Change at Speed: Why People Make the Difference

Tuesday, April 7, 2026 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Session description: 

Through real UW examples, highlighting the Sustainable Transportation team, this session will walk you through the journey of how change was successfully delivered by focusing on people: engaging them early, enabling them with the right tools and clarity, and supporting them throughout the process. Discover how the Sustainable Transportation team achieved more than 30 meaningful improvements in a single year, without increasing workload. Human commitment, shared understanding, and strong collaboration drove practical lessons learned. Come and explore what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised us - enabling you to apply similar approaches in your own work.
 

Learning outcomes:

  • Understand People‑Centric Change
    • Describe how engagement and communication contribute to successful change initiatives.
    • Explain the role of human commitment, shared understanding, and collaboration in delivering improvements.
  • Apply Practical Change Management Techniques
    • Identify strategies used by the Sustainable Transportation team that enabled more than 30 improvements.
    • Assess which approaches (tools, engagement methods, processes) could be adapted to their own teams or projects.
  • Recognize Barriers and Enablers of Change
    • Analyze real UW examples to identify what helped change efforts succeed, and what hindered progress.
    • Reflect on lessons learned from successes, challenges, and unexpected outcomes within the case study.
  • Strengthen Collaboration and Shared Ownership
    • Demonstrate an understanding of how cross-functional collaboration supports implementation.
    • Identify ways to foster shared ownership and buy-in across diverse stakeholders.
       

Session Structure:

Lecture-style presentation with optional Q&A

Presenter:

Samantha Murray (she/her), Change Management Advisor, Office of the Vice-President, Administration and Finance

Learn more and register now