New ABSO Training Course: Intro to Change Management – Get Ready to Lead with Confidence!

Change is constant — the real question is: Are you prepared to lead it?

This summer, we’re thrilled to launch Intro to Change Management, a highly interactive, hands-on course designed to empower you with the tools and mindset to navigate change with confidence, clarity, and purpose. This is the first course in the exploratory track of the Pathway to Employee Excellence Program and will be open to staff and managers.

Course Highlights

Dates: June 23 and 30, July 9, 16, and 23
Time: Five 1.5-hour sessions
Delivery: All in-person

Format:

  • Engaging group discussions
  • Thought-provoking interactive exercises
  • Built-in Q&A sessions to keep the dialogue flowing
  • Practical, hands-on mini-project work

By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:

  • Understand the fundamentals of change management
  • Use the ADKAR model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement)
  • Apply concepts through interactive exercises and a mini-project
  • Gain confidence and clarity to apply change management strategies in your unit or team
  • Define what success looks like for your leadership journey

You’ll leave with not just knowledge — but readiness to lead change.

Who Should Attend

Whether you’re a team lead, project manager, or someone passionate about professional growth, this course will help you turn uncertainty into opportunity. This course is open to staff and managers interested in change management or leadership development.

Lead change. Don’t just manage it.
Let’s learn, collaborate, and grow together this summer. Don’t miss your chance to build leadership skills that make a real difference.

Spots Are Limited – Be the First to Register!

Register for the course by May 23, 2025. Don’t miss your chance to build leadership skills that make a real difference. Any questions, please contact abso@sjsu.edu.

New! Process for Implementing Organizational Change

Academic Affairs now has an official Process for Implementing Organizational Change. Please refer to this page when a proposal is being made to divide or eliminate an academic unit, merge it with another academic unit, or transfer it to another college.

Please contact abso@sjsu.edu if you have any questions or require further information.

New Change Management Tools

ABSO is pleased to announce new change management tools to assist our departments with the onboarding and offboarding process for employees as well as organizational changes. These checklists are available in the AA Resource Hub on the Organizational Change page

Onboarding/Offboarding Checklists

The onboarding and offboarding checklist is a tool designed to assist departments complete tasks that are essential to ensure a smooth transition for employees. For both processes, there are separate checklists for staff, managers, department chairs, and student assistants. Some departments have already used these checklists and we are pleased to receive positive feedback.

As a reminder, the removal of system access is an important step in the offboarding process, including when employees transfer to another department on campus and when access to certain DeptIDS should not be carried to their new role. This can now easily be done using the Finance Systems Access form. Finance has made a slight upgrade to the form to allow for removal requests. The “Remove Access” option is now listed under Request Type:

AAD Organizational Change Checklist

Lastly, the AAD Organizational Change checklist has been in the works and is now officially launched on the AA Resource Hub. This internal checklist is designed to assist campus departments when there are movements with departments, programs, and/or units; and for department mergers, separations, or dissolutions. Note that this checklist complements the FABS Org Change checklist and includes tasks that are specific to AAD departments with a clear delineation of the parties involved.

We hope you will find these checklists helpful and we welcome your feedback. Please reach out to abso@sjsu.edu if you have any questions at all.

Onboarding Checklists – new change management tool!

We are pleased to announce Academic Affairs Division’s Onboarding Checklists are now available on the AA Resource Hub.  This is a new tool designed to streamline the various electronic paperwork and operational tasks needed to bring a new employee into a department. There is a checklist specifically for staff, managers, department chairs, and student assistants. We hope that you will find these useful and would invite feedback as we make occasional updates.

We are also working on other change management tools, such as offboarding and organizational change checklists. More information coming soon.