If your change strategy is sitting unread, it’s not a strategy problem. It’s a momentum problem.

Most leaders have lived this story: after months of drafting, reviewing, and socialising a carefully built plan, progress stalls. Teams are confused or disengaged. The intent was good, the thinking was solid, but not much is being achieved.

This can take many forms for different organisations:

• Large-scale transformations losing steam
• Competing priorities creating confusion and inaction
• Overwhelmed teams needing to deliver more with limited capacity
• Pressure to demonstrate visible progress and momentum

Many teams think about change as a top-down process, but this approach is too slow for the pace required to meet today's demands. It over-emphasises documentation and understates the importance of stakeholder engagement, locking people out of the decisions they’re asked to implement.

There’s a better way to get moving.

How to make progress in days, not months

When people feel overwhelmed by too much change or stuck when trying to implement new things, what if you could quickly help teams agree on the way forward, understand the required change clearly, and commit to making it work?

Change Accelerator Workshops are not brainstorms, off-sites, or sticky-note sessions. They are focused, facilitated interventions designed to:

1. Bring the right stakeholders together
2. Build shared understanding of the challenge
3. Align quickly on the path forward
4. Turn intent into real, practical next steps

These workshops quickly foster crucial buy-in and shared ownership of the change, often achieving significant progress in just 1-2 days.

Why this approach works

The underlying principle is simple: when people help create a solution, they're much more likely to support it.

You don’t necessarily need another strategy. You need faster alignment, fewer unproductive circular conversations, and a team that is ready, willing and equipped to act.

Change Accelerator Workshops help to:

• Shorten the decision cycle: Enable teams to align rapidly, avoiding weeks of unproductive back-and-forth that kill momentum.
• Build genuine buy-in: Actively involve – rather than just inform – the key voices needed to shape a workable path forward.
• Mitigate execution risks: Co-create the change with the people who will deliver it, significantly reducing the likelihood of costly rework during rollout.
• Move from ambiguity to action: Ensure your team leaves with clarity, strong commitment, and clear, actionable next steps (e.g., their next 3 moves).

Our clients consistently find these workshops invaluable because they compress months of potential political wrangling and slow deliberation into a structured, dynamic, and energising process.

What a Change Accelerator Workshop looks like

Our Change Accelerator Workshops use the proven M.G. Taylor ‘Scan, Focus, Act’ method to get things done. These workshops are thoughtfully designed to integrate alignment, empathy-building, and critical decision-making.

A well-run workshop typically includes:

• Visual maps that quickly show the big picture and make complex things easy to digest.
• Prioritisation and decision-making tools to help you decide what's most important and make choices that last.
• Scenario-based ‘stress tests’ that surface risks early.
• Honest conversations that build conviction and belief in the way forward.

People leave feeling part of something they collectively built and trust, ready for action.

Shift from plans to progress

If you're sensing that your strategy is smart but stuck, this approach helps you activate it with the people who can make it happen.

As you consider this, keep four guiding principles in mind:

1. Identify the smallest group of essential voices. Who must be aligned for progress? Representing key perspectives and decision rights.
2. Frame a clear, compelling challenge. Not "let's discuss our strategy" but "by the end of today, we will decide our three priorities for Q3 and who will lead each."
3. Design for productive tension. Create explicit moments to surface concerns and disagreements, then work through them methodically.
4. End with commitments, not just concepts. The last part should focus on "what happens tomorrow" with clear owners and timeframes.

Think back to your last big initiative. Where did things slow down? Where did resistance creep in?

Now imagine if, early on, you’d brought the right people into a room for two days with a clear challenge, sharp facilitation, and permission to be honest.

What could have moved faster? What could have stuck better?