Navigating Change — The Human Side ⏱ Up to 120 min · Max 12 participants
Leading organizational change
Change programmes fail not because of bad strategy — but because organisations forget that humans are involved. This session starts where it should: with the personal. Participants share their own experiences of change — chosen and unchosen —…
Communication Skills Practice
Empathy Exercises
Feedback / Difficult Conversations
Group Activity
Story Sharing
Workshop
Description
Change programmes fail not because of bad strategy — but because organisations forget that humans are involved. This session starts where it should: with the personal. Participants share their own experiences of change — chosen and unchosen — and what the journey actually felt like from the inside. We then zoom out to the corporate lens, using William Bridges' Transition Model as our map: the difference between change (the event) and transition (the inner process), and why so many transformations get stuck. In the most powerful part of the session, participants apply the framework to a real change they've lived through — and explore how they would have managed it differently had they understood the human journey at play. Less theory, more reckoning. People leave with a model they'll never unsee, and a new vocabulary for the next time change comes knocking.
Benefits
What participants walk away with: A profound shift in how they understand and lead change — their own and others'. The Bridges Transition Model as a practical, immediately usable tool for navigating uncertainty with more empathy and less force. The insight that resistance isn't a problem to be solved, but a signal to be heard — and the confidence to lead people through transition rather than just pushing them across it.
Hosted by Vanessa Defournier
About the Host
I'm Vanessa Defournier, a global leadership coach and facilitator based in Morocco, working worldwide.
I've spent over 20 years helping people and teams connect more deeply — with themselves, with each other, and with what they're actually here to do. I've lived and worked in 10 countries, coached in four languages, and held space for leaders navigating some of the most demanding environments on the planet: from McKinsey consulting rooms to international development institutions tackling climate, inequality, and systemic change.
What draws me to this work isn't the frameworks — it's the moment when something shifts. When a team that was talking past each other suddenly starts listening. When a leader drops the performance and gets honest. When a person realises they already knew what they needed to do, they just hadn't let themselves see it yet.
My style is warm, direct, and deeply human. I create experiences that feel safe enough to be real and engaging enough to matter. People often tell me they came in expecting a workshop and left feeling something more like a reckoning — in the best possible sense.
I bring cultural fluency, emotional depth, and a genuine love for the complexity of people. Whether I'm working in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese, the invitation is always the same: show up as you are, and let's do something meaningful with that.
Focus Areas
Development/Coaching
Location
Rabat, Morocco
Languages
English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
Travel Locations
Brussels ; Paris; Lisbon; Madrid: London; Tunis; additional cost based on real expenses (flights/stay)
Corporate Experience
Significant
Session Types Offered
Interactive (eg. improv, group-art, yoga etc.)
Past Experience Doing Sessions
Yes - Interactive
Client Requirements
Inspiring room/space; flip charts and markers; speakers; large post its
Past Clients
Prose; Inter American Development Bank; Swagelok; Green Climate Fund;
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