How can understanding the change adoption curve benefit organizations?
Understanding the change adoption curve benefits organizations by identifying how different individuals or groups respond to change. By recognizing these stages—innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards—companies can tailor their strategies to enhance communication, support, and ultimately improve the success of change initiatives.
Measuring change adoption is one of the most important parts of the work of change practitioners. It is the ultimate ‘proof’ of whether the change interventions have been successful or not in achieving the initiative objectives. It is also an important way in which the progress of change management can clearly be shown to the project team as well as to various stakeholder groups. The ability to show clearly the progress of change outcome is critical to focus your stakeholders’ actions on the right areas. It is one of the key ways to ‘prove your worth’ as a change practitioner.
Measurement takes time, focus and effort. It may not be something that is a quick exercise. There needs to be precise data measurement design, a reliable way of collecting data, and data visualisation that is easily understood by stakeholders.
With the right measurements of change adoption, you can influence the direction of the initiative, create impetus amongst senior stakeholders, and steer the organisation toward a common goal to realise the change objectives. Such is the power of measuring change adoption.
The myth of the change management curve
One of the most popular graphs in change management, and often referred to as the ‘change curve’, is the Kubler-Ross model that outlines the stages of personal transition. The model was specifically designed by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross to refer to terminally ill patients as a part of the book ‘On Death and Dying’. For whatever reason, it has somehow gained popularity and application in change management, making it crucial to be very careful when applying this model to address potential adoption barriers in a change context.
There is little research evidence to back this up even in psychological research. When applied in change management, there is no known research that supports this at all. So be careful when you come across models such as this one that is simple and seem intuitively ‘correct’, as they may overlook stakeholders’ voices and input, which can lead to new ideas. On the other hand, there is ample research by McKinsey that shows the best way for effectively managed initiatives and transformations is that stakeholders do not go through this ‘valley of death’ journey at all.
If the ‘change curve’ is not the correct chart to follow with regard to change adoption, then what is the right one to refer to? Good question.
The ‘S’ curve of change adoption is one that can be referenced. It is well backed in terms of research from technology and new product adoption. It begins with a typically slow start followed by a significant climb in adoption followed by a flattened level at the end. Most users typically do not uptake the change until later on.
Here is an example of key technologies and the speed of adoption in U.S. households since the 1900s.
With the different types of change contexts, the shape of the S curve will be expected to differ as a result. For example, you are working on a fairly minor process change where there is not a big leap in going from the current process to the new process. In this case, the curve would be expected to be a lot more gentle since the complexity of the change is significantly less than adopting a complex, new technology.
On the other hand, if you are working on many iterative agile changes, each iteration that impacts users may be a small S curve in themselves. Ideally, each iteration work together towards a greater piece of overarching change.
Going beyond what is typically measured
Most change practitioners are focused on measuring the easier and more obvious measures such as stakeholder perceptions, change readiness, and training completion. Whilst these are of value, they in themselves are only measuring certain aspects of the change process. They can be viewed as forward-looking indications of the progress that supports moving toward eventual change adoption, versus the eventual change adoption.
To really address head-on the topic of measuring adoption of new products, it is critical to go beyond these initial measures toward those elements that indicate the actual change in the organisation, especially focusing on early adopters. Depending on the type of change this could be system usage, behaviour change, following a new process or achieving cost savings targets.
Project Benefit realization
It goes without saying that to really measure change adoption the change practitioner must work closely with the project manager to understand in detail the benefits targeted, and how the prescribed benefits will be measured. The project manager could utilise a range of ways to articulate the benefits of the project. Common benefit categories include:
Business success factors such as financial targets on revenue or cost
Product integration measures such as usage rate
Market objectives such as revenue target, user base, etc.
These categories above are objectives that are easier to measure and tangible to quantify. However, there could also be less tangible targets such as:
Competitive positioning
Employee relations
Employee experience
There could be various economic methods of determining the targeted benefit objectives. These include payback time or the length of time from project initiation until the cumulative cash flow becomes positive, or net present value, or internal rate of return on a new tool.
Employee capability
Customer experience
There could be various economic methods of determining the targeted benefit objectives. These include payback time or the length of time from project initiation until the cumulative cash flow becomes positive, or net present value, or internal rate of return.
The critical aspect for change practitioners is to understand what the benefit objectives are, how benefit tracking will be measured and to interpret what steps are required to get there. These steps include any change management steps required to get from the current state to the future state.
Here is an example of a mapping of change management steps required in different benefit targets:
Increased customer satisfaction and improved productivity through implementing a new system. | Users able to operate the new system.Users able to improve customer conversations leveraging new system features.Users proactively use the new system features to drive improved customer conversations.Managers coaching and provide feedback to usersBenefit tracking and communications.Customer communication about improved system and processesDecreased customer call waiting time . | % of users passed training test.System feature usage rate.Customer issue resolution time.User feedback on manager coaching.Monthly benefit tracking shared and discussed in team meetings.Customer satisfaction rate. Customer call volume handling capacity.
Measuring behavioural change
For most change initiatives, there is an element of behaviour change, especially for more complex changes. Whether the change involves a system implementation, changing a process or launching a new product, behaviour change is involved. In a system implementation context, the behaviour may be different ways of operating the system in performing their roles. For a process change, there may be different operating steps which need to take place that defers from the previous steps. The focus on behaviour change aims to zoom in on core behaviours that need to change to lead to the initiative outcome being achieved.
How do we identify these behaviours in a meaningful way so that they can be identified, described, modelled, and measured?
The following are tips for identifying the right behaviours to measure:
Behaviours should be observable. They are not thoughts or attitudes, so behaviours need to be observable by others
Aim to target the right level of behaviour. Behaviours should not be so minute that they are too tedious to measure, e.g. click a button in a system. They also should not be so broad that it is hard to measure them overall, e.g. proactively understand customer concerns vs. what is more tangible such as asked questions about customer needs in XXX areas during customer interactions.
Behaviours are usually exhibited after some kind of ‘trigger’, for example, when the customer agent hear certain words such as ‘not happy’ or ‘would like to report’ from the customer that they may need to treat this as a customer complaint by following the new customer complaint process. Identifying these triggers will help you measure those behaviours.
Achieve a balance by not measuring too many behaviours since this will create additional work for the project team. However, ensure a sufficient number of behaviours are measured to assess benefit realisation
Measuring micro-behaviours
Behaviour change can seem over-encompassing and elusive. However, it may not need to be this. Rather than focusing on a wide set of behaviours that may take a significant period of time to sift, focusing on ‘micro-behaviours’ can be more practical and measurable. Micro-behaviours are simply small observable behaviours that are small step-stone behaviours vs a cluster of behaviours.
For example, a typical behaviour change for customer service reps may be to improve customer experience or to establish customer rapport. However, breaking these broad behaviours down into small specific behaviours may be much easier to target and achieve results.
For example, micro-behaviours to improve customer rapport may include:
User the customer’s name, “Is it OK if I call you Michelle?”
Build initial rapport, “How has your day been?”
Reflect on the customer’s feeling, “I’m hearing that it must have been frustrating”
Agree on next steps, “would it help if I escalate this issue for you?”
Each of these micro-behaviours may be measured using call-listening ratings and may either be a yes/no or a rating based assessment.
After having designed the right measurement to measure your change adoption, the next step would be to design the right reporting process. Key considerations in planning and executing on the reporting process includes:
Ease of reporting, you should aim to automate where possible to reduce the overhead burden and manual work involved. Whenever feasible leverage automation tools and in-app options to move fast and not be bogged down by tedious work
Build expectations on contribution to measurement. Rally your stakeholder support so that it is clear the data contribution required to measure and track change adoption
Design eye-catching and easy to understand dashboard of change adoption metrics.
Design reinforcing mechanisms. If your measurement requires people’s input, ensure you design the right reinforcing mechanisms to ensure you get the data you are seeking for. Human nature is so that whenever possible, people would err on the side of not contributing to a survey unless there are explicit consequences of not filling out the survey.
Recipients of change adoption measurement. Think about the distribution list of those who should receive the measurement tracking. This includes not just those who are in charge of realising the benefits (i.e. business leaders), but also those who contribute to the adoption process, e.g. middle or first-line managers.
Example of change adoption dashboard from Change Automator
Measuring Adoption Across Initiatives
You may be driving multiple initiatives as a part of a large program or a portfolio of initiatives. The key challenge here is to establish common adoption measures that are apple-to-apple metrics comparisons across initiatives. Yes, each initiatives will most likely have different sets of what constitutes adoption. However, there are still common ways to report on adoption across initiatives such as overall percentage of adoption of identified adoption elements, or percentage of the number of milestones reached. You can also utilise manager reports of behaviours adopted, as well as system records of utilisation of certain features for example.
Understanding change adoption is not only helpful to understand what works for one initiative, it can also be a linchpin to help you scale change adoption across change initiatives across your whole portfolio. Talk to us to find out more about how The Change Compass, a digital adoption platform, can help you understand what change interventions lead to higher change adoption rates in the flow of work, through data. Using a data-led approach in deciphering what drives change adoption can truly drive successful change outcomes.
The Strategic Blind Spot in Enterprise Change Management
In today’s volatile business environment, enterprise change management (ECM) functions are under mounting pressure to prove their value. Despite the proliferation of change initiatives – ranging from digital transformation to operational restructuring – many organizations still treat ECM as a support function, primarily focused on capability building and project resourcing. This narrow focus, while important, leaves a critical gap: ECMs are often missing the opportunity to deliver the highest value services – enterprise change measurement and strategic/operational planning.
The Current State: A Tactical Focus
Most ECM functions have evolved to emphasize two core activities:
Capability Building: Developing change skills and mindsets across the business, often through training, coaching, and establishing communities of practice
Project Resourcing: Supplying skilled change practitioners to projects, ensuring adequate coverage for major initiatives.
While these activities are foundational, they tend to position ECM as a cost centre rather than a strategic partner. When business conditions tighten, these functions are often among the first to face budget cuts or downsizing, as their value is often perceived as indirect or non-essential to core business outcomes.
The Consequence: Vulnerability in Uncertain Times
This tactical orientation creates a paradox. As organizations face more frequent and complex change, the need for robust change management increases. Yet, when times are tough, ECM functions are often scaled back precisely when their expertise could be most valuable. This cycle undermines organizational resilience and readiness, leaving businesses exposed to greater risks during periods of transformation.
The Missed Opportunity: High-Value Services
The most significant gap lies in the underutilization of ECM’s potential to deliver high-value, strategic services. These include:
Enterprise Change Performance: Systematically tracking and analyzing the impact, readiness, and adoption of change across the organization.
Strategic and Operational Planning: Partnering with strategy teams and business leaders to anticipate change impacts, model scenarios, and inform decision – making.
By not prioritizing these services, ECM functions miss the chance to influence the organization at the highest levels – where decisions about direction, investment, and risk are made.
Why the Gap Exists
Several factors contribute to this strategic blind spot:
Historical Positioning: ECM has traditionally been seen as an “enabler” rather than a “driver” of business outcomes.
Lack of Data: Without robust change measurement, it’s difficult to provide the insights needed for strategic planning and governance.
Resource Constraints: With limited budgets and headcount, ECMs often default to immediate project demands rather than longer-term, enterprise-wide priorities.
Digital Immaturity: Many organizations lack the digital tools to capture, analyze, and sustain data-driven change insights, further limiting ECM’s strategic contribution.
The Path Forward
To break this cycle, ECM functions must reposition themselves as indispensable partners in enterprise strategy and planning. This requires a deliberate shift from a narrow focus on capability and resourcing to a broader remit that includes measurement, insight generation, and strategic advisory services. The following sections will explore how ECMs can leverage data and digital tools to deliver these high-value services, and how this repositioning can fundamentally enhance their role in change governance and business planning.
Elevating Enterprise Change Management – From Tactical Support to Strategic Insight
The Power of Change Measurement
To become a true strategic partner, ECM functions must anchor their value proposition in robust, enterprise-wide change measurement. This means moving beyond anecdotal feedback and isolated project metrics to a disciplined, data-driven approach that captures the full spectrum of change activity, impact, and readiness across the organization.
What Is Enterprise Change Measurement?
Enterprise change measurement is the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data related to all change initiatives within an organization. This includes:
Change Volume and Velocity: How many changes are occurring, and at what pace?
Cumulative Impact: What is the aggregated effect of concurrent changes on teams, processes, and customers?
Readiness and Adoption: How prepared are stakeholders for upcoming changes, and how well are new ways of working being adopted?
Risk and Saturation: Where are the pressure points? Which business units or functions are at risk of change fatigue or resistance?
By establishing a comprehensive measurement framework, ECMs can provide leaders with a “change performance dashboard” that highlights risks, opportunities, and areas requiring intervention.
Why Measurement Matters
Objectivity: Data – driven insights replace subjective opinions, enabling more informed decision – making.
Prioritization: Leaders can see where to focus resources for maximum impact and where to pause or sequence initiatives to avoid overload.
Accountability: Clear metrics enable tracking of change outcomes, supporting continuous improvement and demonstrating the tangible value of ECM.
Proactive Risk Management: Early identification of adoption risks or readiness gaps allows for timely mitigation, reducing the likelihood of failed initiatives.
Leveraging Digital Tools for Continuous Insight
The digital revolution has transformed every aspect of business, and ECM should be no exception. Modern digital tools – ranging from enterprise change management platforms to advanced analytics and AI – make it possible to capture, analyze, and visualize change data in real time.
Key Capabilities of Digital Change Platforms
Automated Data Capture: Streamline the collection of change activity and sentiment data with less manual effort.
Dashboards and Visualizations: Provide leaders with intuitive, up-to-date views of change activity, risk hotspots, and adoption trends.
Scenario Modelling: Use predictive analytics to model the impact of proposed changes on different parts of the organization, supporting better planning and resource allocation.
Feedback Loops: Enable continuous input from stakeholders, surfacing emerging issues and opportunities for course correction.
Building the Digital Foundation
To realize these benefits, ECMs must:
Invest in the Right Tools: Select platforms that fit the organization’s size, complexity, and digital maturity.
Establish Data Governance: Ensure data quality, security, and privacy, with clear ownership and processes for managing change data.
Build Analytical Capability: Develop skills within the ECM team to interpret data, generate insights, and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
Partnering for Strategic and Operational Planning
Armed with robust data and digital insights, ECMs are uniquely positioned to partner with strategy teams and senior leaders in both strategic and operational planning cycles.
Strategic Planning
Change Impact Modelling: Collaborate with strategy leaders to model the implications of major strategic shifts – such as mergers, restructures, or technology rollouts – on people, customers, partners and culture/behaviours.
Resource Forecasting: Advise on the change management resources required to support planned initiatives, ensuring adequate capacity and capability.
Risk Assessment: Highlight potential adoption risks and readiness gaps, enabling proactive mitigation and more resilient strategic execution.
Operational Planning
Change Portfolio Management: Work with business units to sequence and prioritize initiatives, reducing change saturation and maximizing adoption.
Readiness/Adoption Assessments: Provide data – driven readiness assessments to inform operational plans, ensuring teams are prepared for upcoming changes.
Performance Tracking: Monitor adoption and impact metrics post – implementation, feeding lessons learned back into future planning cycles.
Unlocking the Full Value of ECM
By moving up the value chain – from tactical support to strategic insight – ECMs can fundamentally reshape their role within the organization. This shift not only enhances the effectiveness of change initiatives but also positions ECM as a critical enabler of business strategy, resilience, and long-term success.
Embedding Enterprise Change Management in Governance and Planning – Unlocking Strategic Value
From Insight to Influence: The New Role of ECM
When enterprise change management (ECM) functions leverage robust measurement and digital insights, they move from being tactical enablers to strategic influencers. This transition is not just a shift in activity but a fundamental change in how ECM is perceived and positioned within the organization. The true value of ECM emerges when it is embedded in the core governance and planning processes, shaping decisions that drive business performance and resilience.
Integrating ECM Into Change Governance
Change governance is the system by which organizations oversee, prioritize, and manage change initiatives. Traditionally, ECM’s role in governance has been limited, often reactive – providing support when asked or responding to issues as they arise. However, with access to enterprise-wide change data and predictive analytics, ECM can now play a proactive, advisory role.
Key contributions of ECM in change governance include:
Portfolio-level risk assessment: By providing a “change performance dashboard,” ECM can help governance forums visualize where cumulative change is creating risk, enabling more informed decisions about sequencing, prioritization, and resource allocation.
Evidence-based recommendations: ECM brings objective data to the table, shifting conversations from opinion-based debates to fact-based decision-making.
Continuous monitoring: Real-time dashboards and feedback loops allow governance bodies to track adoption, readiness, and business impact, supporting agile responses to emerging issues.
This approach aligns with the Unified Value Proposition for change management, which emphasizes the integration of technical and people aspects to achieve both project objectives and organizational benefits. When ECM is seen as a structured, data-driven discipline, its credibility and influence within governance structures increase significantly.
Shaping Strategic and Operational Planning
The value of ECM is amplified when it is involved early in the strategic and operational planning cycles. By partnering with strategy and business leaders, ECM can:
Model change implications: Use scenario analysis to forecast the impact of strategic decisions on people, processes, and culture, identifying potential bottlenecks or adoption risks before they materialize.
Inform resource planning: Advise on the change management resources and capabilities required to support the planned portfolio, ensuring adequate investment and reducing the risk of under – resourcing critical initiatives.
Enhance readiness and adoption: Integrate readiness assessments and adoption metrics into operational plans, increasing the likelihood of successful outcomes and accelerating benefit realization.
This proactive involvement transforms ECM from a “nice-to-have” support function to an essential partner in delivering business strategy and managing risk.
Real-World Impact: Lessons from Leading Organizations
Organizations that have successfully repositioned ECM as a strategic partner demonstrate tangible business benefits. For example, a large financial services leader, integrated change management and project management, prioritized sponsorship, and leveraged data-driven insights to support multiple simultaneous transformations. The results included reduced risks of change saturation and release clashes, enhanced speed of planning and reduced operational disruptions.
This underscore the importance of:
Early and ongoing ECM involvement in planning and governance
A unified approach that combines technical and people – centric change management
Data-driven decision – making as the foundation for ECM’s strategic contribution
Sustaining the Strategic Role of ECM
To ensure ECM’s strategic value is sustained – even when business conditions become challenging – organizations must:
Institutionalize ECM’s seat at the table: Make ECM participation in governance and planning forums a non-negotiable part of the operating model.
Continue investing in digital tools and analytics: Maintain and evolve the digital infrastructure that enables continuous measurement and insight generation.
Develop ECM talent: Build analytical, advisory, and business partnership skills within ECM teams to match their new strategic mandate.
The Future of ECM Is Strategic
As organizations navigate increasing complexity and accelerated change, the need for strategic, data-driven change management has never been greater. By focusing on high-value services, enterprise change measurement and strategic/operational planning, ECM functions can secure their place as indispensable partners in business success. This shift unlocks their full potential to drive sustainable transformation and competitive advantage.
Change management teams have long prided themselves on enabling organisations to adapt, evolve, and thrive in the face of constant disruption. Yet, a curious irony persists: many change management teams themselves are reluctant to change. They are trapped in a cycle of executing individual projects, refining legacy methodologies, and building capabilities through workshops and sessions-year after year, with little evolution in their own practice. This phenomenon can be described as “Change Management Teams’ Stockholm Syndrome”-where practitioners defend the very systems and routines that may be limiting their impact, just as employees in transformation-fatigued organisations do.
This syndrome is not just about comfort; it is also about fear. Changing the way change is managed is risky. There is a real concern that if things do not go well, the change team may be blamed. The prevailing attitude is often: “If everyone else is doing it this way, why should we change?” This mindset is a significant barrier to progress and innovation.
And this is not to specifically single-out change management teams. In the corporate world, process and methodology helps to create certainty and clarity. Without it, there could be chaos. As a result, organisations as a whole and its teams, tend to stick to the convention to run the business.
The Legacy Methodology Trap
Most change management teams remain wedded to legacy methodologies-structured, linear frameworks that were designed for a pre-digital era. These approaches often emphasise process over people, form over function, and documentation over data. While these methods have served organisations well in the past, they are increasingly mismatched with the realities of today’s digital and AI-driven world.
The result? Change management teams risk becoming irrelevant, unable to provide the strategic value that modern organisations demand. They are seen as facilitators rather than strategists, focused on executing rather than shaping change. This legacy focus also means that teams miss out on the benefits of agile, data-based approaches that are now commonplace in other disciplines such as marketing, operations, human resources and customer experience.
The Cost of Standing Still
The consequences of this stagnation are profound:
No Innovation: Without evolving their own practices, change management teams cannot credibly advocate for innovation elsewhere in the organisation.
Legacy vs. Agile: Teams remain focused on rigid, legacy methodologies, missing opportunities to leverage agile, iterative, and data-driven approaches that are better suited to today’s fast-moving environment.
No Data-Based Insights: Historical data is often ignored, meaning teams cannot learn from past successes or failures, nor can they provide predictive insights to guide future change initiatives.
Inability to Influence Strategically: Without data and digital fluency, change teams struggle to influence at a strategic level, limiting their ability to shape the direction of the organisation.
Credibility Challenges: Project teams and leaders may increasingly question the value of change management, seeing it as a bureaucratic function rather than a strategic partner. On the other hand, change managers spend significant time on arguing/positioning their worth, versus delivering value.
The New Digital and AI Reality
The world has changed. Digital transformation is no longer a buzzword-it is a reality. AI is reshaping how work gets done, automating routine tasks, and providing deep insights that were previously unimaginable. Other disciplines have already embraced these trends, using data to inform decisions, automate low-value work, and focus on high-value strategic activities.
Yet, many change management teams are still operating in a pre-digital mindset. They are not leveraging the power of automation, AI, or data analytics to transform their own work. This is not just a missed opportunity-it is a threat to the relevance and impact of the discipline.
The Comfort of the Familiar
Why do so many change management teams resist changing their own ways of working? The answer lies in what we as change practitioners already know about human psychology. Change is hard, even for those who advocate for it. The status quo is comfortable, and the risks of trying something new are real. Teams may fear failure, blame, or simply the unknown. They may also suffer from “Organisational Stockholm Syndrome,” defending the very systems that exhaust them and limit their potential.
Looking Ahead
The solution is clear: change management teams must catch up with industry trends that other disciplines have already embraced. They must leverage data to inform their work, automate lower-value tasks, and leapfrog to higher-value strategic roles-advising on change strategy, adoption, and benefit optimisation across the organisation. Only by transforming themselves can they credibly support the transformation of others.
Barriers and Breakthroughs in Digital Change Management
Facing the Realities of Digital and Data-Driven Transformation
As change management teams recognise the need to evolve, they encounter a complex array of barriers that are both technical and cultural. The journey toward digital and data-driven change management is not simply about adopting new tools or methodologies; it is about transforming mindsets, processes, and organisational structures. The following barriers are among the most persistent and impactful.
Key Barriers to Digital and Data-Driven Change Management
Resistance to Change
Even within change management teams, resistance is a formidable obstacle. Many practitioners are comfortable with established processes and fear the disruption that comes with new digital tools or methodologies. This resistance is compounded by concerns over job security (e.g. the result of AI and automation), the risk of failure, and the potential for blame if initiatives do not succeed.
Integration with Legacy Systems
Many organisations rely on outdated systems that are not designed to work with modern digital solutions. Integrating new technologies-such as AI-powered analytics or automation platforms – with legacy processes such as spreadsheets and templates that are often complex, time-consuming, and costly. This challenge can stall progress and limit the ability to leverage data-driven insights.
Lack of Digital Expertise
There is a significant skills gap in many change management teams. Digital transformation requires a blend of technical, analytical, critical and strategic competencies that are not always present. Without the right expertise, teams struggle to implement and sustain new digital initiatives.
Poor Data Quality and Access
Effective data-driven change management relies on accurate, timely, and accessible data. However, many organisations struggle with fragmented data sources, inconsistent data quality, and limited access to meaningful insights. Only a minority of companies report having access to accurate data that can inform decision-making.
Failure to Link Strategy to Execution
Even with a clear digital or data-driven strategy, many change management teams struggle to translate this into daily practice. There is often a disconnect between strategic intent and operational execution, leading to missed opportunities and diminished impact.
Inadequate Leadership and Communication
Successful digital transformation requires strong leadership and effective communication. When leaders fail to articulate a compelling vision, provide adequate support, or foster a culture of transparency and trust, change initiatives are more likely to falter.
Cultural Inertia and Lack of Experimentation
Organisational culture plays a critical role in enabling or hindering change. A culture that resists experimentation, learning, and adaptation will struggle to embrace digital and data-driven approaches. Without the ability to experiment and learn from failures, progress is slow and innovation is stifled.
Overcoming the Barriers: Practical Breakthroughs
Despite these challenges, there are proven strategies that change management teams can adopt to overcome barriers and accelerate their digital and data-driven transformation.
Embrace Agile and Data-Driven Methodologies
Shift from rigid, legacy frameworks to agile, iterative approaches that prioritise learning, adaptation, and data-driven decision-making. This allows teams to respond more quickly to changing circumstances and to leverage real-time insights.
Invest in Digital Upskilling
Build digital literacy and analytical skills within the change management team. This can be achieved through targeted training, partnerships with digital experts, and the recruitment of data-savvy professionals.
Improve Data Quality and Accessibility
Implement robust data governance practices to ensure data accuracy, consistency, and accessibility. Invest in tools and platforms that enable seamless data integration and analysis across the organisation.
Strengthen Leadership and Communication
Develop a clear, compelling vision for digital change management and communicate it consistently across the organisation. Engage leaders at all levels to champion the change and provide ongoing support to teams.
Foster a Culture of Experimentation and Learning
Encourage teams to experiment with new tools, methodologies, and approaches. Create a safe environment where failure is seen as an opportunity for learning and improvement.
Align Strategy with Execution
Ensure that digital and data-driven strategies are translated into actionable plans and daily practices. Regularly review progress, gather feedback, and adjust course as needed to maintain alignment and drive results.
The Path Forward
The barriers to digital and data-driven change management are significant, but they are not insurmountable. By addressing resistance, building digital expertise, improving data quality, strengthening leadership, and fostering a culture of experimentation, change management teams can break free from legacy mindsets and unlock new levels of impact and credibility.
Leapfrogging to Strategic Impact
From Execution to Strategic Influence
For too long, change management teams have been seen as facilitators of change rather than architects. Their work has been largely transactional-running workshops, refining methodologies, and supporting project delivery. The digital and AI-driven world, however, demands a fundamental shift in how change is managed and led. The opportunity now is for change management to become a true strategic partner, leveraging data, automation, and AI to shape the direction and success of organisational transformation.
Leveraging Data for Deeper Insights and Predictive Power
The most forward-thinking organisations are already using real-time and historical data to inform every aspect of change. This means moving beyond gut feeling and anecdotal evidence to a world where decision-making is driven by robust analytics. Change management teams can now:
Predict Adoption and Resistance: By analysing readiness, engagement, and adoption metrics, teams can anticipate where resistance will emerge and intervene proactively.
Measure Impact in Real Time: Digital tools and platforms enable continuous monitoring of change initiatives, allowing for rapid course correction and more responsive leadership.
Optimise Communication and Support: Data-driven insights help tailor communication strategies to different stakeholder groups, ensuring messages resonate and support is targeted where it is most needed.
Automating the Routine, Elevating the Strategic
Automation and AI are transforming the landscape of change management by taking over repetitive, low-value tasks. Chatbots, virtual assistants, and automated workflows can handle routine communications, answer common questions, and even deliver personalised training modules. This frees up change practitioners to focus on higher-value activities, such as:
Advising on Change Strategy: With more time and better data, change teams can provide strategic counsel to senior leaders, helping shape transformation agendas and ensure alignment with business goals.
Driving Adoption and Benefit Realisation: By leveraging real-time analytics, teams can identify barriers to adoption early, design targeted interventions, and track the realisation of benefits across the organisation.
Leading Culture Change: Change management is increasingly recognised as a driver of organisational culture. Teams that embrace open, data-driven, and agile approaches can foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.
Building Credibility and Influence
As change management teams embrace digital and data-driven approaches, they also build credibility with project teams and leaders. By providing clear, evidence-based recommendations and demonstrating measurable impact, change practitioners can move from being seen as process administrators to trusted advisors. This shift is critical for influencing at a strategic level and ensuring that change management is embedded in the organisation’s DNA.
The Future of Change Management
The future belongs to organisations that treat change as a continuous, strategic process rather than a series of isolated projects. Change management teams that harness the power of data, automation, and AI will be at the heart of this transformation. They will drive not only the adoption of new technologies but also the cultural and behavioural shifts needed for sustainable success.
A Call to Action
For senior change and transformation practitioners, the message is clear: the time to leapfrog is now. By embracing digital tools, data-driven decision-making, and agile, open approaches, change management can move from the back office to the boardroom. The result will be a profession that is more innovative, influential, and indispensable than ever before.
The organisations that succeed in the digital age will be those that empower their change teams to lead, not just facilitate/deliver, transformation-shaping the future of work, culture, and performance for years to come.
Level 1: Air Traffic Control—Establishing Oversight and Laying the Foundation
Seasoned transformation and change practitioners know the challenge: senior leaders are rarely interested in “change training” but are critical to the success of your change portfolio. Their engagement, understanding, and decision-making set the tone for the entire organization. The question is not how to send them to a course, but how to build their change literacy in a way that is practical, relevant, and embedded in their business agenda.
Here we explore a pragmatic approach to developing senior leaders’ maturity in managing a portfolio of change. In Level 1, we focus on the “Air Traffic Control” phase—establishing initial oversight, surfacing key data, and creating the conditions for informed leadership.
Why Change Literacy Matters at the Top
For senior leaders change portfolio literacy is more than understanding the mechanics of change management. For senior leaders, it’s about:
Seeing the full landscape of change across the business.
Understanding the cumulative impacts on people, operations, and strategy.
Making informed decisions on priorities, pace, and resource allocation.
Without this literacy, leaders risk overwhelming teams, missing strategic opportunities, and failing to deliver on business benefits. The stakes are high: the volume and velocity of change in most organizations today mean that “flying blind” is not an option.
The Air Traffic Control Phase: Creating Oversight and Clarity
The first step in building change literacy is not education—it’s exposure. Like an air traffic controller, senior leaders must be able to see all the “planes in the sky” before they can direct traffic safely and efficiently.
Key Objectives in This Phase:
Establish visibility of all change initiatives.
Surface capacity constraints and people impacts.
Create a shared language and baseline understanding of change activity.
1. Map the Change Landscape
Start by working with your PMO, HR, and transformation teams to create a comprehensive map of all current and upcoming change initiatives. This should include:
Tip: Visual tools such as rollout timelines, calendars, or dashboards are invaluable. They help leaders “see the forest for the trees” and spot potential collisions or overloads.
2. Quantify Capacity and Performance
Next, introduce data on organizational capacity and people performance:
How many initiatives are impacting each business unit?
Where are the pinch points in terms of workload, skills, or engagement?
What is the current state of change fatigue or readiness?
This data grounds the conversation in facts, not anecdotes. It also begins to shift the mindset from project-by-project thinking to portfolio-level oversight.
3. Connect to Business Priorities
Senior leaders are motivated by what’s on their agenda: strategic goals, operational performance, risk, and efficiency/growth. Frame the change portfolio in these terms:
Which initiatives are directly tied to strategic objectives?
Where are there conflicts, duplication, or misalignment?
What are the risks to business performance if changes are poorly sequenced or resourced?
By connecting change data to business outcomes, you make the conversation relevant and urgent.
4. Facilitate the Right Conversations
Rather than presenting data for its own sake, design conversations that help leaders make better decisions:
Where do we need to slow down or pause initiatives to protect capacity?
How can we sequence changes to maximize benefits and minimize disruption?
What trade-offs are required to align with strategic priorities?
These discussions are not about “managing change” in the abstract—they are about running the business more effectively in a complex, dynamic environment.
Practical Tools and Techniques
Change Portfolio Dashboards: Develop a simple, regularly updated dashboard that shows all active changes, status, impacts, and risks. Use visuals to highlight hotspots and interdependencies.
Capacity Charts: Map initiatives against business units and timeframes to show where overload is likely.
Impact Assessments: Brief, high-level assessments of each initiative’s impact on people, processes, and performance.
Monthly Portfolio Reviews: Establish a regular cadence for reviewing the change portfolio with senior leaders, focusing on decision points and resource allocation.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Information Overload: Don’t drown leaders in detail. Focus on key data that supports business decisions.
Siloed Views: Ensure your portfolio view cuts across functions and business units, not just projects within a single area.
Lack of Follow-through: Initial visibility must lead to action—adjusting priorities, reallocating resources, or sequencing initiatives differently.
Building Change Literacy: What Success Looks Like
At the end of the Air Traffic Control phase, senior leaders should:
Have a clear, shared view of all change activity across the business.
Understand where capacity and performance risks lie.
Be able to make informed decisions on sequencing, prioritization, and resource allocation.
Begin to use a common language for discussing change impacts and trade-offs.
Level 2: Change Outcome Ownership—Moving from Oversight to Strategic Leadership
In Level 1, we explored how to help senior leaders achieve “air traffic control”—a clear, shared view of the change landscape and organizational capacity. This foundational oversight is essential, but it’s only the beginning. True change literacy means senior leaders move beyond monitoring activity to taking ownership of change outcomes. This is where their leadership can make the greatest difference.
In Level 2, we’ll look at how to guide senior leaders through this shift. You’ll learn how to help them balance the key levers of change, drive accountability for results, and embed change leadership into the heart of business decision-making.
Why Outcome Ownership Matters
Oversight is about knowing what’s happening. Ownership is about making it happen—delivering the intended benefits, minimizing disruption, and ensuring people are ready and able to perform in the new environment.
When senior leaders own change outcomes, they:
Balance competing priorities: Weighing speed, capacity, business resources, and strategic impacts.
Make informed trade-offs: Deciding where to invest, delay, or accelerate change.
Drive accountability: Ensuring that business leaders—not just project teams—are responsible for adoption and benefits realization.
This is the difference between passive sponsorship and active leadership.
Key Levers for Senior Leaders in Change Outcome Ownership
To build change literacy at this level, focus on five critical levers:
1. Pace and Sequencing
Senior leaders must understand that the pace of change is not just about speed to market—it’s about sustainable adoption. Too much, too fast leads to fatigue and failure; too slow risks losing momentum or competitive advantage.
How to build this lever:
Use data from your change portfolio dashboard to model different sequencing options.
Facilitate scenario planning sessions: “What if we delayed Project X by three months? What would that mean for Project Y and for our people?”
Encourage leaders to weigh the trade-offs between urgency and readiness.
2. Capacity and Resource Allocation
Change does not happen in a vacuum. It requires people, time, and attention—often the same resources needed for business-as-usual.
How to build this lever:
Present clear data on resource constraints and competing demands.
Help leaders see the hidden costs of overloading teams (e.g., increased turnover, reduced engagement).
Support them in making tough calls about where to focus and where to pause or stop initiatives.
3. Business Impact and Strategic Alignment
Not all changes are created equal. Leaders must be able to distinguish between “must-have” and “nice-to-have” initiatives, and ensure alignment with strategic goals.
How to build this lever:
Map each change initiative to strategic priorities and measurable business outcomes.
Use impact assessments to highlight dependencies, risks, and potential synergies.
Challenge leaders to articulate the “why” behind each major change.
4. Readiness and Adoption
Successful change is not just about delivering a project—it’s about ensuring people are ready, willing, and able to work in new ways.
How to build this lever:
Introduce simple readiness assessments for key initiatives.
Share data on adoption rates, feedback, and engagement from previous changes.
Encourage leaders to actively sponsor and communicate about change, not just delegate to project teams.
5. Change Leadership Behaviours
Change literacy is not just a set of skills—it’s a mindset and a set of behaviours. Senior leaders must model the change they want to see.
How to build this lever:
Provide feedback on visible leadership behaviours (e.g., presence in town halls, openness to feedback, willingness to address resistance).
Celebrate and recognize leaders who demonstrate effective change leadership.
Offer targeted coaching or peer learning opportunities focused on change leadership, not just management.
Designing the Right Conversations
At this stage, your role is to facilitate strategic, action-oriented conversations that help leaders take ownership. Some practical approaches:
Portfolio Decision Forums: Regular sessions where leaders review the change portfolio, assess progress, and make decisions on sequencing, resourcing, and prioritization.
Benefit Realization Reviews: Focused discussions on whether intended outcomes are being achieved and what adjustments are needed.
Readiness Deep Dives: Sessions that explore the “people side” of major changes—what’s working, what’s not, and what support is required.
Your job is not to provide all the answers, but to ask the right questions and surface the data that supports informed decision-making.
Practical Tools and Approaches
Scenario Planning Templates: Help leaders visualize the impact of different sequencing or resourcing decisions.
Change Impact Matrices: Map initiatives against strategic goals, business units, and risk factors.
Adoption Dashboards: Track key metrics such as training completion, usage rates, and employee sentiment.
Leadership Action Plans: Simple templates for leaders to track their own change leadership commitments and follow-through.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Defaulting to Project Thinking: Keep the focus on business outcomes, not just project milestones.
Avoiding Tough Trade-offs: Encourage honest discussion about what can be realistically achieved with available resources.
Assuming Readiness: Challenge optimistic assumptions and use data to surface real readiness risks.
What Success Looks Like
When senior leaders move from oversight to ownership, you’ll see:
Active engagement in change portfolio decisions: Leaders are not just reviewing reports—they are making and owning the trade-offs.
Clear accountability for outcomes: Business leaders, not just project teams, are responsible for adoption and benefits.
Greater alignment between change activity and business strategy: Initiatives are sequenced and resourced to deliver on strategic priorities.
Visible leadership behaviours: Leaders are modelling the change, communicating openly, and supporting their teams through transition.
Ownership of change outcomes is the hallmark of mature change leadership. It’s where leaders move from monitoring activity to driving results—and where the real value of your change portfolio is realized.
Level 3: Best Practice—Tracking Benefits, Embedding Adoption, and Managing Change Risks
Having guided senior leaders from initial oversight (“air traffic control”) through outcome ownership, the final phase in building change literacy is embedding best practice. This is where change becomes a core capability—measured, managed, and continuously improved. Senior leaders who reach this stage are not just managing change; they are shaping a culture of agility, resilience, and sustained business value.
What Best Practice Looks Like
In this phase, senior leaders:
Track and realize the benefits of change initiatives.
Monitor and drive adoption, not just implementation.
Proactively manage growth, people, and operational risks.
Balance pace, capacity, and business priorities for ongoing agility.
Model and reinforce change leadership behaviours across the organization.
This is the point where change literacy becomes organizational muscle memory.
1. Tracking Benefits and Adoption
Why it matters: Delivering change is not success—realizing the intended benefits is. Too often, organizations declare victory at go-live, only to find that new systems, processes, or behaviours are not embedded.
How to build this capability:
Define clear success metrics: Establish measurable KPIs for each initiative, linked directly to business outcomes (e.g., increased revenue, reduced cycle time, improved customer satisfaction).
Adoption dashboards: Track usage, compliance, and behavioural indicators, not just technical completion. For example, monitor system logins, process adherence, or customer feedback.
Regular benefit realization reviews: Schedule post-implementation checkpoints (e.g., 30, 60, 90 days) to assess progress against targets and identify gaps.
Close the loop: Use data to drive action—adjust training, communications, or incentives if adoption lags.
Evaluation allows leaders to assess the change initiative’s success, identify improvement areas, and make necessary adjustments for long-term sustainability.
2. Managing Growth, People, and Operational Risks
Why it matters: As the portfolio of change grows, so do the risks—overload, fatigue, competing priorities, and operational disruption. Best practice is about anticipating and mitigating these risks, not reacting after the fact.
How to build this capability:
Risk heatmaps: Maintain a live view of risk hotspots across the change portfolio—where are people stretched, where is performance dipping, where are critical dependencies (including operational ones)?
Scenario planning: Regularly test the impact of new initiatives or shifts in strategy on existing capacity and priorities.
Feedback mechanisms: Create channels for employees and managers to surface risks early—through surveys, forums, or direct leader engagement.
Agility reviews: Encourage leaders to adjust plans, pause, or re-sequence changes based on real-time data and feedback.
3. Embedding Change Leadership Behaviours
Why it matters: The most successful change programs are led from the top. Senior leaders must consistently model the behaviours they expect—transparency, adaptability, resilience, and empowerment.
How to build this capability:
Visible sponsorship: Leaders must remain active and visible throughout the change lifecycle, not just at launch. Their ongoing engagement is the single strongest predictor of success.
Transparent communication: Leaders should share progress, setbacks, and lessons learned openly, reinforcing trust and credibility.
Openness to feedback: Encourage leaders to listen, adapt, and act on input from all levels of the organization.
Recognition and reinforcement: Celebrate teams and individuals who exemplify change leadership, embedding these behaviours in performance management and reward systems.
An effective leader drives momentum by visibly championing the change.
4. Building Organizational Agility
Why it matters: Change is not a one-off event but a continuous capability. Organizations that thrive are those that can adapt, learn, and pivot quickly.
How to build this capability:
Continuous learning: Use each change initiative as a learning opportunity—what worked, what didn’t, and why? Feed these insights into future planning.
Iterative planning: Move from annual change plans to rolling, flexible roadmaps that can adjust to new priorities or market shifts.
Empowerment at all levels: Equip managers and teams with the skills and authority to lead local change, not just execute centrally-driven initiatives.
Culture of experimentation: Encourage calculated risk-taking and innovation, rewarding learning as much as results.
Practical Tools and Techniques
Benefits realization frameworks: Standardize how benefits are defined, tracked, and reported across all initiatives.
Adoption and engagement dashboards: Integrate people metrics (engagement, sentiment, turnover) with project and business metrics.
Change risk registers: Live tools for tracking, escalating, and mitigating risks across the portfolio.
Leadership scorecards: Track and report on leaders’ visible sponsorship and change leadership behaviours.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Focusing only on delivery: Don’t stop at go-live—track benefits and adoption for the full lifecycle.
Ignoring feedback: Build mechanisms to listen and respond to concerns, not just broadcast messages.
Leadership drop-off: Ensure leaders remain engaged and visible, not just at the start but throughout.
Static planning: Avoid rigid annual plans—build in flexibility and regular reviews to respond to change.
High adoption rates: New ways of working are embraced and sustained, not just implemented.
Proactive risk management: Leaders anticipate and address risks before they become issues.
Organizational agility: The business adapts quickly to new challenges and opportunities.
Visible, credible leadership: Senior leaders are recognized as champions of change, inspiring confidence and commitment at every level.
“The ageless essence of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make a system’s weaknesses irrelevant.” – Peter Drucker
Sustaining Change Literacy at the Top
Building change literacy in senior leaders is a journey—from initial oversight, through outcome ownership, to embedding best practice. It’s not about training for its own sake, but about equipping leaders with the insight, tools, and behaviours to lead change as a core business capability.
As a transformation/change practitioner, your role is to curate the right data, design the right conversations, and create the right conditions for leaders to learn by doing. When you succeed, change becomes not just something the organization does—but something it is striving to improve, every day.
At The Change Compass, we not only provide the technology/platform to support with change literacy, we also guide you on influencing senior leaders through data. Chat to us to find out more.
In today’s dynamic business environment, managing multiple changes simultaneously is the norm, not the exception. As change transformation experts/leaders, we’re expected to provide clarity, reduce disruption, and drive successful adoption—often across a crowded portfolio of initiatives. In this high-stakes context, it’s tempting to lean on familiar tools and assumptions to simplify complexity. However, some of the most common beliefs about managing multiple changes are not just outdated—they can actively undermine your efforts.
Here we explore seven widespread assumptions that can lead change leaders astray. By challenging these myths, you can adopt more nuanced, effective approaches that truly support your people and your business.
Assumption 1: A Heatmap or Data Table is a Single View of Change
Heatmaps and data tables have become go-to tools for visualising change across an organisation. At a glance, they promise to show us where the “hotspots” are—those areas experiencing the most change. But is this single view really giving us the full picture?
Why This Assumption is Wrong
1. Not All Change is Disruptive—Some is Positive A heatmap typically highlights areas with high volumes of change, but it doesn’t distinguish between positive and negative impacts. For example, a new digital tool might be seen as a “hotspot” simply because it affects many employees, but if it makes their jobs easier and boosts productivity, the overall experience could be positive. Conversely, a smaller change that disrupts workflows or adds complexity may have a much larger negative impact on a specific group, even if it doesn’t light up the heatmap. Depth of understanding beyond the heatmap is key.
2. The Data May Not Show the Real ‘Heat’ The accuracy of a heatmap depends entirely on the data feeding it. If your ratings are based on high-level, generic ‘traffic-light’ impact assessments, you may miss the nuances of how change is actually experienced by employees. For instance, a heatmap might show a “red zone” in one department based on the number of initiatives, but if those initiatives are well-aligned and support the team’s goals, the actual disruption could be minimal.
3. The Illusion of Completeness A single view of change suggests that you’ve captured every initiative—strategic, operational, and BAU (Business As Usual)—in one neat package. In reality, most organisations struggle to maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date inventory of all changes. BAU initiatives, in particular, often slip under the radar, even though their cumulative impact can be significant. This is not to say that one always needs to aim for 100%. However, labelling this as ‘single view of change’ would then be an exaggeration.
The Takeaway
Heatmaps and data tables are useful starting points, but they’re not the whole story. They provide a high-level snapshot, not a diagnostic tool. Heatmaps should also not be the only visual you use. There are countless other ways to present similar data. To truly understand the impact of multiple changes, you need to go deeper—gathering qualitative insights, focusing on employee experience, and recognising that not all “hotspots” are created equal. Ultimately the data should tell you ‘why’ and ‘how’ to fix it.
Assumption 2: A Change Manager’s H/M/L Rating Equals Business Impact
It’s common practice to summarise the impact of change initiatives using simple High/Medium/Low (H/M/L) ratings. These ratings are easy to communicate and look great in dashboards. But do they really reflect the business impact?
Why This Assumption is Wrong
1. Oversimplification Masks Nuance H/M/L ratings often blend a variety of factors: the effort required from business leads, subject matter experts (SMEs), sponsors, project teams, and change champions. These ratings may not be based solely—or even primarily—on employee or customer impact. For example, a “High” impact rating might reflect the complexity of project delivery rather than the degree of disruption felt by frontline staff.
2. Limited Decision-Making Value A single, combined rating has limited utility for decision-making. If you need to focus specifically on employee impacts, customer experience, or partner relationships, a broad H/M/L assessment won’t help you target your interventions. It becomes a blunt instrument, unable to guide nuanced action.
3. Lack of Granularity for Business Units For business units, three categories (High, Medium, Low) are often too broad to provide meaningful insights. Important differences between types of change, levels of disruption, and readiness for adoption can be lost, resulting in a lack of actionable information.
The Takeaway
Don’t rely solely on H/M/L ratings to understand business impact. Instead, tailor your assessments to the audience and the decision at hand. Use more granular, context-specific measures that reflect the true nature of the change and its impact on different stakeholder groups, where it makes sense.
Assumption 3: Number of Go-Lives Shows Us the Volume of Change
It’s easy to fall into the trap of using Go-Live dates as a proxy for change volume. After all, Go-Live is a clear, measurable milestone, and counting them up seems like a straightforward way to gauge how much change is happening. But this approach is fundamentally flawed.
Why This Assumption is Wrong
1. Not All Go-Lives Are Created Equal Some Go-Lives are highly technical, involving backend system upgrades or infrastructure changes that have little to no visible impact on most employees. Others, even if small in scope, might significantly alter how people work day-to-day. Simply tallying Go-Lives ignores the nature, scale, and felt impact of each change.
2. The Employee Experience Is Not Tied to Go-Live Timing The work required to prepare for and adopt a change often happens well before or after the official Go-Live date. In some projects, readiness activities—training, communications, process redesign—may occur months or even a year ahead of Go-Live. Conversely, true adoption and behaviour change may lag long after the system or process is live. Focusing solely on Go-Live dates misses these critical phases of the change journey.
3. Volume Does Not Equal Impact A month with multiple Go-Lives might be relatively easy for employees if the changes are minor or well-supported. In contrast, a single, complex Go-Live could create a massive disruption. The volume of Go-Lives is a poor indicator of the real workload and adaptation required from your people.
The Takeaway
Don’t equate the number of Go-Lives with the volume or impact of change. Instead, map the full journey of each initiative—readiness, Go-Live, and post-implementation adoption. Focus on the employee experience throughout the lifecycle, not just at the technical milestone.
Assumption 4: We Only Need to Track Strategic Projects
Strategic projects are naturally top of mind for senior leaders and transformation teams. They’re high-profile, resource-intensive, and often linked to key business objectives. But is tracking only these initiatives enough?
Why This Assumption is Wrong
1. Strategic Does Not Always Mean Disruptive While strategic projects are important, they don’t always have the biggest impact on employees’ day-to-day work. Sometimes, operational or BAU (Business As Usual) initiatives—such as process tweaks, compliance updates, or system enhancements—can create more disruption for specific teams.
2. Blind Spots in Change Impact Focusing exclusively on strategic projects creates blind spots. Employees may be grappling with a host of smaller, less visible changes that collectively have a significant impact on morale, productivity, and engagement. If these changes aren’t tracked, leaders may be caught off guard by resistance or fatigue.
3. Data Collection Bias Strategic projects are usually easier to track because they have formal governance, reporting structures, and visibility. BAU initiatives, on the other hand, are often managed locally and may not be captured in central change registers. Ignoring them can lead to an incomplete and misleading picture of overall change impact.
The Takeaway
To truly understand and manage the cumulative impact of change, track both strategic and BAU initiatives. This broader view helps you identify where support is needed most and prevents change overload in pockets of the organisation that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Assumption 5: We Can Just Use One Adoption Survey for All Initiatives
Surveys are a popular tool for measuring change adoption. The idea of using a single, standardised survey across all initiatives is appealing—it saves time, simplifies reporting, and allows for easy comparison. But this approach rarely delivers meaningful insights.
Why This Assumption is Wrong
1. Every Initiative Is Unique Each change initiative has its own objectives, adoption targets, and success metrics. A generic survey cannot capture the specific behaviours, attitudes, or outcomes that matter for each project. If you try to make one survey fit all, you end up with questions so broad that the data becomes meaningless and unhelpful.
2. Timing Matters The right moment to measure adoption varies by initiative. Some changes require immediate feedback post-Go-Live, while others need follow-up months later to assess true behavioural change. Relying on a single survey at a fixed time can miss critical insights about the adoption curve.
3. Depth and Relevance Are Lost A one-size-fits-all survey lacks the depth needed to diagnose issues, reinforce learning, or support targeted interventions. It may also fail to engage employees, who can quickly spot when questions are irrelevant to their experience.
The Takeaway
Customise your adoption measurement for each initiative. Tailor questions to the specific outcomes you want to achieve, and time your surveys to capture meaningful feedback. Consider multiple touchpoints to track adoption over time and reinforce desired behaviours.
Assumption 6: ‘Change Impost’ Understanding Helps the Business
The term “change impost” has crept into the vocabulary of many organisations, often used to describe the perceived burden that change initiatives place on the business. On the surface, it might seem helpful to quantify this “impost” so that leaders can manage or minimise it. However, this framing is fraught with problems.
Why This Assumption is Wrong
1. Negative Framing Fuels Resistance Describing change as an “impost” positions it as something external, unwelcome, and separate from “real” business work. This language reinforces the idea that change is a distraction or a burden, rather than a necessary part of growth and improvement. Stakeholders who hear change discussed in these terms may lead to the reinforcement of negativity towards change versus incorporating change as part of normal business work.
2. It Artificially Separates ‘Change’ from ‘Business’ In reality, change is not an add-on—it is intrinsic to business evolution. By treating change as something apart from normal operations, organisations create a false dichotomy that hinders integration and adoption. This separation can also lead to confusion about responsibilities and priorities, making it harder for teams to see the value in new ways of working.
3. There Are Better Alternatives Instead of “change impost,” consider using terms like “implementation activities,” “engagement activities,” or “business transformation efforts.” These phrases acknowledge the work involved in change but frame it positively, as part of the ongoing journey of business improvement.
The Takeaway
Language matters. Choose terminology that normalises change as part of everyday business, not as an external burden. This shift in mindset can help foster a culture where change is embraced, not endured.
Assumption 7: We Just Need to Avoid High Change Volumes to Manage Capacity
It’s a common belief that the best way to manage organisational capacity is to avoid periods of high change volume—flattening the curve, so to speak. While this sounds logical, the reality is more nuanced.
Why This Assumption is Wrong
1. Sometimes High Volume Is Strategic Depending on your organisation’s transformation goals, there may be times when a surge in change activity is necessary. For example, reaching a critical mass of changes within a short period can create momentum, signal a new direction, or help the organisation pivot quickly. In these cases, temporarily increasing the volume of change is not only acceptable—it’s desirable to reach significant momentum and outcomes.
2. Not All Change Is Equal The type of change matters as much as the quantity. Some changes are minor and easily absorbed, while others are complex and disruptive. Simply counting the number of initiatives or activities does not account for their true impact on capacity.
3. Planned Peaks and ‘Breathers’ Are Essential Rather than striving for a perfectly flat change curve, it’s often more effective to plan for peaks and valleys. After a period of intense change, deliberately building in “breathers” allows the organisation to recover, consolidate gains, and prepare for the next wave. This approach helps maintain organisational energy and reduces the risk of burnout.
The Takeaway
Managing capacity is about more than just avoiding high volumes of change. It requires a strategic approach to pacing, sequencing, and supporting people through both busy and quieter periods.
Practical Recommendations for Change Leaders
Having debunked these common assumptions, what should change management and transformation leaders do instead? Here are some actionable strategies:
1. Use Multiple Lenses to Assess Change
Combine quantitative tools (like heatmaps and data tables) with qualitative insights from employee feedback, focus groups, and direct observation.
Distinguish between positive and negative impacts, and tailor your analysis to specific stakeholder groups.
2. Get Granular with Impact Assessments
Move beyond generic H/M/L ratings. Develop more nuanced scales or categories that reflect the true nature and distribution of impacts.
Segment your analysis by business unit, role, or customer group to uncover hidden hotspots.
3. Map the Full Change Journey
Track readiness activities, Go-Live events, and post-implementation adoption separately.
Recognise that the most significant work—both for employees and leaders—often happens outside the Go-Live window.
4. Track All Relevant Initiatives
Include both strategic and BAU changes in your change portfolio.
Regularly update your inventory to reflect new, ongoing, and completed initiatives.
5. Customise Adoption Measurement
Design adoption surveys and feedback mechanisms for each initiative, aligned to its specific objectives and timing.
Use multiple touchpoints to monitor progress and reinforce desired behaviours.
6. Use Positive, Inclusive Business Language
Frame change as part of business evolution and operations, not an “impost.”
Encourage leaders and teams to see change work as integral to ongoing success.
7. Plan for Peaks and Recovery
Strategically sequence changes to align with business priorities and capacity.
Build in recovery periods after major waves of change to maintain energy and engagement.
Managing multiple changes in a complex organisation is never easy—but it’s made harder by clinging to outdated assumptions. By challenging these myths and adopting a more nuanced, evidence-based approach, change management and transformation leaders can better support their people, deliver real value, and drive sustainable success.
Remember: Effective change management is not about ticking boxes or flattening curves. It’s about understanding the lived experience of change, making informed decisions, and leading with empathy and clarity in a world that never stands still.
At The Change Compass, we’ve incorporated various best practices into our tool to capture change data across the organisation. Chat to us to find out more.
