innovate / leadership support for digital transformation

A leadership enablement programme to ensure digital transformation is influenced, supported and championed from the top.

This programme is designed for leadership teams in public sector organisations undergoing digital transformation. It ensures that leaders are engaged early and remain connected throughout the journey, playing an active, confident and collaborative role in enabling change.

It responds to a common challenge in transformation work: leaders are often expected to support change without being given the space, tools or clarity to do so effectively. This programme creates that space, helping leadership teams align, build trust and engage with the transformation project in a way that adds value and momentum.

This programme runs in parallel with the transformation project itself and the team delivering it. Using practical tools from service design, innovation thinking and team psychology, the programme builds confidence, clarity and collaboration across the leadership group. It ensures that digital transformation is not something that “happens to” the organisation, but something its leaders shape and champion, in partnership with those delivering it.

Louise Bartlett, Associate Trainer at Teamshaper

    • Understand what innovation and creativity look like in a digital transformation context.

    • Use human-centred and service design thinking to explore challenges and opportunities.

    • Recognise and apply individual and collective leadership strengths to support change.

    • Build the trust, collaboration and psychological safety needed for innovation to thrive.

    • Stay aligned and engaged throughout the transformation, with clarity and purpose.

    • Strengthen the relationship between leadership and the project team.

    • A leadership team that feels informed, involved and confident in its role.

    • Stronger alignment between leadership and the project team from the outset.

    • Smoother delivery with fewer surprises or miscommunications.

    • A shared language and toolkit for creative problem-solving and decision-making in a digital context.

    • Morale boost and ownership through recognition of leadership strengths and contributions.

    • A project team that feels supported and understood.

  • Full-day workshop (before project specification is finalised)

    • Audience: leadership team. Project team joins two key sessions.

    • Purpose: build alignment, explore priorities and shape the project while there’s still time to influence it, with clear focused leadership input.

    • Key moments:

      • Leadership-only sessions on mindset, strengths and innovation.

      • Project team joins mid-morning to share early thinking and gather feedback.

      • Project team rejoins at the end to hear leadership input and commitments.

      • Key outputs are summarised and shared with the project team to inform planning.

    Project launch check-in

    • Audience: leadership + project team

    • Format: 2-hour virtual session

    • Purpose: review the finalised plan, clarify roles and confirm how leadership will stay involved.

    Regular facilitated 1-hour virtual drop-ins

    • Audience: leadership team. Project lead attends to provide updates.

    • Purpose: keep leadership informed, engaged and supportive throughout delivery.

    • Frequency: monthly, though can be more or less frequent, depending on the length and complexity of the project.

      • Top-end progress reports are shared between sessions to track progress and highlight obstacles.

      • These sessions are focused, practical and designed to support — not manage — delivery.

    Final leadership debrief

    • Audience: leadership team. Project team contributes a short reflection.

    • Format: 2-hour session

    • Purpose: reflect on results of the project and the role of the leadership team, celebrate success and capture lessons for future change.

  • 09:30 – Welcome and introductions
    Setting the tone for the day and the transformation ahead.

    09:45 – Leadership expectations and concerns
    Exploring hopes, concerns and what leaders need to feel confident and accountable.

    10:30 – Challenging mindsets
    Looking at common beliefs that block innovation and how to shift them.

    11:15 – Break

    11:30 – What’s being proposed and why
    Project team shares early thinking, goals and assumptions.
    Open Q&A to clarify scope and direction.
    (Joint session: leadership + project team)

    12:15 – Discovering leadership strengths
    Mapping individual and team “superpowers” that can support the transformation.

    13:00 – Lunch

    13:45 – Designing with empathy
    Using service design tools to explore staff and citizen needs.
    Understanding how leadership decisions shape the user experience.

    14:30 – Generating and prioritising ideas
    Identifying where leadership input is most valuable and how to focus it.

    15:15 – Break

    15:30 – Commitments and integration
    Leadership shares key takeaways and commitments.
    Project team rejoins to hear outputs and reflect on how they’ll shape the plan.
    (Joint session: leadership + project team)

    16:30 – Close

Teamshaper's Innovate training module