Why Isn’t My Team Ready for This Change?
This quarter’s focus is Change.
One of the hardest things for leaders to remember during any change is that we often get a head start.
Before any major change is announced, leaders have likely spent weeks or months discussing the problem, weighing options, imagining future state, and crafting their messaging.
Then the announcement happens.
Leadership is excited and ready to create momentum to the new thing. And too often they feel disappointed by a lack of esprit de corps as everyone else hears the news for the first time.
This gap reveals the fact that leadership have already navigated the psychological and emotional aspects of the change.
Picture a starting line at a marathon.
The runners are staged into starting blocks, with the world-class runners in the first block, and the first-timers in the last block.
The staring gun fires and the first block is out to what most of us would call a sprint, the hobbyists in the last group are so far back, consumed with lacing their shoes, they might not even have heard the sound.
It's not uncommon for block one to have crossed the finish line before the last runners have started their race.
Organizational change follows the same pattern and William Bridges aptly describes this as the Marathon Effect.
The Marathon Effect
Think about a leadership team introducing a new ERP.
They've spent months discussing it. They've challenged assumptions, worked through concerns, changed their minds, and eventually reached agreement.
By the time they share it with the organization, the strategy feels clear.
Then someone asks a question that was settled three months ago or raises a concern the leadership team has already discussed ten times.
It feels like resistance.
But they haven't had those ten conversations.
We can't expect people to arrive at the same place without giving them some of the same journey.
That means a New Beginning requires more than announcing what's next, however carefully worded.
It requires reinforcement.
Help the Beginning Take Hold
Bridges identifies four ways leaders can reinforce a New Beginning: consistency, quick successes, symbols, and celebration.
Be Consistent
People are watching for evidence that the change is real.
Do our decisions match what we said?
Are leaders modeling the new behavior?
Do our priorities, processes, and rewards reinforce it?
Or do we say we want collaboration while continuing to reward individual heroics?
Mixed signals make it easy to retreat to what was familiar.
What leaders consistently reinforce becomes more believable than what they announce.
Create Quick Wins
Transitions shake confidence.
People who were competent in the old way suddenly feel like beginners again.
At this stage it's crucial to reinforce the two core factors of motivation: progress and purpose.
And leadership is uniquely positioned to help rebuild confidence by finding wins.
To reinforce a sense of growth, the wins don't have to be enormous.
1. Find something achievable.
2. Make progress visible.
3. Let people experience success in the new way.
Small wins provide evidence that we're moving in the right direction.
Symbolize the Change
Communication isn't limited to an email or a town hall.
Symbols matter too.
A changed meeting rhythm. A retired report. A new workspace. A different recognition practice. Even deliberately stopping an old ritual can communicate:
We really are doing this differently now.
Bridges encourages leaders to look for tangible ways to represent the new identity that is emerging.
Ask yourself:
What still symbolizes the old way, and what could symbolize the new one?
Celebrate
Finally, don't let the transition simply fade into business as usual.
Mark the progress.
Thank the people who helped make it possible.
Tell the stories of what changed.
Celebrate what the team endured, learned, and accomplished.
Bridges makes an interesting parallel here: just as we need to acknowledge endings at the beginning of a transition, we need to mark the arrival of the new beginning at the other end.
Celebration isn't just a reward.
It tells people: we made it somewhere together.
This Month's Leadership Tip
Think about a change your team is navigating right now.
Before asking whether everyone is "on board," ask:
Where am I in the marathon—and where are they?
Then look for one way to reinforce the New Beginning:
Be consistent. Make sure your actions match the message.
Create a quick win. Give people evidence that the new way can work.
Symbolize it. Make the change visible in something tangible.
Celebrate it. Recognize progress before everyone races toward the next thing.
Leaders usually get a head start on change.
Don't mistake your finish line for everyone else's.
And when people do begin to arrive, don't just move on.
Help them see how far they've come.
Small shift. Big impact.
