FOR an in-your-face, jargon-free course in change management, delivered in raw effing and blinding Essex English, did you watch Jamie's School Dinners?

Week after week, young Jamie Oliver gave a TV masterclass in how to win the hearts, minds and stomachs of a reluctant government, a conservative management, a demotivated workforce and deeply resentful junk food-loving customers.

Change management is an immense subject - and an immense number of organisations make a living from training people how to do it.

Type the words "management of change" into Google and you will be rewarded with millions of pages.

The Google search does not appear to mention Jamie's School Dinners, which illustrated perfectly how painful change can be.

The programmes also showed the miraculous effects of patient, determined and compassionate leadership.

In change management it is important to ensure employees' "ownership" of the changes.

Courses urge managers to empower people not command them, to convince them to change their attitudes not just their working methods, to achieve long-term solutions not quick fixes and to recognise the cultural context.

They are inevitably based in the classroom and are largely theoretical.

Theory is important but it is hard to show how rough change can be at a personal level for everyone concerned.

And while it may be impossible to teach charisma, these courses should impress on managers the value of doing what Jamie did.

He didn't just sit in his office and send memos.

He repeatedly walked on to the shop floor, down among the blood and bullets, faced the challenges, took the criticisms on the chin, sympathised with people, convinced the "yes-but-no-buts" and inspired them to change.

It was wonderful to watch.