Think about the last big change at your workplace: a new strategy, a new software system, a merger, a new boss. Chances are leadership spent months deciding, then announced it, and you were expected to make it work on top of everything you were already doing.
If it fell short, you are in good company. Fewer than a third of new strategies, technology rollouts, and mergers ever reach the finish line.
The postmortem almost always blames the plan. But after more than twenty-five years helping hospitals, law firms, nonprofits, and fast-growing companies through change, I have come to a different conclusion. The plans are usually fine. What fails is the step almost everyone skips: getting the people who have to carry out the change ready for it.
Change Starts in the Middle
By the time a change is announced, it has usually been in the works for months. Executives have had time to absorb it and make peace with it. Everyone else hears about it cold, in the middle of a workday, with no say in the matter.
People react the way anyone reacts to a surprise they did not choose. Some dig in and resist. Some quietly check out. Some freeze. Some go along on the surface while keeping their real opinions to themselves. None of these is a character flaw. They are what the human brain does when something big and unknown lands without warning.
Organizations treat these reactions as obstacles to manage rather than information to use. Standard change management arrives after the decision and focuses on messaging, timelines, and metrics. It never asks the people doing the work whether they are ready. So the employees who could have made the change succeed become the reason it stalls.
Three Questions to Ask Before You Launch
Readiness comes down to three questions leaders rarely ask and employees rarely get to answer. Ask them before launch and you change the odds dramatically.
1. Do You Understand What is Actually Changing?
Companies describe change in vague language: “strategic partnership,” “digital transformation,” “hybrid,” “AI.” Everyone assumes they share a definition. They do not. I worked with a law firm whose hybrid policy was quietly failing because partners, associates, and staff each meant something different by “hybrid,” and there was never a day when a full team was in the office together. Once they wrote down their definitions, the fix was easy. Tip: write out the change in your organization’s exact words, underline every buzzword, and ask three colleagues to define each one. Compare answers.
2. Do You Have What You Need to Do It?
Take an honest inventory of skills, tools, time, and support. In one hospital I worked with, nurses kept using paper after an electronic records rollout because nobody had given them time to learn the system while caring for patients. The tool was fine. The readiness was not. Tip: before any launch, ask every team to name the one resource they would need to succeed. Protected learning time is the most common answer, and the most commonly ignored.
3. What Do You Need, and What Will You Commit to?
This question turns employees from victims of change into partners in it. Needs are what you require from leadership: a realistic timeline, technical support, clarity about pay or roles. Commitments are what you will do in return: give the change a fair shot, offer honest feedback, stay out of the rumor mill. When a small college I advised was being absorbed by a much larger university on a ninety-day timeline, the HR team that felt steamrolled wrote out exactly what they needed and what they would commit to, and presented it to leadership with data instead of complaints. The timeline moved. Tip: have each person write their needs and commitments on paper, then combine them into one team list and bring it to whoever is driving the change.
What Leaders Can Do Differently
If you are the one announcing a change, build these questions into the process rather than bolting them on afterward. Make it safe to say “this will not work on the ground,” because the people closest to the work know things you do not. Treat pushback on a timeline as a realistic read on complexity, not resistance. And when employees tell you what they need, respond. How seriously you take those requests tells people how seriously you take them.
If you are not in charge, you can still start. Anyone at any level can ask these questions of their team, write down the answers, and bring them to leadership. In my experience, managers are almost always relieved when someone does.
The Step That Pays for Itself
Change will keep coming, faster than ever. Companies are adopting artificial intelligence more quickly than any technology in history, hospitals and colleges are merging to survive, and leaders turn over and teams reset. None of that is within your control. Whether the people living through those changes are ready for them is. An honest conversation before launch costs an hour. A failed rollout costs months, money, and the trust of the people you need most. Ask the three questions first. The plan will take care of itself.
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