Next Level Change Success

Hosted by Therese Pares, Founder of My Virtual Change Manager

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156

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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About the show

Are you interested in Change Management but have no idea of what it involves? Do you work in projects or in people related areas of an organisation and want to develop your understanding of change? Then you have come to the right place. Therese will cover all things organisational change. From Change Leadership, to culture change, operational change and all of the elements of Change Management. Her areas of expertise? All things people, project and leadership related in organisations. Nothing ge

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60 recent

October 19, 202610 min

Season 5 - Episode 41 - How your past affecting how you introduce change?

Have you ever wondered why you keep experiencing the same workplace frustrations, difficult stakeholder relationships or communication challenges? What if the answer isn't just about the people you're working with, but also about the behavioural patterns you've developed throughout your life? In this episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese explores how your personal origin story influences the way you communicate, respond to challenges, navigate workplace relationships and lead organisational change. Drawing on her own experiences growing up as the youngest of six children, Therese shares how family dynamics, beliefs and early experiences can shape our professional behaviours, sometimes in ways we don't even recognise. In this episode, you'll discover: Why your personal history can influence your leadership and stakeholder management style. How recurring workplace frustrations may reveal unhelpful behavioural patterns. Why self-awareness is an essential capability for effective change leadership. How to recognise your triggers and respond differently under pressure. Practical ways to improve communication, influence and relationships during change. Whether you're a Project Manager, Change Practitioner, Business Analyst, HR professional or leader, this episode invites you to look beyond your change management tools and explore one of your most powerful resources: yourself. Because sometimes the most important change you can lead is the change within yourself. Listen now and discover how greater self-awareness can help you create more positive change experiences. Visit www.myvirtualchangemanager.com for more practical change management insights and resources.

October 12, 202619 min

Season 5 - Episode 40 - Why Change is all business!

What if one of the most powerful change management skills has nothing to do with change management frameworks? You might know how to create a change plan, identify stakeholders and deliver communications. But do you really understand how your organisation operates? In this episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese explores why business knowledge is one of the most underrated capabilities for anyone wanting to become a more effective change leader, influencer or practitioner. Drawing on over 20 years of experience across different industries and organisations, Therese explains how understanding business models, organisational functions and operational dependencies helps you identify change impacts, engage the right stakeholders and anticipate potential challenges before they become problems. In this episode, you'll discover: Why understanding your business model can make you a more effective change practitioner and change influencer and leader How to identify the hidden ripple effects of organisational change. Why organisational charts don't always reveal where responsibilities sit. How organisational history, mergers and brand loyalty can influence change resistance. Why understanding business functions can help reduce fragmented communications and change fatigue. Practical ways to build your business knowledge and improve your influence. Whether you're a project manager, business analyst, change practitioner or corporate professional wanting to grow your change leadership capability, this episode will help you see your organisation through a different lens. Because the better you understand how your business works, the better equipped you are to make change work. Listen now, and visit www.myvirtualchangemanager.com for more practical strategies and resources to help you take your change skills to the next level. Next Level Change Success — Because people matter.

September 28, 202625 min

Season 5 -Episode 39 - Are you having any fun with your change?

Is there enough fun in your change? or have you become so busy delivering that everything has become a little too corporate? In this episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese explores an often-overlooked ingredient in change management: fun . Humour, storytelling, celebrations, campaigns and creative experiences can help people connect with change and make otherwise dry topics, from process improvement to compliance, far more engaging. But there's an important caveat. You have to read the room . Therese explores the types of change where fun can work brilliantly, including process improvement, technology implementations, compliance initiatives and project-team engagement. She also discusses when positivity can become inappropriate, particularly during restructures, job losses, mergers and other changes involving uncertainty or loss. You'll learn why timing matters, how to make engagement more inclusive, why “Friday drinks” isn't the only team building activity you should consider, and how to use creativity without trivialising what employees are experiencing. If your change communications are starting to feel overly corporate, this episode will challenge you to loosen things up, while keeping empathy, respect and inclusion firmly at the centre. Because fun can absolutely belong in change. You just need to know when to bring it and when not to. Like what you hear? Visit us at www.myvirtualchangemanager.com to learn more about change, it's challenges and how to overcome them.

September 21, 202613 min

Season 5 - Episode 38 - How to handle the final Quarter of change

When is the right time to implement change and when should you seriously consider slowing down? As organisations head into the final quarter of the year, pressure often builds to deliver projects, launch new systems and squeeze in one more change before the holiday period. But just because you can hit a go-live date doesn't necessarily mean you should . In this episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese explores one of the most underestimated elements of effective change management: timing . We look at why organisational rhythms, peak business periods, annual leave, employee fatigue, financial cycles and post-go-live support should all influence your change plan. Therese also shares a real-world example of a change that proceeded despite warnings about year-end support capacity and the significant recovery and rollback activity that followed. You'll learn why go-live isn't the finish line, why change activity needs to begin well before implementation, and the questions change practitioners, project managers, leaders and steering committees should ask before committing to a launch date. If you're planning a change before the end of the year this episode will help you challenge one important assumption: Is this simply the date we want to deliver, or is it genuinely the right time for people to adopt the change? Visit www.myvirtualchangemanager.com for more practical tools and strategies to help you create positive change experiences.

September 14, 20266 min

Season 5 - Episode 37 - How and where to invest your energy in a change

Are you investing your change energy where it will make the biggest difference? When you're implementing change across multiple teams or business areas, it's tempting to take a consistent approach: the same communications, the same engagement and the same level of support for everyone. But change isn't one size fits all. Every team starts from a different place. Some have highly engaged leaders and are already relatively close to the future state. Others may be heavily impacted, require significant capability development or have historically struggled to gain traction with change. In this short and practical episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese explores how to become more deliberate about where you invest your limited time, attention and change resources. You'll discover how to identify the teams with the greatest distance to travel, use your impact assessment to target your strategy, determine where leaders and sponsors may need to invest additional effort, and layer training, communications, coaching and engagement according to what people actually need. Because effective change management isn't about giving everyone the same support. It's about giving people the right support to achieve the outcome. Listen now and ask yourself: where should I be investing more my change energy where it will count the most? If you want to learn more about change, visit www.myvirtualchangemanager.com today.

September 7, 202615 min

Season 5 - Episode 36 - The three career lessons in Change

What do more than 20 years of working in change management teach you about what really makes change work? In this episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese shares three of the biggest lessons she has learned across a career spanning change management, project and program management, change practice leadership and learning and development. And interestingly, none of them starts with a methodology. You'll discover why knowing yourself can make you a stronger change influencer and leader, how difficult stakeholders can become unexpected mirrors for your own growth, and why self-awareness helps you stop personalising people's emotional reactions to change. Therese also explores why leadership alignment remains fundamental to successful organisational change and why simply "briefing" leaders isn't enough. Leaders need meaningful actions, opportunities to provide input and the information they need to confidently lead their teams. Finally, she explores one of the greatest opportunities created by change: unlocking the potential already sitting inside your organisation. If you're a change practitioner, project professional, subject matter expert or leader who wants to become more effective at influencing and leading change, this episode will encourage you to reflect not only on what you've delivered but on who you've become while delivering it. Want to learn more? Come visit us at www.myvirtualchangemanager.com to find out more.

August 31, 202624 min

Season 5 - Episode 35 - The four stage Change Management Process

Change is rarely linear, so why do we keep trying to manage it as though it is? In this episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese explores the four stages of the My Virtual Change Manager change process: Planning, Assess & Design, Implement & Reinforce, and Review & Learn. You’ll discover how these stages can work alongside both traditional project methodologies and Agile ways of working, why detailed impact assessment matters, and how the quality of your upstream change activities can dramatically influence what happens at go-live. Therese also explores an important distinction every change practitioner needs to understand: change practitioners facilitate reinforcement, but leaders remain accountable for reinforcing change with their teams. You’ll learn why go-live is not the finish line, how change dashboards and adoption measures can support reinforcement, why change practitioners should frame concerns as risks rather than simply problems. And one of the often not talked about phases is how a strong Review & Learn process can increase organisational change maturity over time. Whether you’re a change practitioner, project manager, business analyst, subject matter expert or leader responsible for implementing change, this episode will help you think differently about where you are in the change journey and what needs to happen next. Because change management isn’t about blindly following a process. It’s about knowing where to focus so you can connect people, purpose and performance. Want to discover more about change management? Then come to www.myvirtualchangemanager.com to upskill in change management.

August 24, 202615 min

Season 5 - Episode 34 - When change causes Cognitive Overload

Have you ever experienced Cognitive Overload first hand? Where change has been explained but you simply don't understand it, or it doesn't make sense? In this episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese explores cognitive overload and the hidden role it can play in slowing change adoption. When employees are presented with too many concepts, unfamiliar terminology, information-heavy presentations and new processes that aren't clearly connected to how they work today, they're forced to spend valuable mental energy simply trying to join the dots. And what eventually gets labelled as “resistance” may have started with genuine confusion. Therese shares practical ways to reduce cognitive overload, including simplifying your message, using visuals instead of word-heavy slides, breaking information into bite-sized pieces, using stories and scenarios, providing social proof and speaking the language your people actually use. If you're a change practitioner, project professional, leader or someone responsible for introducing new ways of working, this episode will challenge you to ask a powerful question: Are people struggling with the change or are they struggling to understand how you've explained it? Because better change communication isn't necessarily about communicating more. It's about making the change easier to understand. If you want to find out more about how you can lead, implement or manage change more effectively, come to www.myvirtualchangemanager.com

August 17, 202614 min

Season 5 - Episode 33 - When the REAL work starts in change

Going live isn't the end of your change journey. In many ways, it's where the real change begins. In this episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese explores the embedding phase of change, which is where the rubber really hits the road and why the commitment to embedding and adoptions starts well before the Go Live milestone. You'll discover why leadership accountability needs to be established well before go-live, how a simple adoption dashboard can change the quality of your post-implementation conversations, and how creating the space for all of these aspects can make a difference. Therese also explores one of the biggest tensions in project delivery: what happens when the project timeline says you're finished, but the change hasn't yet stuck? If you're a project manager, change practitioner, business analyst, leader or corporate professional responsible for introducing new systems, processes, policies or ways of working, this episode will help you rethink what successful implementation really means. Because getting something live is one thing. Getting people to adopt it is another. Want to learn more about Change Management? Visit www.myvirtualchangemanager.com to discover a new way to approach change.

August 10, 202621 min

Season 5 - Episode 32 - Why Analysis Is Your Hidden Superpower in Change Management

Many people think change management is all about communication and stakeholder engagement, but that's only part of the story. In this episode of Next Level Change Success , Therese explores why analytical thinking is one of the most valuable yet overlooked capabilities for successful change practitioners. Learn how to conduct smarter impact assessments, segment stakeholders more effectively, understand customer and employee lifecycles, identify business-critical impacts, and measure behavioural change using meaningful data. Whether you're a Change Manager, Project Manager, Business Analyst, HR professional or leader driving transformation, this practical episode will help you strengthen your analytical mindset and design change initiatives that achieve better adoption and measurable business outcomes. Want to learn more Change Management know how? Come to www.myvirtualchangemanager.com now and get skills in the one area of business where it matters - CHANGE!