Managing Change in the Workplace Is Challenging
Change is complex and constant. The reality is, change is continuous. There’s no endpoint to it, no “getting back to normal” — just persistent disruption and perpetual crisis.
It can be difficult for employees to embrace change at work. C-level executives cite the challenge of leading in a dynamic business environment as their top leadership issue, according to our research. Independent research supports this too: Gartner found that employee willingness to support organizational change dropped from 74% in 2016 to 43% in 2022.
Across all industries, and especially within traditional, hierarchical global companies, teams often struggle to innovate and adapt with sufficient speed. Teams may feel they’re constantly told to change processes and practices, only for leadership to keep doing what they always do. Other employees say they’re never given the reasons behind a change, or the skills and resources needed to sustain it.
As a result, “change fatigue” sets in. This leaves employees frustrated, resentful, and deflated — and an organization’s progress stalled.
In the face of perpetual crisis, leaders must adapt, not just react. Explore our guide to Leadership in Disruption to learn how leading with culture, vision, and collective agility helps organizations thrive through complexity.
What Is Change Fatigue? What Are Its Symptoms?
In our research, we define “change fatigue” as a state of exhaustion that occurs when individuals or organizations experience continuous, rapid, or overwhelming changes.
Too much change at work leads to decreased motivation and productivity, and increased resistance to future changes. Common signs of change fatigue include:
- Increased stress and difficulty making decisions
- Feelings of overwhelm or burnout
- Reduced motivation, engagement, and productivity
- Resistance to new changes or initiatives
- Higher absenteeism or turnover rates
How to Recognize the Cost of Change & Reduce Change Fatigue in the Workplace
Each new change in the workplace — reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, emerging technologies, the integration of AI, personnel transitions, new organizational initiatives, and more — requires an investment of time, effort, and energy. All this change is costly — and can add up to change fatigue.
Yet while many organizations focus on managing the operational or structural side of change, they give little attention or effort toward the other half of the change equation: leading the people side of change.
It’s not just the size or scope of any single change that puts people in reactive mode. An employee’s capacity for managing workplace change is tied to the cumulative effect of change over time — and whether they have what they need to face it.
Think of your team as having a bank account. At any point, each team member only has so many resources saved — energy, attention, and interest that can be put toward the current projects and change efforts your organization faces. Handling every change in the workplace, large or small, requires a withdrawal from the account.
The problem comes when employees never have a chance to build their reserves. And when your team’s capacity feels so limited, even the smallest change or challenge will be felt as overwhelming or unnecessary, according to our research.
That’s why it’s important that leaders recognize that all changes, even positive ones, require people to use precious resources to adapt. Understanding the true cost of change in the workplace requires considering its net impact and whether employees have the time, tools, and energy needed to adapt to it.
Tips for Managing Workplace Change & Reducing Change Fatigue
Studies show that 50–70% of planned change efforts fail. How can organizations reduce change fatigue in the workplace and increase the chance of success?
As noted in our white paper, leaders get better results when they recognize the imperative to both lead and manage change. Below are our recommendations to help teams embrace the opportunities of workplace change and handle the challenges of constant disruption.
1. Be an agent for “change energy.”
Becoming a successful change leader requires helping employees recalibrate their expectations and evolve mindsets about what’s needed to survive and thrive amid constant change.
Rather than simply focusing on managing change fatigue — and even worse, change exhaustion — help teams develop change energy and improve learning agility. The ability to be innovative and flexible is directly linked to the ability to seek new opportunities and embrace change.
With the right leadership, this can be an exciting and galvanizing message for your workforce. Generating excitement around new initiatives and creating a learning culture helps organizations and their employees ditch change fatigue and embrace continual disruption and innovation.
2. Consider your employees’ change history.
Employee attitudes about any given change are tied to their capacity for change, not just whether a change is inherently “good” or “bad.” As you prioritize and plan change initiatives, consider how many changes have occurred within your team and the cumulative demands these changes might have placed on employees. Have those changes been positive, neutral, or negative?
The effort required to handle workplace change and adapt can be offset when employees feel they have the resources to address it. They may even gain a beneficial boost from the change if it replenishes that resource bank.
3. Recognize how change in the workplace is both a beginning and an end.
It helps when leaders understand that change isn’t a problem to solve, but a polarity to manage. By seeking the sweet spot of both / and, they can present change in a way that acknowledges there’s still some value in “the old,” as well as opportunities to be gleaned from “the new.”
By asking their teams the question of “What do we need to hold on to?” and then listening closely to the responses, managers can help satisfy the fears and concerns that a new initiative is an unnecessary replacement for something that people committed time and energy to or was previously embraced as a best practice.
4. Build psychological safety into your culture.
When change is happening within an organization, it’s especially critical that people believe they can speak up, share concerns, or make mistakes without fear of embarrassment, rejection, or punishment.
Creating psychological safety at work is critical for candid conversations to happen about employees’ feelings, successes, and failures amid organizational change — providing opportunities to learn and grow. When leaders offer time and space to help people understand and adjust to changes, it allows them to move ahead more easily to what’s next.
5. Take care of yourself and others.
To combat change fatigue, leaders need to build their own reserves for mental and physical health — and help others do the same. Teach employees evidence-based techniques for managing stress, building resilience, and deploying coping skills in the face of high demands.
Resiliency helps people handle the pressure, uncertainty, and setbacks that are part of the change process. This is increasingly important as people experience the cumulative effects of ongoing and often turbulent change.
Leading a Resilient Workforce With the Capacity for Change
Change can be costly, but so is failing to change. Wise investments can make the difference between a demoralized, struggling group of employees and an engaged, effective workforce. Choose your workplace changes carefully and factor employees’ reality into decisions.
When your leaders understand and balance the change equation — leading the people side of change along with managing the operational side of it — it builds a more resilient organization with employees who can handle workplace change and overcome change fatigue.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Do your teams react to change, rather than proactively lead it? Enable them to go beyond change management and become change leaders who can overcome change fatigue and build greater change resilience. Partner with us to create a customized learning journey for your leaders using our research-based modules. Available leadership topics include Innovation Leadership, Leading Through Change, Managing Paradox & Polarity, Psychological Safety, Resilience-Building, and more.
