Why change doesn't stick – and what to do about it
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
After more years of working with organisations through change than we care to count, we've noticed something. The strategy is rarely the problem. The plan is often solid. The intentions are good. What gets in the way, almost every time, is the human side – the bit that most change programmes underinvest in or skip past altogether.
Over the years we've distilled what we've learned – from battle scars as much as successes – into a set of overriding principles for making change stick. Not a checklist to work through mechanically, but a way of thinking about change that keeps people, rather than processes, at the centre.
What follows groups those principles into five themes. Read them as prompts for reflection rather than a prescription. The context of every organisation is different. But the human dynamics underneath? They're remarkably consistent.
Leaders have to go first – and keep going
There's a version of change leadership that looks like this: the leader announces the change, makes the case for it and then gets on with their day.
Their behaviour, subtly but unmistakably, carries on as before.
People notice. They always do. When the leader doesn't visibly live the change they're asking for, it becomes an invitation for everyone else to quietly opt out too. The logic is simple: if it were really that important, they'd be doing it themselves.
Role modelling isn't a nice-to-have in change - it's the foundation. And it's not a one-off act. It requires leaders to ask someone they trust to give them honest, regular feedback on how well they're actually living the change. Not just at the start but throughout. Leaders who are recognised and rewarded for how the change gets done – not just whether it gets done – create the conditions for others to follow.
Resistance is information, not obstruction
When people resist a change, our instinct is often to push harder – to repeat the benefits more loudly or to manage the resistant individual as a problem to be solved.
Here's a more useful frame. Resistance means people have heard the message. It's not denial; it's a signal that something about this change feels threatening to them personally. It might be the fear of becoming incompetent at something they've worked years to master. It might be the impact on a work-life balance they've struggled to maintain. It might be something else entirely.
The most effective thing a leader can do when they encounter resistance is to get curious. Ask the questions that most people skip:
Where are you at in this change?
What does it mean for you?
What would need to happen for you to feel able to commit to it?
These conversations take time. They're worth it. And they're far less time-consuming than dealing with a change that never properly landed.
It's also worth remembering that emotions are not a side issue in change - they're a central one. Our brains are primed to treat unfamiliar change as a potential threat. Encouraging people to talk about how they're feeling, and genuinely listening without dismissing, isn't soft. It's neurologically sensible. Once people feel heard the emotional pressure diminishes. And a calmer brain is one that can actually engage with what's being asked of it.
Involvement and communication are never enough – until they are
Two of the most common failure modes in change are doing things to people rather than with them and communicating far less than is actually needed.
On involvement: taking the time to bring people into the process – to help shape the vision, identify the implications, and contribute to the plan – feels slower at the outset. It isn't. The organisations we've seen do this well move faster in the long run because they're not constantly managing resistance that could have been prevented. When people feel genuinely involved, they're invested. When they feel it's been done to them they're not.
On communication: even when you've said the same thing ten times, it very likely needs saying again. This isn't a failure of your people's attention – it's how memory and meaning-making actually work. Communication that isn't emotionally engaging tends not to stick. It needs to reach people through different channels in different ways, and it needs to start before the change begins and continue long after it's been 'launched'. Cascade the message. Find the storytellers in your organisation. Have lots of loud conversations, with as many people as you can, as often as you can.
And when the vision for the change is being shared – make sure it's clear about both the benefits of changing and the consequences of not changing. Our brains are naturally primed to pay attention to risk. Using that default, thoughtfully and honestly, is far more effective than selling relentless positivity.
Acknowledge effort, not just outcomes
People who are making a genuine effort to change their behaviour need to know it's been noticed.
When it isn't – when someone tries hard to adapt and receives nothing in return while the person next to them carries on as before without consequence – the motivation to keep going erodes quickly.
This is where the detail of change leadership matters. Make sure there are clear, known expectations around the behaviours the change requires. Catch people doing the right thing and say so. Give honest feedback when they're not. Celebrate effort as much as achievement. And make sure that the process for following up on ideas, actions, and commitments coming out of workshops and team conversations is explicit – with named owners and timelines – not left to drift.
The biggest demotivator in change isn't being told no. It's being ignored.
Think big, act small — and be kind to yourself
Large-scale change can paralyse people before it's even begun. The scale of what's being asked can feel so vast and so far off, that it's hard to know where to start. This is where the art of change leadership is in holding two things at once: the long-term vision, which gives people direction and meaning and the immediate next step, which gives them something they can actually do today.
When people tell us they're overwhelmed by the breadth of change ahead of them, we often ask: what's the one thing you need to do now to keep moving forward? That question consistently cuts through the paralysis. Not because it makes the bigger picture smaller, but because it makes action feel possible.
And a word about the change leaders themselves. Change is a journey, not an event. It rarely goes entirely to plan. Stumbling isn't failure – but it does require resilience, flexibility and the self-awareness to look after your own energy as well as everyone else's. You can't lead change from an empty tank. The way you look after yourself during a change programme is, in itself, a form of role modelling.
We wrote these principles down for the first time back in 2017. We've tested them against everything we've seen since – and they've held up. Not because change has got simpler but because the human dynamics underneath it haven't changed.
If you'd like to read the original paper in full you can download it here.
💭 Which of these themes feels most live in your organisation right now – and what's one thing you could do differently this week?
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