• Examine the drivers and enablers of change;
• Evaluate various approaches to leading change;
• Understand why change and transformation efforts often fail;
• Explore participant experiences to identify best practices in change management;
• Develop skills to be an effective change agent at work.

• Enhance the understanding of the contracting process for internal and external consultants;
• Deepen understanding of analytical frameworks to evaluate organisations;
• Become familiar with approaches to diagnosis, including action research and appreciative inquiry;
• Enhance skills at designing data collection approaches including interviewing, survey research and observation;
• Enhance insight into feedback of data as an intervention in organisations.

• Enhance participants’ self-awareness as change leaders;
• Develop an awareness of psychometric assessments and evaluate their effectiveness; • Identify, understand and improve sources of power and influence;
• Explore multiple tactics for organisational influence;
• Reflect on the participants’ influencing style and how to influence others.

• Examine the role of teams and groups and their importance in the transformation and renewal process;
• Understand the characteristics of high performing teams and group dynamics that impact performance;
• Understand the role of the leader in developing and coaching teams;
• Articulate future role with teams as a change agent in organisations.

• Develop a framework for extraordinary change leadership;
• Understand how extraordinary leaders develop winning strategies for their domains and increase their chances of success when faced with unexpected crises;
• Examine leadership strategies for creating effective, sustained organisational change;
• Manage tensions between strategic planning and execution in a real-time environment;
• Explore the connection between intended, emergent and realised strategy in successful change efforts.

• Understand the challenges of how to evaluate the effectiveness of change programmes;
• Develop the tasks and skills of the change agent;
• Examine the political skills and dynamics;
• Explore the core principles that contributed to the development of a learning organisation;
• Develop a personalised action plan to apply the learnings for enhanced effectiveness.

Patrick is Jefferson Smurfit Professor of Strategic Management at UCD School of Business and Academic Director, Smurfit Executive Development. Before entering academia, Patrick worked in a number of financial analysis, corporate strategy and senior HR roles with KPMG, Jefferson Smurfit Group, The Investment Bank of Ireland and An Post. His research, teaching and consulting interests include strategy development and execution, managing change, organisation development, organisational change and leadership development, with clients in the US, Asia and Europe including DuPont, BOC Gases, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd and Keppel Group (Singapore). Prof. Gibbons has presented papers at numerous research conferences and is widely published in leading journals. He also held the position of UCD Vice-President of Staff and Administrative Systems.

Karan is Associate Academic Director at Smurfit Executive Development and earned his PhD at University of Alberta, Canada in 2008. Before entering academia, he served as a Captain in the Indian Military. Karan has previously worked in India, Canada, and Spain and served on the faculty of the Instituto de Empresa Business School, Spain. His research, teaching and consulting interests are in the areas of leadership, stakeholder theory, behavioural strategy, institutional theory, and emerging markets. Karan has worked with a number of the Ireland’s leading organisations including CIE, Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia and An Garda Siochana.

Brian is lecturer of Competitive Strategy and Strategy Execution on the Smurfit School’s MBA programmes. In 2017 he received the UCD College of Business Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning. His current research interests are in the areas of organizational inertia and entrepreneurial persistence. He has presented his research at leading international academic conferences such as the Academy of Management annual meeting, the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) annual colloquium, and the Strategic Management Society’s annual conference. Brian has held key leadership roles within the UCD School of Business. He has served as Academic Director of MBA Programmes and prior to that was Academic Director of Overseas Programmes (Singapore and Hong Kong). 

Stephen Boyle is a negotiation trainer, lecturer and consultant. He teaches at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, where he delivers courses in negotiation, influence and decision making on executive development, MBA, and other postgraduate degree programmes. Stephen also designs and delivers customised executive development for corporate clients and has delivered workshops in Europe, Asia and the United States in sectors as diverse as automotive, construction, financial services, food and agribusiness, government, healthcare, law enforcement, pharmaceuticals, retail and technology. Prior to embarking on an independent training and consulting career 19 years ago, Stephen held roles in management consulting, and in communication and change management at a Fortune 500 company.

Gearóid is a management and leadership development Consultant with over 35 years’ experience of implementing real change. He has gained extensive experience and knowledge working in healthcare, financial services, technology, manufacturing, policing and higher education. His career has both an Irish and an international context, having worked across Europe, Middle East, Asia and the US. Gearóid is a highly sought after management consultant and executive coach who has more than 25 years lecturing experience in leadership and enterprise management on MBA and Masters programmes in a number of Universities.

In his consulting business Gearóid works with both public and private sector organisations to help them to realign their processes and ways of working to maximise the return on their efforts.  He achieves this through a number of different interventions including the implementation of Lean and Scrum. After obtaining his Computer Science degree from Trinity College Dublin, he went on to study Leadership at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard, received his MBA from UCD.

David is Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Richard Ivey School of Business, Western University, Ontario, Canada. David has served on the faculty of Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Dallas. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Bradley University, and MBA from University of Dallas, and a Ph.D. in Organisations, Strategy, and International Management from University of Texas at Dallas. David’s research is focused on firm structure and its effect on survival in turbulent industries and the internationalisation process of firms expanding into global markets.