Change Management Practices

Struggling teams don't need another framework. They need a leader. I've taken over bad teams filled with good people. I learned to embrace three themes for a successful reset: ✅ Change requires honoring the past and building the future ✅ Trust is rebuilt through actions, not just words ✅ Culture lives in daily micro-decisions Here are the 8 lessons that make it work: 1/ Honor the Past ↳ Don't play the blame game ↳ Value those who stayed through hard times 2/ Name What Stops Here ↳ Be specific about what changes ↳ Get them to help rewrite the new rules 3/ Own Your Role ↳ Acknowledge where you fell short ↳ Build trust through self-accountability 4/ Reset the Target ↳ Paint a clear 6-month vision ↳ Define what excellence looks like 5/ Define Winning Behaviors ↳ Skip empty corporate speak ↳ Make expectations crystal clear 6/ Create New Rituals ↳ Build sacred team habits ↳ Engineer connection, especially remote 7/ Embrace Iterations ↳ Progress isn't linear ↳ Celebrate small wins, learn from setbacks 8/ Rebuild Trust Daily ↳ Start from trust at zero ↳ Do what you say you'll do 9/ Catch Them Winning ↳ Be specific about what you see ↳ What gets recognized gets repeated Want more detail?  Flip through the full playbook below. Remember:  Your team likely knows the path forward. They're just waiting for you to walk it first. If this was helpful: 📌 Please follow Dave Kline for more ♻️ Share to help other leaders turn things around.

If you are a leader or practitioner of #diversity, #equity, or #inclusion, do you facilitate activities, or do you create impact? They're not the same thing. In conversation after conversation I've had with DEI teams in the last few months, a common theme is anxiety in the face of change. The language they've spent years using is being forced to change. The activities they've made into their bread and butter are being suspended or forced to adapt. Newer or less mature DEI teams tend to see their activities and their impact as one and the same. They reason that, if they provide event programming and support employee networks, their impact on the organization must be "event programming existing" and "employee networks feeling supported." In the face of change, they grieve not only the loss of the status quo, but the perceived loss of all impact they could make. More established or mature DEI teams see their activities as a means to achieve their desired impact. They're able to identify problems in the organization that need solving and develop activities that best utilize their resources to solve these problems. They reason that, because the organization fails to adequately create belonging for all of its employees due to inconsistent manager support and a company culture that doesn't value people, they can solve the problem by increasing managerial consistency and creating a more people-centric culture. In the face of change, they grieve the loss of their activities—but can quickly pivot to new ones that achieve the same goals. We can learn a lot from these teams. If you want to sustain your impact even through disruptions to your team's typical operations, you can start by doing the following: 🎯 Define the problem you're working to solve, in context. Data, both qualitative and quantitative, ensures that you can identify the biggest gaps in your organization's commitment to its values, understand what areas DON'T need fixing so you can conserve your effort, and can start strategizing about how to solve root causes. 🎯 Pull out the biggest contributors to unfairness and exclusion. It's one thing if a manager in Sales communicates disrespectfully. It's another thing altogether if the culture of the entire Sales team glorifies disrespect. Understanding the scale of the issues we face can help us prioritize solving the biggest issues affecting everyone, rather than chasing symptoms. 🎯 Design interventions, not activities. Too many practitioners create an initiative because that's what they've been asked to do. Think of them instead as interventions: carefully-designed attempts to shift the status quo from Point A to a more inclusive, more fair Point B, by solving real problems that hold your organization back. The more we shift our work toward real impact, the more effective we'll be—regardless of the sociopolitical climate, regardless of backlash. Let's hone our focus.

I was invited to speak to the Chief Sustainability Officer group at the World Economic Forum during climate Week. I urged us all to take control of the narrative. Here is a summary... Let’s shift the narrative. As sustainability leaders… Let’s not talk about decarbonization as emissions. Let’s talk about it as innovation that drives: ·    energy cost savings, ·    avoidance of energy pricing volatility ·    avoidance of carbon fees ·    reduced maintenance ·    increased productivity ·    sales lift Let’s not talk about tons of waste diverted from landfill and reused, let’s talk about it as innovation that reduces: ·    virgin input costs ·    waste disposal costs ·    exposure to geopolitical risk in supply chains ·    exposure to tariffs (e.g. Renault is putting 45% of used car components into new cars) Our research into the Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI) shows that sustainability is just good management.   The methodology (developed with companies) has found nine value drivers associated with sustainability, including operational efficiency, risk reduction, employee retention and productivity, sales and marketing, and and innovation and growth. For example, innovation is about identifying a problem or an opportunity. It can be focused on process, product or service. It can be incremental or transformative. From a sustainability perspective, innovations fall into two broad buckets:  ·    innovating sustainability improvements in an industry or a category ·    innovating with a process, product or service that is needed by society. The first approach requires understanding the material ESG issues for the sector and designing solutions that tackle that issue, while also improving the underlying value proposition - -which sustainability can do. The second approach is tougher, but has more potential to go big: Innovating to solve broad societal problems such as water scarcity, plastic packaging pollution and health impacts, tackling the carbon transition, social inequity and so on. Here we might look at innovation such as 3D printing (e.g. on demand) using recycled inputs – tires, dresses, construction materials etc. We might look at bio-based plastic made from air and methane-based greenhouse gas dissolved in saltwater, recyclable through biological digestion. We might look at how to give immigrants and others with no credit history access to credit through tracking ontime rental payments. So as you work with your companies, help them understand that managing the material ESG issues for their sector and company is not a reporting and compliance exercise. It is a good management exercise that can drive everything from operational efficiency to sales and customer loyalty to innovation that will help the bottomline. Put in place methods such as ROSI with your finance team or ESG controller to track the financial benefits so you can get sustainability to the speed and scale you and the planet want and need. 

🌱 Sustainable UX Toolkits & Resources (https://lnkd.in/eT6ZR3qz), a large (!) repository of toolkits, Figma templates, books, case studies, articles on sustainable UX — throughout the entire product design process. Kindly put together by the SUX - The Sustainable UX Network, via Thorsten Jonas. Sustainable UX Database (Notion) https://lnkd.in/eyZjigBx As designers, we often are left wondering how to integrate sustainable practices into our design work. Most environmental impact happens on our user’s devices, so we can help our users by reducing waste. Typically, when we speak about sustainability, we mean at least 4 facets of it: 🌱 Reducing waste ← In publishing, heavy visuals, animation, PDFs, 🌻 Deleting content ← Un-publishing outdated, misleading content/flows, 🐝 Maximize reusability ← UI components, flows, processes, templates, 🌳 Sustainable defaults ← Help people make more sustainable choices. In practice, we could use simple but impactful design patterns: 1. Always prefer the lightest mode of communication. 2. Aim to reduce session duration instead of increasing it. 3. Encourage the reuse of existing templates and presets. 4. Auto-delete after 365 days what hasn’t been used once. 5. Discourage users from PDF exports in favor of URLs. 6. Always provide audio-only and transcript for videos. 7. Be intentional with default settings for your users. 8. Highlight key insights to create understanding faster. 9. Skip unnecessary pages: drive users to results faster. 10. Show filters/presets in autocomplete, not just keywords. 11. Nudge users to delete old files for 10% off that month. 12. Establish an archiving, deletion and clean-up policies. 13. Encourage and reward users for trying out dark mode. 14. Question font weights, stock photos, parallax, 4K-videos. 15. Question collected data, if it’s used and when it’s deleted. Individual actions can drive changes at scale. But they need a momentum. And momentum often comes through small changes: better defaults, reused filters and templates, reduced time on task. That’s also just good usability — and can have tangible impact for users and businesses at scale. Useful resources: Sustainable UX Toolkits, by yours truly https://lnkd.in/ePya82v3 Designing For Planet Knowledge Hub (Notion) https://lnkd.in/eiHtpkJH Product Design for Sustainability (+ Google Doc template), by Artiom Dashinsky ↳ https://lnkd.in/dDnujb-t ↳ https://lnkd.in/d95FWb4r *HUGE* thanks to Thorsten Jonas, Isabel Pettinato, Christoph Stark, Alice M., Bavo Lodewyckx, Poppe G., Stine Ramsing and all wonderful contributors to the project. Your effort doesn’t go unnoticed! 👏🏼👏🏽👏🏾 #ux #design

1.8 MILLION families. 0 synthetic chemicals. 1 massive global victory. This isn't a pilot project or a niche trial. It is the largest agroecological transformation on earth, and it just won the world’s biggest environmental prize. 🌍🏆 This isn't just a win for India; it’s exactly how we need to scale global climate resilience. On June 2, 2026, the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF) initiative was awarded the prestigious $1.5 Million Food Planet Prize in Sweden. Over 1.8 million farming families have completely ditched synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides, proving that mass-scale agroecology isn’t just a pipeline dream - it’s our current reality. Going "chemical-free" is a massive win across the entire ecological spectrum: 🌱 1. Soil Health & Carbon Sequestration - Synthetic fertilizers strip the soil of its organic matter, essentially turning it into dirt. By returning to natural farming, these farmers are RESTORING the soil microbiome. Healthy, living soil acts as a massive carbon sink, pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and locking it safely underground. 💧 2. Water Conservation & Purity - Chemical farming requires heavy irrigation and leads to toxic runoff that poisons local groundwater and creates marine "dead zones." APCNF’s methods dramatically increase the soil's water-retention capacity, conserving precious water resources and keeping local water tables clean. 🦋 3. Biodiversity & Animal Life - Pesticides don't just kill pests; they decimate crucial pollinators, birds, and soil organisms. Transitioning to natural farming brings LIFE back to the fields. From earthworms to birds and local wildlife, the ecosystem is allowed to heal, protecting biodiversity from the ground up. 📉 4. Mitigating Climate Change - The chemical fertilizer industry is a massive emitter of greenhouse gases - particularly nitrous oxide (N2O), which is nearly 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere. Eliminating these chemicals hits global warming exactly where it hurts. This ground-up, community-led movement is proof that sustainable agriculture doesn't mean lower yields or lost livelihoods. It means a healthier planet, safer food, and a resilient future. Kudos to the millions of farmers leading the charge! 🇮🇳✨ #Sustainability #Agroecology #ClimateAction #FoodPlanetPrize #RegenerativeAgriculture #GreenInnovation #AndhraPradesh #TheBetterHuman Image by Localize Farmers Market

Most leadership advice sounds the same: “Communicate better, empower your team, build trust.” Useful? Sure. But when you’re leading under pressure, those basics don’t solve the real friction. In my executive coaching sessions,I see leaders run into deeper traps, the ones that quietly erode influence, even when you think you’re “doing everything right.” Here are the 7  shifts that I’ve seen actually reset momentum in senior teams: → Audit invisible blockers: It’s rarely about motivation, it’s about hidden friction in process, clarity, or priorities. Diagnose before you prescribe. → Shift from goals to guardrails: Don’t just set outcomes, define what “not acceptable” looks like so your team knows their freedom boundaries. → Model vulnerability loops: Share what you’re learning in real time. It signals safety for your team to take smart risks. → Re-contract expectations: Don’t assume alignment, reset roles, priorities, and success measures every quarter. → Elevate second-line leaders: Your influence is capped unless you actively coach the people your team looks up to. → Anchor change with micro-stories: Instead of long memos, share 90-second stories that reinforce values in action. → Measure energy, not just output: Notice who’s leaning in during critical discussions, who’s disengaged, and why  those signals often predict performance dips before metrics do. I once worked with a COO who simply “re-contracted” expectations with their leadership team mid-quarter. That small move stopped a major project from drifting off course not because people weren’t working, but because alignment had quietly slipped. Of course, context matters, market shifts, resources, and timing all play their part. But when leaders apply these shifts, I’ve consistently seen teams regain momentum, rebuild trust, and re-ignite execution even under pressure. These aren’t theories, they’re practical tools Save this for your next leadership challenge. And tell me, what’s the hardest leadership shift you’ve had to make? #LeadershipUnderPressure #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadWithImpact #TeamAlignment #LeadershipShift

Not a lot of businesses are recognizing the power of Change Management as a vehicle for enhancing customer experience efforts. Here's how to unlock the power of change management principles in the context of CX. 🎯 Understanding Customer Needs Before initiating any change, you must have a deep understanding of what your customers really want. Utilize data analytics, behavioral data, operational and financial data, customer interviews, surveys, market dynamics, competitive information, and other signals to assess and understand needs. 🤝 Aligning Objectives Leadership Alignment: Ensure that your leadership is onboard and committed to customer experience improvement. Stakeholder Involvement: Involve the frontline employees who interact with customers daily to contribute to the decision-making process. 🗓️ Planning Identify Key Changes: Prioritize which areas require change based on customer feedback and business metrics. Set Targets: Establish measurable KPIs to gauge the success of the changes you plan to implement. These should be business- and customer-driven metrics. Don't make this a metric like "increase OSAT from X to Y." 📣 Communication Internal Communication: Clearly communicate the why and the how to all internal stakeholders. This should include executives, directly impacted employees, and the broader line of business. Tailor it to the stakeholder. Customer Communication: Be transparent with customers about what changes to expect and how they will benefit. Keep them up to date on progress. 🛠️ Implementation Pilot Testing: Conduct a small-scale test of the changes to assess their effectiveness. Feedback Loop: Gather continuous feedback from customers and employees throughout the implementation process. 📊 Evaluation and Adaptation Assess Impact: Examine metrics regularly to determine whether the changes are having the intended impact. Iterate: Use data-driven insights to make necessary adjustments. 🚀 Sustaining Changes Training: Continuously train your team to adapt to new changes. Feedback Mechanisms: Keep the dialogue open with customers and employees for sustainable improvements. 👩💻 Leveraging Technology 👨💻 Data Analytics: Use analytics to pinpoint improvement areas. Communication Platforms: Use tools like Slack or Teams for internal communication. Automation: Implement bots for routine tasks. CRM Systems: Manage customer relationships digitally to gain insights. 💡 Involve Employees Effectively Employees are the face of your customer service. Include them in planning, provide training opportunities, establish regular feedback forums, and reward those who contribute to customer experience improvements. Have you applied change management principles to enhance the customer experience in your organization? What worked for you? What didn't work for you? #ChangeManagement #CustomerExperience #Leadership #DataAnalytics #EmployeeEngagement #Technology

DEI isn't the first movement to be stalled by closed doors. The wisdom of social movements points to survival strategies in times like these, when the opportunity structures that provide resources and supports are closed. Leveraging expertise about #DEI, #leadership, #socialmovements, we collaborated to offer four strategies to sustain the work. 1️⃣ Sustain networks of people engaged in DEI work, in brave spaces, DEI gatherings, and Town Halls. 2️⃣ Preserve the collective memory; we learned the tactics to create more inclusive and diverse workspaces such as bias mitigation and team norming. Keep this work going. #ERGs are allies in this work. 3️⃣ Reframe and rename the work for survival. Don't be disheartened if the nomenclature evolves; the work remains the same. Remember "climate justice" used to be called "nature conservation." 4️⃣ Nurture the collective identity within the DEI community. Don't be apologetic about supporting the "choir"--they are the ones doing the work when the winds are against us. Loved this collaboration with CDOs from the Stanford VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab's Corporate Program and my co-authors Sarah Soule, Shelley J. Correll, and Melissa C. Thomas-Hunt. And leveraging great scholarship, including Alison Crossley's work on feminists.

Turning Organizational change into Innovation opportunities Did you know? According to a McKinsey study, 70% of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support. Recently, I organized an innovation session at Siemens Gamesa during a time of organizational change. It's natural for employees to feel anxious about their roles and futures when shifts occur. But I saw this as a perfect opportunity to develop a growth mindset and spark innovation. We focused on design thinking and changing perspectives. Instead of dwelling on uncertainties, we channeled energy into generating new ideas and business cases. We explored collaboration opportunities across reshuffled teams and leveraged our institutional knowledge to identify overlooked improvement areas. As John F. Kennedy once said, "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." The results were inspiring. The team emerged with a wealth of innovative ideas, some already slated for implementation. This not only boosted morale but reinforced the power of adopting change with creativity. Remember, organizational change can be a catalyst for innovation. By focusing on what we can control, thinking differently and seeing possibilities where others see obstacles, we can turn uncertainty into opportunity. If your company is navigating change, I'd love to hear about your experiences. Let's connect and explore how we can turn change into growth! #OrganizationalChange #Innovation #GrowthMindset #LeadershipDevelopment

As we continue to fly through the summer, let’s talk about the “how” behind leading an organization through radical #transformation.   As you may have read by now, we co-hosted a Charter roundtable in May, focused on managing radical transformation. Here the room full of HR leaders and workplace futurists agreed we must embrace the status quo of change in business. I wrote about this as well as the “Three A’s” (#Anxiety, #Adaptability and #Attitude). While we can’t force employees through change, the “Three A’s” can help us allow employees to flourish through transformation.   But these are high level concepts. In today’s third and last post about the Charter Roundtable, I want to discuss building a workplace that is both “safe and sparkly” – full of confidence, purpose, and joy. To me, this is the essence of what it takes to sustain a joyful, winning team (I love sports metaphors!) and it is top of mind for me as I help usher PMI U.S. through radical transformation:   1.     Clarity: Every player on the field needs to know their role. We need to detail the “what” and the “why” behind daily responsibilities and highlight how it connects back to the organization's overarching mission. Transparency and clarity eliminates a lot of the anxiety that arises in uncertainty and change.   2.     Support: Every player on the field needs to know their teammates have their backs. Employees need a strong people management system that supports them in their role – they should know who to talk to when they have a question and have direct access to the resources they need to succeed.   3.     Acknowledgement: Every player needs to celebrate the success of their teammates. Great coaches often teach players, when they score, to immediately point to the player who created the scoring opportunity. So too is it important to pause and celebrate the successes of others.   4.     Learning: Every player on the field needs to demonstrate real-time, in-the-moment learning, which is adapting to circumstance and the play at hand. Leaders need to invest in coaching and training. A culture of learning and growing must come to the forefront, preparing employees with both soft (e.g., resilience, stress management) and hard (e.g., AI/new technology) skills they need to navigate change and transformation.   5.     Purpose: Every player on the field needs to BELIEVE in the mission, know the stakes, and understand the rules of the game. There needs to be top-down alignment to the organization’s values. Leaders and peers must visibly act in accordance with the norms and expectations outlined in change and, if they aren’t, the organization must act to ensure consistency.   As employers, we must strive to create an environment where employees feel excited and safe to come to work, committed to each other, believing in a common purpose, and stretched by learning. This is how to create a workplace that is not only resilient to change, but that actually thrives in change.