Thriving Through Change online course designed for coping with disruption

Melbourne Business School has launched a new course designed to expand people's capacity to change during times of disruption.

Delivered fully online, the four-week Thriving Through Change course will give professionals the practical tools and skills they need to navigate change successfully while also boosting their resilience and wellbeing.

"We're really excited to launch this course because 2020 has raised an intense amount of change and disruption for all of us," says program director Associate Professor Jen Overbeck.

"Workplaces have undergone immense upheaval, and beyond the extreme situation of 2020, we know that workplaces are full of constant change due to innovation and the need to adapt to market and demographic changes.

"We feel there's a clear need for support for how to understand our own responses to change, to know more about how people in general respond to change, and then to learn how to engage with it in a way that's healthier for us."

A key focus of the course is to enable professionals to embrace changes in the way they work with greater confidence and reduced stress.

"It helps to build a toolkit for responding constructively to change, and if we're dealing with negative changes that we can't avoid, then we can benefit from tools to cope better," Associate Professor Overbeck says.

"This course lets us dive into all of those issues in a really personalised, practical way, so people can expect a four-week journey that offers a manageable schedule and a variety of activities."

Suitable for individuals or whole teams, the course includes live interactive sessions as well as self-paced learning components that participants can engage with when it suits them.

"We anchor self-paced learning with a couple of hours a week of interactive sessions that get you really involved with the ideas," Associate Professor Overbeck says.

"We have exercises, discussions and self-reflection, all of which works together to give a deeper learning experience."

Thriving Through Change participants will be encouraged to bring their own personal change challenge that will be explored in small peer groups, offering greater support and networking opportunities.

Also presenting on the course will be Jill Klein, a Professor of Marketing and globally recognised expert on resilience and decision-making, who is also a Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Medical School.

Professor Klein will be bringing three decades of experience teaching managers and leaders at top business schools worldwide to the course.

"I will be focusing on helping people develop skills for resilience and wellbeing during times of turmoil," she says.

"I became interested in resilience years ago, because my father is a Holocaust survivor. In 1944, he was a 16-year-old prisoner in Auschwitz, and at 92, he is a very happy and resilient person.

"His approach to adversity has always had a powerful influence on me, and as a social psychologist and professor, I have contributed to the research literature on resilience during times of transition and will be sharing with course participants the field's practical knowledge to improve their wellbeing."

Course facilitator and leadership expert Aviva Berzon says her passion for supporting transformation and change at the individual and collective level will help unlock new pathways for professionals in the course.

"For real and lasting change to occur, there needs to be inner inquiry – what are my needs and motivators and what are the fears or mental blocks that are preventing me from embracing change," she says.

"There also needs to be outward action to set change in motion – what new behaviours will help me create shifts in my life to feel more comfortable and fulfilled as I move through change.

"Through this course, I will help people understand what a growth mindset looks like and how to move away from fear-based thinking. We will also unpack the sources of resistance to change and learn how to embrace opportunities to grow through change."

The new course is suitable for managers and professionals from any industry who want to enhance their resilience and wellbeing skills and learn to thrive during periods of disruption. Learn more at the Thriving Through Change page.

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