Leading Change
How walnut.coach helped Valvoline — a global leader in automotive lubricants and services — develop leaders who could champion change, manage with empathy, and empower their teams through a comprehensive gamified learning journey spanning 3–4 months.
- 4Modules
- 6+Virtual Sessions
- 3–4Months
- ICFCredentialed coaches
Leaders Who Needed to Lead Change, Not Just Manage It
Valvoline came to walnut.coach with a dual challenge: leaders who needed to navigate a period of significant organisational change, and managers who needed to shift from directing to empowering.
Change Was Happening Faster Than Leaders Could Adapt
Organisational transformation was underway, but leaders hadn't been equipped with the tools, frameworks, or self-awareness to champion it effectively. Resistance was building and the vision wasn't landing.
Leaders Couldn't Articulate the Change
Many leaders understood the change intellectually but struggled to communicate it persuasively and with conviction to their teams.
Resistance Was Mismanaged
Leaders were reacting to resistance rather than addressing the underlying emotions, assumptions, and fears driving it.
Managers Were Directing, Not Empowering
In a high-performance culture, managers defaulted to telling rather than coaching. Employee ownership and initiative were being inadvertently suppressed.
Leading Change & Empowered Management
A 4-module core program over 3–4 months, plus an extended Empowered Manager track, designed to equip leaders with change frameworks and coaching mindsets for sustained transformation.
- 4Core Modules
- Kotter + EI+ VIRSA
- EmpoweredManager Track
- Setting context and the right expectations
- Understanding current reality through facilitator-led discussion
- Change Management fundamentals
- Role of a Leader in creating a powerful narrative
- Personal Change Curve — readiness and adaptation
What made this work
We don't deliver one-off change management workshops. Every walnut.coach program is built around three core principles that transform how leaders show up during transformation.
- 1
Change Starts with the Leader
By beginning with self-awareness work, the program ensured leaders were looking inward before looking outward. You can't lead change you haven't first accepted in yourself.
- 2
Frameworks That Travel
Kotter's model, the CCL Crisis Leadership model, and the VIRSA model gave leaders durable tools they could return to repeatedly — not just use once in a workshop.
- 3
Sustained Cadence for Sustained Change
With 8+ sessions over 3–4 months, the program matched the pace of real change rather than trying to create a shortcut. Each session built on the last.
“The Flow Game in Module 2 was the moment the whole room shifted. We stopped talking about change as something happening to us and started seeing it as something we could shape. That perspective is still with us.”
What changed after the programme
Valvoline leaders emerged as genuine change champions — more self-aware, more empathetic, and equipped to lead and empower through periods of transformation.
Change-Ready, Change-Championing Leaders
Leaders left the program not just resilient to change but actively enthused about leading it. The narrative they told their teams became sharper, more human, and more compelling.
More Self-Aware Leaders
The self-assessment and EI modules gave leaders genuine insight into their change-readiness, their triggers, and their impact on team morale.
Empowered Teams
As managers transitioned from the Empowered Manager track, direct reports noticed a visible shift — more coaching conversations, more delegated ownership, more space to grow.
Clearer Goals & Accountability
The action planning in Module 4 gave every leader a tangible roadmap — not a vague aspiration — for how they'd lead their teams through the months ahead.
From first call to follow-through
Every Walnut engagement follows the same five steps, run by ICF-credentialed coaches.
- 1
Discovery
Understanding the organisation's culture, challenges and people
- 2
Custom design
Tailoring content, examples and exercises to the team
- 3
Delivery
An interactive, gamified session with real-time engagement
- 4
Commitment
Each participant leaves with one action to try straight away
- 5
Follow-through
Ongoing coaching for deeper individual growth
What HR sees in the app
Ready to build a thriving team?
Your programme starts with a conversation. Book a 30-minute call, or try the 7-minute game first.