Let’s be honest – most organisations are dreadful at change. They roll out grand strategies, introduce flashy new systems, and expect everyone to magically fall in line. And then? It flops. Again. And again. Change isn’t about slick PowerPoint slides or endless leadership briefings. It’s about people. If you don’t get them on board, your big transformation is dead before it even gets going.

People don’t resist change. They resist uncertainty, pointless upheaval, and half-baked initiatives dictated from the top with no regard for their day-to-day reality. Leaders love to ask why their people won’t get on board, but the real question is: why should they? If they’re not given a reason to care, it’s no wonder they roll their eyes and carry on as they always have.

A solid strategy needs to be clear, direct, and – above all – relevant. No one wants to sit through another jargon-laden town hall where leadership drones on about ‘synergies’ and ‘leveraging capabilities.’ If the leadership team isn’t aligned on the change, don’t expect anyone else to take it seriously. Employees can sense inconsistency a mile off. If the senior team isn’t living and breathing the change, the message is clear: it doesn’t really matter.

The real enemy of change isn’t the people – it’s the clunky, outdated processes they’re forced to work with. Teams aren’t resisting the idea of change; they’re resisting the fact that it makes their jobs harder instead of easier. Slapping new tech or workflows onto a broken system and hoping for a miracle is a waste of time. It’s like sticking a ‘bumper’ on an old banger and expecting it to perform like a Formula One car. Before forcing change down people’s throats, fix the bottlenecks and streamline the systems.

Then there’s communication – possibly the most underestimated aspect of change. People don’t want corporate-speak or vague promises of ‘exciting opportunities.’ They want honesty. They want clarity. And, more than anything, they want leaders who inspire, not dictate. If organisations want people to truly engage, they need to drop the script, speak in plain English, and actually listen. Change cannot happen to people – it has to happen with them.

I worked with a company that had an absolutely cracking new strategy. On paper, it was everything they needed. In reality? A complete disaster. Employees dismissed it as just another ‘flavour of the month.’ The problem wasn’t the strategy – it was trust. No one had included them in the process, so they didn’t believe in it. We turned things around by getting leaders to have real conversations, stripping away the fluff and getting to the heart of people’s concerns. We tackled the hidden barriers – the small frustrations and outdated processes that had been ignored for too long. We created space for teams to take ownership of the change, rather than having it dictated to them.

And suddenly, that ‘flavour of the month’ attitude disappeared. People actually wanted to make it work.

The pace of change isn’t slowing down. AI, hybrid work, economic uncertainty – organisations are being forced to adapt faster than ever. But too many are still stumbling through change like it’s the early 2000s. Change is a team sport, and the leaders who grasp this – who build trust, communicate clearly and honestly, and involve their people in the process – will be the ones who succeed. The ones who keep forcing change onto people without buy-in? They’ll continue to fail.

So let’s stop screwing up change. Get the strategy right, fix the processes, treat people like they matter, and communicate like a human being. Do that, and maybe- just maybe – this time, the change will stick.