A webinar during change is not just a communication event. Used well, it is a facilitated live engagement or learning intervention that helps people understand what is changing, why it matters, what it means for their work, and what they need to do next. This matters because adoption happens through individual change: people need awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement before a new process, system or behavior becomes normal practice [Prosci ADKAR, n.d.]. (prosci.com)

Webinars are especially useful when impacted groups are distributed, time is limited, and leaders need a live forum for explanation, questions, practice or alignment. Evidence from webinar research is encouraging but should be used carefully: a 2019 review found webinars slightly more effective than comparison conditions but with trivial effect sizes, while a 2026 meta-analysis found positive effects on cognitive and affective outcomes such as knowledge, self-efficacy and attitudes [Gegenfurtner & Ebner, 2019; Gegenfurtner et al., 2026]. (sciencedirect.com)

A change webinar is a structured, live session with defined adoption outcomes. It sits between communication, engagement and learning: part message delivery, part listening channel, part capability-building. Facilitation differs from presentation because the facilitator engages participants in making sense of the content, asking questions, practising and applying learning to their context [ATD, n.d.]. (td.org)

Use it when a change affects many people at once; when managers need a consistent explanation; before go-live to build knowledge and readiness; during go-live to resolve barriers; or after go-live to reinforce new ways of working. Avoid using a webinar when the real need is negotiation, confidential consultation, complex hands-on training, or a decision that has not yet been made.

Start with the adoption outcome, not the slide deck. Decide whether the session is primarily for awareness, commitment, knowledge, practice, issue resolution or reinforcement. This aligns the webinar to the person-level outcomes required for change [Prosci ADKAR, n.d.]. (prosci.com)

Prepare the change story, audience impacts, expected behaviors, manager talking points, FAQs, a decision log, escalation path and post-session action owner. Involve the sponsor, change lead, product or process owner, support lead, and representative managers. CIPD’s guidance on employee voice is important here: people are more likely to speak up when there are safe channels, managers listen, and feedback is acted on [CIPD, 2026]. (cipd.org)

Adapt timing to the project phase. In discovery, use webinars to test understanding and surface impacts. In design, use them to review future-state ways of working. Before go-live, use them for readiness, practice and manager alignment. After go-live, use them to reinforce, troubleshoot and share adoption progress.

A company is rolling out a new CRM to 600 sales and service employees. Two weeks before go-live, the change manager runs role-based webinars: one for sales representatives, one for service agents and one for managers. Each session begins with the sponsor explaining why customer data quality matters, then the process owner demonstrates three common tasks. Participants complete a short practice scenario, submit questions, and vote on their biggest go-live risks. The change team updates the FAQ, creates a five-minute “top mistakes” video, and asks managers to run 15-minute team huddles before launch. After go-live, a follow-up webinar focuses only on issues, workarounds and reinforcement.

The most common mistake is treating the webinar as a broadcast. Other avoidable errors are inviting everyone to the same generic session, overloading slides, ignoring resistant questions, allowing leaders to give inconsistent messages, failing to capture actions, and measuring success only by attendance. PMI recommends measuring participation, comprehension, feedback and desired behavior change, not just message distribution [PMI, 2015]. (pmi.org)

Measure at three levels: session quality, readiness and adoption. Session indicators include attendance by impacted role, participation rate, question volume, poll responses and post-session satisfaction. Readiness indicators include comprehension checks, confidence ratings, unresolved risks and manager feedback. Adoption indicators include speed of adoption, utilization and proficiency in the new way of working [Prosci Change Management Success, n.d.]. (prosci.com)