What Clients Say vs. What Really Happens: The Hard Truths of Organizational Change
"We don't need change management. It'll just slow us down."
And then the project took twice as long.
As a change management consultant, I've heard this echo across conference room tables and video calls. It's natural to believe change management is time-consuming and arduous.
In reality, using change management helps you get to the finish line faster. By using a proven change management strategy, you'll bypass the meanderings and disjointedness of complex projects and streamline your efforts to move stakeholders toward adoption more efficiently, without leaving anyone behind.
Behind each casual dismissal of change management lies a fundamental misunderstanding about how humans respond to organizational shifts.
Here are five things I've heard clients say when change is on the horizon—and what experience has taught me is actually true.
1. "People won't have a choice but to use the new system (or process, etc.) because the old one is going away."
Truth: If change isn't managed well, people will resist, find workarounds, rally their colleagues to join them in the fight against it, ignore you completely, or quit. Mandating change without support creates resentment, not compliance. The cost of this resistance is measured in lost productivity, decreased morale, and ultimately, failed implementations.
2. "We're not worried about it. It's not that much change."
Truth: People at the top making decisions downplay change because they may be uncomfortable with it themselves, they fear the project will be derailed if they engage those impacted, or they're simply out of touch with the people in their organization. What seems minor to leadership often represents significant disruption to frontline employees' daily work.
3. "Our people are smart and resilient. They'll figure it out."
Truth: Being smart is immaterial. Even resilience isn't an infinite resource—it's cultivated and maintained. Your people may indeed be resilient, but they're also likely facing change fatigue from initiatives happening simultaneously. Assuming they'll "figure it out" places an unfair cognitive and emotional burden on your team. Without proper support, even the most adaptable employees reach their breaking point, leading to burnout, mistakes, and disengagement.
4. "We'll just send an email when we're ready to launch."
Truth: Communication isn't a one-time event; it's an ongoing dialogue. That single email will be lost in already overflowing inboxes or dismissed as irrelevant without context. Effective change requires a communication strategy that addresses the what, why, and how through multiple channels, with opportunities for questions and feedback. People need to hear messages 5-7 times before they truly internalize them.
5. "The ROI on change management is hard to quantify, so we'll skip it."
Truth: The cost of neglecting change management is starkly quantifiable: Prosci research shows projects with excellent change management are six times more likely to meet objectives than those with poor change management. The real ROI question should be: Can you afford the risk of implementation failure, rework, productivity dips, employee turnover, and damaged customer experiences that come from poorly managed change?
The Heart of Change Management
At its core, change management isn't about managing spreadsheets or systems—It's about guiding people through unfamiliar territory with empathy and clarity. It recognizes that organizational change is fundamentally human change.
Effective change management creates psychological safety by acknowledging concerns rather than dismissing them. It provides clear paths forward when uncertainty looms. It transforms resistance from a barrier into valuable feedback that strengthens implementation.
The most successful change initiatives I've witnessed share common elements: aligned leadership that models the desired behaviors, employees who feel genuinely heard, transparent communication about both benefits and challenges, thorough training and support systems, and celebration of early wins to build momentum.
Change management isn't an optional luxury or bureaucratic exercise—it's the bridge between your strategy and its successful execution. When we respect the human side of change, we don't just implement new processes or technologies; we transform organizational culture in ways that endure long after the project ends.
As you approach your next big initiative, remember that resistance to change isn't a character flaw in your team—it's a natural human response to uncertainty.
Your people aren't obstacles to be overcome; they're the very reason your organization exists and the key to its future success.
By investing in thoughtful change management, you're not just increasing your chances of implementation success—you're demonstrating that you value your people enough to support them through transition. And that might be the most important return on investment of all.