Leading Through Change: Practical Tools for Navigating Change
Change is a constant in today’s workplace. Whether you’re stepping into a new leadership role, growing a business, navigating uncertainty, implementing a new process, or helping others adapt to new ways of working, how you respond to change can make a significant difference.
Leading through change requires more than communicating what is changing. It requires understanding how people experience change, recognizing your own responses and assumptions, and creating the conditions that help people move forward.
In this interactive workshop, participants will explore practical frameworks and tools for leading themselves and others through change. Through discussion, reflection, activities, and real-world application, participants will examine how people experience change and how self-awareness, communication, relationships, and trust influence their ability to navigate it.
Participants will apply practical change frameworks to real-world situations and explore strategies for engaging others, responding constructively to resistance, and building momentum. The focus is not on following a single model, but on developing a set of approaches leaders can adapt to different people, situations, and types of change.
Participants will leave with practical frameworks and tools they can use to navigate change with greater intention, support others more effectively, and lead change in their own organizations.
What You Will Learn
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Recognize common ways people experience and respond to change.
- Increase awareness of how their own reactions and leadership behaviors influence others during change.
- Apply practical frameworks to help lead and support others through change.
- Use communication and engagement strategies to build understanding, trust, and connection.
- Respond constructively to resistance, uncertainty, and differing perspectives.
Registration Information
Date: 11/5/2026
Schedule: 8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Location: Grainger Hall, Wisconsin School of Business, UW-Madison
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Registration Fall 2026 – Coming Soon!
Date: November 5, 2026
Time: 8:30 am – 4:00 pm CST
Location: In person, Wisconsin School of Business
Fee: $309
The cost of this course is being paid by the Main Street Bounceback Program for eligible businesses. Eligible businesses must be in business (not pre-venture), located in the state of Wisconsin, and employing fewer than 500 employees. These businesses may register here:
Nonprofits, pre-venture (not yet started) businesses, and those participants from a company of over 500 employees, register below:
Registration Types & Dates
Early Bird Closes: 10/6/2026
Late Registration Begins: 10/22/2026
Course Registration Closes: 11/4/2026
Registration Fees
Early Registration Fee: $279
Late Registration Fee: $340
Cancellation Policy: Due to program costs and space limitations for these programs, participants are expected to cancel their registration at least 24 hours ahead of the program. Cancellations that occur less than 24 hours prior to the start of the program will be considered no-shows and may be removed from future programming and/or charged a course fee.
Disability Statement: Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact the UW-Madison SBDC office at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu to request accommodations.
Note: Payment will be required at time of registration. You must have either a credit card or valid UW-Madison funding string to be able to register.
The Small Business Development Center at UW Madison is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®.
Jen Erickson
Instructor
Jen Erickson helps leaders, teams, and organizations navigate change, strengthen collaboration, and build the skills needed to work more effectively. As Capacity Building Lead in UW–Madison’s Office of Strategic Consulting, she designs professional development programs and practical tools focused on leadership, organizational effectiveness, change management, and continuous improvement.
Prior to joining the Office of Strategic Consulting, Jen spent nearly two decades with UW–Madison Extension, partnering with communities, nonprofits, and local governments on leadership and organizational development.
Across her work, Jen is particularly interested in how people experience change and how self-awareness, communication, relationships, and intentional leadership can help people navigate it more effectively.
The Wisconsin SBDC Network is a proud part of the Office of Business & Entrepreneurship within the Universities of Wisconsin. It is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison is also part of the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub at UW-Madison.
The Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison helps entrepreneurs succeed at any stage. We offer no-cost, confidential consulting and business education across a wide region, primarily serving Dane, Sauk, and Columbia counties. SBDC services are provided in a nondiscriminatory way to all legal residents and citizens in the US.
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact us at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or call (608) 263-2221.