarios, debriefs, pairs exercises, self-reflection, and lecture content to create a powerful mix of insight and learning.

You’ll need four hours, and anywhere from 8-24 people.

After spending years helping facilitate change efforts in organizations, we began to see that breakthroughs happen when we experience empathy for the perspectives of others. But how can we help people arrive at that “empathy epiphany” if they hadn’t lived through those shared experiences?

The idea for The Changemaker’s Challenge originated as a printable, playable card game, which created scenarios for people to act out that generate conflict and opposition, and then requires people to find ways forward. The game helped participants organically discover the value of empathy and listening. It has since been adapted for group presentations with a facilitator, and is now available for internal teams and organizations. The Changemaker’s Challenge first debuted in 2018 at SXSWedu in Austin, Texas, and has been offered externally at conferences and as an in-house workshop at many organizations since.