How Public Sector Leaders Can Sustain Momentum Through Complexity.

Public sector leaders aren’t imagining it: the pace of change has accelerated. And the stacking of change is what’s wearing people down.

A new policy direction arrives before the last one is fully implemented. A process redesign collides with an audit cycle. A technology rollout launches while teams are still learning the previous system. In government, change rarely comes one initiative at a time. It comes in layers — policy, process, technology, funding, stakeholder expectations – and often your staff has limited capacity to absorb the cumulative impact.

That cumulative impact has a name: change fatigue. And if directors don’t address it directly, it quietly turns into resistance, disengagement, delays, and attrition — exactly when the mission can least afford it.

What Change Fatigue Looks Like in Government Teams

Change fatigue isn’t simply “people don’t like change.” It’s a capacity issue. Even highly committed public servants can hit a saturation point when they’re navigating constant shifts without time to stabilize.

You’ll see it as:

• Passive resistance which sounds like “We’ll wait this out”
• Workarounds and shadow processes because the new way doesn’t feel safe or clear yet
• Decision paralysis due to too many moving parts and unclear priorities
• Emotional flattening which shows up as less initiative, creativity, and discretionary effort
• Increased friction between teams, especially when changes cut across departments

In many government environments, fatigue is intensified by two realities leaders can’t ignore:

The work is mission-critical and public-facing. Mistakes can have real consequences for communities.

Teams often operate under constraints. Limited staffing, fixed timelines, compliance requirements, and competing mandates leave little slack for learning and adaptation.

Why Continuous Change Drains Capacity

Even if the public sector change is a good one, there are three common drivers of fatigue:

• Too many priorities; not enough focus. When everything is urgent, people stop believing any of it is important.
• Insufficient “meaning-making.” If leaders communicate the what without the why and why now, teams fill in the gaps, often with worst-case assumptions. By the way, negativity bias is real; during uncertainty, people default to threat-focused interpretations.
• Lack of stabilization time. Change requires learning. Learning requires psychological safety and time. When teams aren’t given time to become competent, the new way becomes associated with anxiety and failure.

The Director’s Job

At Emerson, we often adopt the mindset of an air traffic controller, where we help our prime teaming partner see the “flight map” of the organization. We identify the concurrent initiatives impacting the same stakeholders so we can anticipate conflicts, clarify messaging, and ensure smooth implementation of activities. This is particularly valuable in large-scale government projects with multiple stakeholders and initiatives.

The idea is to keep a structured but nimble approach, helping our partners meet project milestones, manage risks effectively, and deliver successful outcomes.

Sustaining momentum through complexity is less about “motivating harder” and more about leading with precision: designing the environment so people can execute without burning out.

Here are practical steps that work especially well for public sector teams navigating policy, process, and technology change.

Name the fatigue without blaming the team.

People often hesitate to say they’re overwhelmed in government settings because they think it sounds unprofessional. But, when leaders name change fatigue directly, it legitimizes their experience and opens the door to problem-solving.

Try language like:

• “We’ve had layered change for months. Fatigue is a normal response to sustained complexity.”
• “Our goal is not to push harder — it’s to work smarter and protect capacity while we deliver.”

This reduces stigma and creates shared reality: two ingredients that increase trust during uncertainty.

Create a “change portfolio,” not a change pile.

Most teams don’t struggle with change; they struggle with competing change. Directors can help by managing initiatives like a portfolio.

Here’s a simple approach:

1. List all active changes (policy updates, process changes, tech rollouts, reporting changes).
2. For each change project, clarify the impact level, required behavior shifts, who is affected, and
3. Then make explicit decisions:
   • The scope of change projects you’ll tackle: what to start, stop, or pause
   • The sequence of change projects: what to do first, second, and third

What matters here is not the perfect plan. What matters is the signal to your organization that leadership is actively helping to manage the changes, not just accepting them and insisting on more work.

Translate “change” into clear expectations.

Government teams often get change communications that are heavy on policy language and light on practical guidance. That’s where fatigue turns into confusion.

For each change project, directors can reduce cognitive load by answering three questions repeatedly:

1. What’s staying the same?
2. What’s changing?
3. What does “good” behavior and performance look like in daily work?

If you can’t describe the change in observable behaviors, your team can’t reliably deliver it.

Build micro-recovery into the system.

Fatigue isn’t only emotional — it’s operational. The antidote is not a poster about resilience. It’s recovery time built into the workflow.

Here are some options that work in public sector environments:

• No-meeting blocks during rollout weeks
• Office hours for tech/process Q&A instead of ad hoc interruptions
• Temporary service-level adjustments during go-live periods (even small ones)
• Rotating “change champions” so the same people aren’t always carrying the load

The goal is to treat capacity like a real resource.

Make progress visible and celebrate competence.

When you have change fatigue, teams lose a sense of forward movement. Leaders can restore momentum by highlighting:

• What is now working that wasn’t working before
• The skills we’ve gained (especially with new technology or processes)
• New outcomes, like reduced risk, improved cycle time, or improved service outcomes

This counters recency bias (the tendency to focus on the latest problem) and helps people see a trajectory, not just turbulence.

A practical tactic: a short monthly “Change Wins + What’s Next” update – make it one page, plain language, and no fluff.

Strengthen middle managers: the real change multipliers.

Directors can’t carry every message or coach every team. In government, supervisors and managers translate strategy into daily execution. If they’re unclear or unsupported, fatigue spreads fast.

Support them with:

• A weekly talking points brief: what to say, what to listen for
• Quick escalation paths, so issues don’t linger
• Training on coaching conversations during uncertainty
• Permission to adapt implementation details locally while holding the standard

When managers feel equipped, teams feel safer.

Listen for “hidden resistance” and treat it as data.

Resistance is often framed as a problem. In reality, it’s feedback — sometimes about workload, sometimes about design, and sometimes about trust.

Instead of asking, “Why won’t they adopt this?” try:

• “What’s making this hard in day-to-day work life?”
• “Where does the new process break down?”
• “What risks are people trying to avoid?”

This shifts the conversation from compliance to improvement, which is crucial in complex public sector systems.

How Public Sector Teams Thrive Through Change

Sustaining momentum through complexity isn’t about having unlimited energy. It’s about creating the conditions where your team’s energy is used wisely.

Change fatigue is real, but it’s not inevitable. When directors manage priorities, reduce ambiguity, protect capacity, and make progress visible, they don’t just get through change. They build a culture that can hold steady while the environment keeps moving.

And in government, that’s how missions survive — and communities benefit — through the next wave of policy, process, and technology change.

Want to explore the topic in more detail with John? Hop on his calendar: Book a meeting with John

What I Know Now That I Didn’t Know Then.

A follow-up to “What Project Management Taught Me About Change”

A year ago, I wrote about earning my PMP and what that process revealed about my work in change management.

I wrote about seeing the connections: how a Work Breakdown Structure could help identify resistance points, and how stakeholder registers mapped beautifully onto influence and engagement planning. I wrote about the potential of bridging those two worlds.

What I didn’t know yet was how that bridge would actually get tested. This past September, I got my answer.

I had one portal, two hats.

Our team supported the rollout of an enterprise employee portal, a large-scale initiative that touched nearly every corner of the organization.

My role covered both sides of the house: change management (OCM) and knowledge work from the technology perspective, and project management for the AI chatbot that would live on the portal. Two very different lenses. Same deadline.

I had anticipated how PM and OCM would complement each other. What I didn’t anticipate was just how naturally they’d pull in the same direction.

When I was tracking chatbot UAT timelines, I was also thinking about user readiness. When I was drafting knowledge articles, I was watching dependencies. The two disciplines weren’t competing for my attention. They were reinforcing each other.

I hadn’t fully expected that. And honestly? It was one of the most energizing professional experiences I’ve had.

When it’s go time, you go.

As the launch approached, the lead PM developed the test scripts. My job was to execute them — running through every scenario, documenting defects, and tracking what passed and what didn’t.

There was a lot of it. And it all needed to get done. So I got it done.

Looking back, that instinct to just pick it up and get it done? That was the PMP talking. One of the quieter lessons from earning my PMP is that project success isn’t about protecting your lane, it’s about protecting the outcome. When the work is in front of you and the deadline isn’t moving, the question stops being “Is this exactly my job?” and starts being “What needs to happen and how do I help make it happen?”

Change managers talk a lot about helping others navigate uncertainty. That September, I had to practice what I preached.

The chatbot went rogue.

I’d be telling an incomplete story if I left this part out.

Right before launch, the chatbot started behaving in ways we had not configured it to behave. It wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do. In the most technical terms I can offer, it was acting stupid.

After all the planning, the test scripts, the knowledge work, the coordination, we had a chatbot that wasn’t ready to meet users.

We made a call to delay the launch by a week.

In that moment, everyone owned a piece of the communication. The OCM lead handled the broader stakeholder outreach. My job was more targeted, reaching out directly to the specific group impacted from a technology and knowledge standpoint. It was a focused responsibility, but an important one.

And it reinforced something I’ve come to appreciate about large initiatives: everyone holds a thread. When the threads are pulled together, the message lands.

A delayed launch is not a failed launch. It reveals a team that cared enough about the user experience to get it right.

I wish I’d known this one thing.

If I could go back and tell myself one thing before stepping into this role, it would be this: No launch goes perfectly, and that’s okay.

There will always be something. A vendor behaving unexpectedly. A stakeholder who needs more runway. A chatbot that briefly forgets everything it learned.

The goal isn’t a flawless go-live. The goal is a team that knows how to adapt when things don’t go to plan, and users who feel supported on the other side of it.

That’s what change management is really about. Not controlling the outcome but being prepared to lead through whatever the outcome turns out to be.

A year later, I’m comfortable wearing two hats.

My PMP gave me a framework. My Change Management Manager role gave me a proving ground.

One year in, I’m still using both, sometimes within the same hour. The skills don’t compete. They compound.

And on the days when a chatbot goes rogue, and a launch gets pushed, and the whole team is sprinting toward a new deadline, I’m grateful to have both in my toolkit.

Because when it counts, you don’t get to pick just one hat. You just figure out how to wear them both.

If you want to assess the health of your organization, pay attention to your meetings.

Many organizations want a culture that promotes innovation, risk-taking, respect, safety, and inclusion. But does your organizational culture really live up to those values? There’s an easy way to find out.

If you want to understand an organization’s culture, don’t read its values statement or mission – sit in on its meetings.

Because meetings are culture in action. They show what works in a company — how people relate, communicate, make decisions, and spend time.

Meetings are microcosms of the organization. They’re where values become visible — not in posters or mission statements, but in habits.

Observe what happens in meetings, then decide what that reveals about your culture. Does it match what your organization wants to be?

Power in the Room

Who speaks — and who doesn’t — tells you everything about power and hierarchy.

• Sometimes one leader dominates and decisions are made by decree. Is it more of a speech or a meeting? Are others contributing? Or does silence equal safety?

If ideas flow freely, that’s a sign of trust and inclusion. Your organization is making space for dissent and curiosity.

Decision-Making in Real Time

Meetings reveal how your organization makes and executes decisions. Or do they get made at all?

• Cultures that prize accountability make decisions, document them, establish accountability and ownership, and move on.
• Cultures that fear conflict circle endlessly, adding another meeting to “discuss further.”

When teams leave a meeting knowing exactly who’s doing what and why, that’s a culture of clarity, alignment, and execution. When they leave unsure, that’s a sign of culture too.

Respect for Time = Respect for People

A meeting that starts late, lacks an agenda, or drifts without purpose isn’t just inefficient — it’s disrespectful. How does your organization use time?

• A disciplined meeting culture signals a disciplined organization. It tells employees their time is valuable, and that the organization runs on intention, not inertia.
• The opposite — calendar clutter, over-meeting, endless status updates – says, “We don’t trust, we don’t prioritize, and we don’t empower.”

Psychological Safety on Display

Meetings are the stage for psychological safety: the belief that people can take risks without fear. Let’s focus on what we can observe:

• Do team members share half-formed ideas or only polished ones?
• Do they admit what they don’t know or keep it to themselves and catch up later?
• When someone challenges the group, does it spark energy or awkward quiet?

The answers show whether learning and innovation are truly valued or just talked about.

Inclusion Is Visible

In today’s hybrid world, inclusion shows up (or doesn’t) in every meeting.

• Are remote voices invited in or do you have to be in the room to get a word in?
• Are junior employees heard or only leadership?
• Are meetings designed for all communication styles or just the loudest?

Inclusive meetings create belonging. Exclusive ones reinforce walls.

Meetings as a Mirror

Every organization has rituals that shape its culture. Meetings are one of the most powerful — and the most overlooked. Think about the culture you want and the one your meetings reveal.

• They can reinforce hierarchy or build empowerment.
• They can waste time or create alignment and performance.
• They can drain energy or build trust.

Meetings aren’t just about productivity; they’re about identity.

Take a hard look at your meetings, and you might just fix your culture.

Want a quick assessment tool? Use this one: Meeting Health Assessment

Want to explore this topic in more detail or learn more about Emerson? Hop on his calendar: Book a meeting with Rich

But it will expose the bad ones.

Artificial intelligence is getting better every day — faster than most organizations are prepared for. You can already prompt tools like ChatGPT to write a change strategy, build a stakeholder analysis, or draft a training plan. It’s tempting to think, If AI can generate the work, what’s the point of an organizational change manager?

The answer: AI won’t replace change managers. But it will expose the bad ones.

The AI Temptation: Fast ≠ Good

Let’s say someone inexperienced in organizational change types “create a change management strategy for an ERP implementation,” along with details of the change, into an AI tool. In seconds, they’ll get a clean-looking plan. But scratch the surface, and you’ll see red flags:

• Vague stakeholder groups. AI might list generic groups like “employees,” “executives,” and “vendors.” Or, if it does name the right key groups, it might miss critical subgroups like informal influencers, front-line supervisors, or hybrid workers who will experience the change differently.

Example: A federal agency rolled out a new digital records system. The AI-generated plan lumped all users together, ignoring that contractors, field staff, and union members had vastly different access needs and security protocols. Adoption tanked.

• Generic resistance strategies. You’ll often see suggestions like “hold town halls” or “communicate early and often” with no tie to the actual sources of resistance or past organizational dynamics.

Example: A manufacturing company facing automation fears got an AI-suggested plan full of emails and Q&A documents. What it needed was face time with supervisors and a forum for employees to express job security concerns directly. Trust eroded fast.

• Fuzzy metrics. AI loves to include success measures like “improved engagement” or “stakeholder satisfaction,” without defining what those mean, how they’ll be measured, or what’s considered a success.

Example: A utility company used AI to set KPIs for a change effort. The dashboard showed high “awareness,” but field crews were particularly confused about new protocols. That group saw no behavior change — just pretty charts.

• Activity without impact. Plans might include training sessions, change agent networks, or communications tactics that check the box but don’t connect to real behavior shifts.

Example: A retail chain launched a DEI initiative with AI-generated deliverables: monthly newsletters, mandatory training, team charters. All were executed, but without a change story, leadership modeling, and accountability mechanisms, nothing stuck.

In short, AI can mimic change management strategies and plans. But without practitioner judgment, it can’t deliver a robust, custom, and nuanced roadmap.

That’s where the divide will sharpen. Unqualified practitioners may think they can “outsource” the work to AI, and their results will suffer. Good practitioners will use AI to do better, faster, smarter work.

AI as a Force Multiplier for Good OCM

The heart of change management plan that works is an understanding of the people involved.

The job of a change practitioner is not to churn out templates, but to shape strategy, coach leaders, and spark behavior change in real human systems.

Used well, AI can help you do that more efficiently.

Drafting Faster, So You Can Think More
AI can jumpstart a communications plan or stakeholder map. But a seasoned practitioner adds the value: challenging assumptions, identifying hidden influencers, and tailoring messages to emotional undercurrents. Use AI to give you a first draft, then invest your energy where it matters most: insight, not formatting.

Surfacing Risks and Scenarios
Ask AI to play devil’s advocate. What risks are we missing? What if the change meets unexpected resistance from front-line supervisors? A good practitioner can use AI as a thinking partner to test scenarios and pressure-test plans.

Synthesizing Large Inputs
Faced with hundreds of survey responses or interview notes? AI can help you identify themes, sentiment, or confusion points — fast. But interpreting those insights, weighing their implications, and guiding next steps still require human discernment.

Enhancing Learning and Adoption
Given the right inputs from an expert human, AI tools can personalize learning experiences or simulate roleplays for different personas. A strong change manager knows how to embed these tools within a learning journey so they support, not distract from, behavior change.

A New Bar for Our Profession

Let’s be honest: not every change manager is up to the challenge. Some rely too heavily on templates, or default to tactics without strategy. AI will make it painfully obvious who is phoning it in.

But for those who are skilled, strategic, and people-savvy, AI is a powerful ally. The future of change management belongs to professionals who:

• Ask better questions than AI can.
• Understand the emotions and politics of organizational life.
• Use tools to enhance insight, not replace it.
• Bring a clear, human voice into ambiguous, high-stakes change.

AI may flood the market with “good enough” change content. But when the stakes are high — ERP rollouts, M&A, culture shifts — good enough won’t cut it. Leaders will look for change professionals who can think critically, act empathetically, and wield AI like a scalpel, not a crutch.

Those practitioners will rise. The rest will be replaced — not by AI, but by better humans.

Want to explore the topic in more detail? We’d love to chat: Book a meeting

Get the synergy you need from your tech and your people.

In most organizations, the tech stack is bigger than the skill stack. You’ve got collaboration suites, AI, automation tools, CRM platforms, data dashboards…and a workforce that’s still not quite sure how to get past the basics.

The result: expensive tools, underused features, and innovation that stalls in favor of business as usual.

Digital literacy shouldn’t be a daunting term. It isn’t about teaching everyone to code. It’s about helping people understand their tools well enough to do great work and imagine better ways of working.

A musician has a path to great performance. They learn the basics of their instrument. They practice for a long time. They get so fluent that they finally understand what the instrument can do – how it can be used to interpret a composition and convey meaning to the listener. That’s where the instrument is really valuable – in the hands of someone who really knows how to use it.

Your employees need a level of familiarity with their digital tools before they can truly perform.

When the tools get out of the way, the work gets better.

In a digitally literate organization, technology is a means to an end.

• People don’t think, “How do I format this?” They think, “What’s the clearest way to tell this story?”
• They don’t ask, “Where do I click to get the report?” They ask, “What decision are we trying to make?”
• Meetings aren’t spent troubleshooting; they’re spent problem-solving.

That only happens when people are confident and fluent in the tools they use every day. Until then, technology is friction. And friction kills performance.

Digital literacy is a prerequisite for innovation.

Leaders often say, “We want people to innovate. Our technology will help.” But until employees truly understand their tools, they won’t innovate beyond their function.

If I barely know how to use our collaboration platform, I’m not going to rethink how my team shares knowledge. If I don’t understand the basics of data visualization, I’m not going to propose a better way to share performance insights. I’ll stick to the old way, or just use the new tools to offer a shinier version of emails and spreadsheets.

Digital literacy unlocks three big shifts:

1. From compliance to creativity. People stop doing it the way the system says to do it and start asking, “What else could this system do for us?”
2. From local optimization to cross-functional innovation. Once employees truly know their tools, they can more easily see how a feature or workflow could help other teams, customers, or business lines—not just their own.
3. From IT-pushed change to business-led innovation. When Business understands what’s possible, they stop waiting for IT to drop new features from above. Instead, they bring informed ideas to the table and co-create solutions.

Rethink the IT–Business relationship.

In many organizations, IT is seen as the feature factory and the help desk. Business leaders ask, “What’s coming in the next release?” or “Can you fix this?”

But the dynamic you actually want is:

• Business drives innovation based on strategy, customer needs, and frontline insight.
• IT meets those needs and brings synergy with new ideas and collaborative, informed solutions, often using tools you already have.
• Together, the Business and IT decide when new functionality or adjacent products are truly needed.

This is only possible when employees and business function leaders have enough digital literacy to have a real conversation with IT — not just present a list of complaints or requests, or blindly accept the next update or tool.

Build digital literacy that actually changes behavior.

Here are five practical ways organizations can raise digital literacy and improve collaboration between IT, employees, and business leaders.

Treat digital literacy as a core competency.

Digital skills shouldn’t live in optional training modules that people get to when they have time.

• Build digital fluency into role expectations, performance goals, and development plans.
• Include digital skills in leadership competencies. (“Can you lead a digitally enabled team?”).
• Recognize and reward employees who simplify processes or innovate using existing tools.

When digital literacy is part of “good performance,” people make time for it.

Start with real work, not generic training.

Most digital training fails because it’s tool-centric and abstract. They get a “feature tour” and forget what they saw by Monday. Instead:

• Design learning around real, role-based scenarios: “How do we streamline approvals?” “How do we share project status without email threads?”
• Have teams bring live work (reports, workflows, decks) into training and improve them in real time using the tools.
• Make “before and after” examples visible so people see the payoff.

If employees can immediately use what they’ve learned to make today’s work easier, it’s real. You build momentum and buy-in.

Turn power users into internal coaches

Every organization has those people who quietly figure things out and help others. Make that informal support system official and visible.

• Identify “digital champions” in each function or business unit.
• Give them extra training and early access to new features.
• Ask them to host short, targeted sessions (like, “15 minutes to cut your reporting time in half”) and serve as go-to resources on their teams.

This keeps support close to the work and it humanizes digital learning. People are more likely to ask a peer than open a ticket.

Bring IT into the business and the business into IT

To move from “IT vs. the business” to one team:

• Invite IT to observe workflows, attend team meetings, and hear pain points directly.
• Include business leaders in technology roadmaps so they can weigh in on priorities and use cases.
• Co-create design sessions or pilots where IT, end users, and business owners shape the solution together.

The goal: IT isn’t just deploying tools; they’re solving problems with the people who own and live those problems.

Implement digital literacy with change management

Digital literacy is not just training. It’s change.

• Make a clear case for change: Why does digital fluency matter to our strategy, customers, and employees’ day-to-day lives?
• Use the essentials of change management: active sponsors, consistent messaging, tailored stakeholder engagement, realistic role-based training, measurement, and sustained reinforcement.

After training, measure behavior, not just logins:

• Are people using features that reduce manual work?
• Are cycle times improving?
• Are teams experimenting and sharing what they learn?

When you deliberately manage the change, digital literacy starts becoming part of your culture, not a one-off initiative.

The payoff isn’t just capability and performance; it’s readiness.

High digital literacy does more than help people use today’s tools. It makes your organization ready for what’s next.

When a new feature, adjacent product, or platform comes along:

• Employees already have the confidence to explore and learn.
• Business leaders know how to ask, “How could this help us deliver our strategy?”
• IT is plugged into real needs and can respond with solutions, not just more layers.

In other words, you don’t just adopt new technology. You use it to create new value.

We have a major retail food products client who operates globally. In their Mexico operation, they switched from standard IT reports to self-service Power BI reports. The problem: their existing reports didn’t reflect what the organization really needed. As a result, employees spent over 120 hours each month upgrading those reports — cleaning, reformatting, and calculating new indicators that were actually useful.

But as soon as these digitally savvy employees had access to the data in their new tool, Power BI, they created new reports and calculations directly in that tool. They suddenly had the views, formats, and indicators they needed. They saved that wasted time and instead spent it on creating new reports and views, as needed. The synergy between the powerful tool and digitally literate employees saved useless effort, reduced response time to leadership, and lowered complaints and requests to IT.

That’s the difference digital literacy makes. It’s not about mastering every system. It’s about giving people the confidence and fluency to focus on what actually matters: the work, the customer, and the future you’re trying to create.

Practical Ways to Help Employees Promote Your Change Project.

written by Michal Erder and Tara Schlosser

“You’ve been selected to join the Brand New, Never Done Before, Best Project Ever Change Champion Network! Please keep an eye out for a boring monthly meeting invitation, a bland quarterly newsletter, and don’t forget the list of tasks we’re going to send to you that we expect you to complete on top of your existing workload. Thanks for being a Change Champion!”

If you aren’t rolling your eyes – or worse – you are an extraordinarily generous and patient person, and maybe you should be our life coach.

Establishing change “champions” (or advocates or ambassadors or agents) is popular for organizations implementing major changes. It makes a lot of sense to enlist employees to engage with the new system or process and promote it to their peers.

A change champion network is a group of early adopters and influencers that drive change – not just by communicating, but by embodying the change in their activities and beliefs.

The people involved in the network should understand the change – its benefits, impacts, and timelines – believe in it, and have a vested interest in others coming along for the ride.

The problem with change champion networks isn’t the concept; it’s the execution, which often leaves people feeling underwhelmed, overworked, and at worst, frustrated.

How do change projects get it wrong?

• The wrong enlistment. Are they volunteers? Or are they voluntold? If you “enlist” people who haven’t expressed interest, you get a network that’s capable but not motivated.
• The wrong recruits. Do they have time? Often people are chosen because they are high-performing, influential, and good communicators. That’s who every project wants, right? That’s the problem. We often see the same people pulled into activities over and over. If you punish performance, you get an elite team of burned out employees.
• The wrong timing. Asking people to be part of a change network after the change is already designed and built feels disingenuous. You can’t have an impact on a change if the decisions have already been made.
• The wrong schedule. Often, project leads create the plan around what the project needs. If you schedule meetings or events during busy days or crunch time for the employee, they have to choose between this new gig and their real job. Even if they want to help, they might not.
• The wrong first impression. Change networks usually have kickoff events. These sessions often miss the mark: a generic overview PowerPoint the change, a quick demo of new functionality or processes, then a discussion that is a) too quick, b) too high-level, or c) dives deep into one element that a few people in the room care about. A bad kickoff – ironically – usually ends with a list of things the project team needs the champions to go off and do.
• The wrong tone. What is the vibe? Are the change champions defensive? Do they fear criticizing the project or pushing back on details? What have their bosses told them? What have the project team members said? There are many reasons people might feel like they can’t say what’s on their minds. If they don’t feel like they can be honest, you will be met with deafening silence. That’s the opposite of what you want.
• The wrong support. Teams sometimes give their champions a packet of information and set them loose. That’s, at minimum, a recipe for inconsistency. Some will thrive and create momentum, and some will flounder.
• The wrong rewards. Even if people have time, get engaged, and do exactly what you want, with enthusiasm, what then? They get a thank you email?

So what?

When any of these things happen, there are two major consequences. First, your change champion network is not effective. Champion networks are meant to bolster excitement and engagement among employees; that means the champions have to be informed, motivated, and excited in the first place. If they’re not, the broader stakeholder groups certainly won’t get on board.

Second, and maybe most importantly, failed change champion networks can erode the trust and credibility in the organization itself. So, the next time you say “come join this network of your peers” people might dread the assignment – and the change itself. That’s like the opposite of a change champion network; it’s a change haters’ network.

So how can we build networks that matter?

How do we create a change network that works?

Get them in time to make a difference. Change champions are prized because they’re so knowledgeable and influential to the employees you need to drive this change. So treat them like the experts they are – get them on board in time to give you input on stakeholder impacts and the best ways to communicate. Then…actually take their advice. Don’t just ask for their wisdom for the sake of engagement. In other words: get them involved early and then help them help the project.

Choose wisely. This is more art than science. What’s right for your organization and your project will be unique to you. Here are some things to consider.

• If you use volunteers, you will probably get people with the time, energy, and desire to promote the change. However, you might not get a lot of them. And you might not get the right characteristics: early adopters, high performers, and influential employees.
• If you “voluntell” people that they will be champions, you can hand-pick people. The advantages are many: you can ensure they have the right characteristics, roles, and distribution in the organization. The downside: they might not have capacity or interest. Moreover, if you ask leaders to select people, be careful – they tend to pick the same folks repeatedly.
• The best approach is often a hybrid. Solicit volunteers for the capacity and motivation. And hand-pick others – but give all of them the capacity and motivation. That might mean taking work off their plates and offering incentives. More on that below.

Be transparent and specific. Have conversations with champions about what you expect. Do you want them to be influencers? Communicators? Or do you just need them to know about the change so they can answer questions? Are they responsible for a particular team? What are the activities you expect, and what information should they convey and collect? How much time will you need from them and when?

Help them get the time. Work with their managers to lessen workloads, backfill parts of their roles, or move deadlines. The change project is important, right? Then, leadership should clear the way for success. If we want people to do more, we need to help them make time to do it. And it’s not just on the champion and their manager; make sure the project team’s schedule makes sense for the champions and their day-to-day work teams.

Set the tone. You want your network to be nimble, empowered, and effective.

• From the start, set up the network for open, honest, fast, two-way communication. If that means certain leaders shouldn’t be at the kickoff meeting, so be it.
• Make sure the person leading the group is someone everyone knows and trusts.
• Give champions just the information they need, in simple terms that make sense to them.
• Let them question the what, why, and how.

Throughout the project, make it easy to give feedback and get information. Quick Teams chats, Slack, whatever – the longer champions wait for answers to questions, the longer champion and employee engagement wait. You lose momentum.

Support your champions. They need tools, content, and coaching. Don’t just give them the deck from your kickoff meeting. They need assets customized for their audiences – the right language, content, and tone. Don’t assume your champions are ready to stand in front of a room of their peers and present. Some might need advice, resources, practice sessions – whatever is right for them.

Let the network drive. They need the space and time to tell you what they need, and to get it. For example, we often pack the agenda for our change champion network meetings, when what they really need is time…to ask their questions and talk about what matters to them and their teams. Those discussions are so much more valuable than a project team member showing slides and talking at them.

Remove obstacles. The best plans and the best champions will run into challenges. For example, maybe some of their peers aren’t participating in scheduled activities. Maybe employees are simply refusing to adopt the change, in favor of the old ways of working. That’s not the champion’s problem to solve alone. It’s their job to raise issues to the project and organizational leaders, so the entire team can combat resistance.

Break it up and make it fun. Creative breaks or events can be a breath of fresh air, revitalizing the team.

• Offer prizes for completing champion tasks.
• Give out champion swag.
• Spotlight champions who are going above and beyond.
• Hold funny photo contests for meetings or sessions related to the project. For example, in-person sessions could be themed around funny hats, favorite sports team gear, or funny backgrounds (for virtual meetings).
• Hold a “gif contest.” Have people submit gifs that describe their last meeting about the project.
• Host a roundtable for people to share real stories about their experience with the new tool or process, and how their team reacted to it.
• Hold “labs” where champions get 1:1 time with technical developers to talk in detail about the change.
• Conduct sessions with high-level leaders to give change champions more visibility with leadership.

Reward their hard work. Your change champions are doing a job they weren’t hired for – or compensated for. So, what’s in it for them, other than the benefits of the change project? Figure that out with leadership. Reinforcements range from recognition and awards to monetary bonuses to perks to promotions. If the champions are critical to a change that will bring revenue and success to the organization, certainly it can afford to support them.

The bottom line: a good change champion network is POWERFUL. It can be the margin of victory for your project, creating awareness, engagement, adoption, and performance. It’s worth doing right.

Want to explore the topic in more detail? We’d love to chat: Book a meeting

Change management is better than what you’re doing.

My biggest pet peeve is when leaders use “change management” as a buzzword.

The meeting is ending, people are starting to gather up their things or open an email, and a leader mentions as an afterthought “…and we’ll definitely need change management on this one.” Everyone nods, continues to pack their bags, and heads out the door.

There are a few possible scenarios that follow.

• Everyone forgets the mention of change management until after go-live, when adoption is slow and people are getting frustrated. Then someone slaps together additional training or job aids.
• The leader assigns “change management” to a team member with no change management experience, leading to months of stress for this person, who does their best without having the skills or tools (and ultimately doesn’t make an impact, through no fault of their own).
• The team brings in a change management team or expert (internal or external to the company) but gives them weak direction, few resources, and little influence. They struggle to get what they need from stakeholders and never make any real difference.

Don’t call whatever that is change management.

The reason this bothers me is that change management is one of the few disciplines that gets mentioned and then immediately overlooked. You won’t hear a leader say the first part: “…and we need some operational support” without a second part: “…to make sure the process can integrate with our technology.”

As change managers, we are begging for the second half of the sentence. Why do you need change management?

• Are you worried about audiences embracing the change because it’s a dramatic departure from the norm?
• Is there a lot of new content for people to take in and you’re worried they won’t remember on the job?
• Are you worried about people knowing and hitting key deadlines?
• Are there teams across the organization who need to come together to make this change work?
• Are there stakeholder groups that don’t want this change?
• Does the effort have an extended timeline and need prolonged momentum?

Once you know the “why,” you can plan the “how” – the change management solution. For example,

• If you’re worried about people embracing the change, focus the solution on their motivation — connecting to their purpose, showing them the value they personally will see from the change.
• If you need change management because there’s so much new content, put the training solution into high gear. Pull out all the stops to make sure the content is visible, accessible, and digestible (especially once you go live).
• If people coming together makes you nervous, focus on cross-functional collaboration and creating spaces to bring ideas together.

The “how” gets you to the “what:” adoption and performance — people doing things not just differently, but differently in the way that is needed to realize value.

To use change management successfully, don’t leave it as an afterthought. Explore why you need change management and how you will do it, to get to the goals of your initiative.

Want to explore the topic in more detail? We’d love to chat: Book a meeting

From Training to Performance.

Every year, government agencies invest heavily in training. They develop courses, fill their LMS platforms, and send employees through hours of instruction. Yet many leaders still ask: Why aren’t we seeing better performance results?

They’re seeing the gap between learning and doing.

In high-stakes, high-accountability environments like government, this gap isn’t just frustrating, it is lost opportunity to truly develop people potential and deliver on the promise of exceptional government services.

Agencies don’t just need people to know policies, systems, and processes; they need them to apply that knowledge accurately and consistently.

So, what’s getting in the way and how can we fix it?

The Challenges

Training in a Vacuum

Too often, government training is disconnected from daily work. Employees learn about systems or policies in theory, not in the context of real scenarios. That abstraction makes learning easy to forget and hard to apply.

Over-reliance on Information Transfer

We often assume that knowing leads to doing. But behavior science says otherwise. Knowing the steps to a process doesn’t guarantee following them correctly under pressure. Training that emphasizes knowledge over performance misses the point.

Lack of Reinforcement

Learning fades without follow-up. When there’s no coaching or accountability, people quickly revert to old habits, especially when those habits feel faster or safer.

Cultural and Systemic Barriers

Sometimes the problem isn’t training—it’s the environment. Employees may be trained to collaborate, but if performance systems reward individual output, they won’t change. When systems, leadership behaviors, and training are misaligned, progress stalls.

Bridging the Gap

Training and performance support must be designed with work performance in mind, from the start. Here are five ideas and two technologies to make that shift:

Meet people where they are.

The Five Moments of Need model by Bob Mosher and Dr. Conrad Gottfredson reframes learning as a continuous process. It identifies five key moments when people most need support: when learning something new, wanting to learn more, applying knowledge, solving problems, or adapting to change. The key is to align learning strategies to the moments of need. Formal training is important when learning something new, while on-demand performance support helps with application and change.

Example: A federal HR specialist uses formal training to learn a new hiring system (New), quick reference guides while processing applications (Apply), and updated resources when policy guidance changes (Change).

Build for behavior, not just knowledge.

Start with the end in mind: What do we want people to do differently? Define the critical behaviors, then design training that helps people practice and get feedback.

Example: Instead of lecturing on conflict-of-interest policy, simulate real scenarios where employees must make judgment calls and receive feedback in real time.

Align training with systems and culture.

If training teaches one thing but systems reward another, behavior change won’t stick. Before designing new learning, ask: What are we rewarding?

Example: Review performance metrics, SOPs, and feedback loops to ensure they reinforce the new behaviors, not the old ones.

Ground training in the real world.

Learning should feel familiar and actionable. Use real cases, language, and systems employees recognize.

Example: Partner with front-line managers to identify everyday challenges and build your training activities around them.

Reinforce with coaching and feedback.

Learning is a process, not an event. Incorporate follow-up discussions, manager coaching, and check-ins that show the behavior still matters.

Example: Create a “learning transfer plan” for supervisors to reinforce key behaviors during team meetings.

Make learning and performance support personal.

A Learning Experience Platform (LXP) delivers personalized, just-in-time learning tailored to each employee’s role, goals, and recent activity. It moves learning from compliance-driven to performance-focused. These systems are more affordable and capable than ever and provide a flexible, mobile resource tailored to the individual.

Example: A Contract Officers Representative (COR), updating a contract record might receive a recommendation for a short video on managing vendor performance — right when it’s most relevant.

Remove friction wherever you can.

A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) provides step-by-step, on-screen guidance inside the applications employees use every day. This helps them perform tasks accurately without leaving their workflow.

Example: When a federal employee logs into a new acquisition system, a DAP can guide them through creating a requisition, explaining each field along the way. The result: faster adoption, fewer errors, and greater confidence.

The Opportunity Ahead

Government agencies face complex challenges, policy shifts, tight budgets, legacy systems, and evolving missions. But they also have a tremendous opportunity to lead with intention.

When agencies shift their focus from training delivery to performance enablement, they close the learning–doing gap. They create not just informed employees, but capable, confident professionals ready to deliver excellence where it matters most: on the job.

Want to explore the topic in more detail with John? Hop on his calendar: Book a meeting with John

Four Truths Leaders Can’t Ignore.

When two organizations come together – whether through merger, acquisition, or partnership – leaders often focus on systems, structure, and strategy. But beneath the org charts and integration plans lies the most critical and most overlooked factor: culture. It’s the invisible current that determines whether people row together or row in circles.

I spoke with Aarif Aziz, Chief Human Resource Officer at Culligan International. He has seen Culligan through many acquisitions in recent years, so he has a great perspective and valuable advice for companies navigating culture integrations.

Aarif and his team have plenty of lessons learned. “We’ve done 300+ acquisitions in the last 6–7 years. It was very easy for us to bring examples where things didn’t go well. And interestingly, all the examples which didn’t go well were centered around culture. The question I had was, with such a rapid speed of integration, did we really take enough time to bring cultures together? (I validated) with our leadership team…everyone felt yes, we could have done more.”

Aarif and his Culligan HR leadership team have learned a lot about integrating cultures. They know that culture integration doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentionality, clarity, and a lot of leadership. These four truths can guide the way.

1. The right culture balances diversity and consistency.

Every organization brings its own legacy of behaviors, beliefs, and norms. When companies merge, the instinct is often to declare a “new” culture (or dig in on the “old” culture) and expect everyone to conform. But research and experience tell us that forced uniformity rarely works. It dismisses the strengths each legacy culture brings to the table and erodes trust.

Aarif agrees: “There are uniquenesses and strengths of these cultures. That’s why these companies were successful and it became a valuable opportunity to bring them under (our) umbrella.

What we don’t want to do to say: this is Culligan culture and then copy-paste across the companies. It won’t be a successful model. It will destroy the value of our people and their diversity of thought.

Having said that, there are a few (culture) threads which have to be common. So, if we can bring those common threads, (build) some common ground, and empower people to operate, I think we create tremendous value.”

The goal is intentional integration: honoring the best of both while building shared norms that support the new strategic direction. This isn’t compromise; it’s culture design. Leaders should ask:

• What aspects of each culture helped the organization thrive?
• What values and behaviors will fuel our future growth?
• Where do we need alignment to function as one enterprise?

The most successful culture integrations are guided by a clear north star: a unifying purpose or set of principles that give teams something to believe in together.

2. Culture integration starts with behavior change.

It’s tempting to define culture as a set of values posted on the wall. But values mean little if they don’t show up in the day-to-day actions of leaders, managers, and teams. Real culture change starts where real work happens — in behavior.

Here’s Aarif: “No leader who understands how business gets done will be dismissive of how behaviors impact outcomes. Culture is abstract, so it’s really important to start with behaviors, not with complex frameworks or models.”

Here’s how:

• Define the specific behaviors that represent the new culture.
• Equip leaders and teams with practical tools and language to enact those behaviors.
• Reinforce those behaviors through systems: recognition, performance management, communication.

Aarif adds this advice: “Focus on small behaviors which impact the culture and really center the conversations around it. Because when you focus on behaviors, you impact the change at the ground level. It is relatable. Use the right examples, use data, and create opportunities for reflection. People are smart enough to pick it up.”

3. Culture integration takes leadership at every level.

One of the biggest pitfalls in post-merger integrations is assuming culture is “owned” by HR or the executive team.

Aarif emphasizes the importance of leading culture change: “The face of the entire effort must be the CEO and the business leadership. If they are leading it, they will emulate the right behaviors. They will lay out the right expectations, and it changes from being a business initiative to a business imperative.

Almost every business has come to HR with a specific priority for moving the needle on culture by changing behaviors. Not as an ask from us, or a mandatory requirement. But as something they are suggesting and prioritizing. So, for me, that’s a big win, because it is not driven by HR. Our role is to be the catalyst. It is a business agenda, so it’s driven by the business leadership.”

Senior leaders are essential, of course. But culture integration happens in everyday interactions: team meetings, project decisions, customer conversations. That means everyone leads culture, whether they manage zero people or five thousand.

To support this:

• Give leaders at every level a clear role in the culture journey.
• Build their capability to coach, role model, and reinforce behaviors.
• Share stories and examples from across the organization that bring the culture to life.

Aarif adds that collaboration between leaders and employees is key. “I think our people are quite conscious that the company is responding and focusing on culture. So, our two-way channels… not (just) top down, but also…bottoms up…(are) helping immensely.”

4. Culture integration is not a project; it’s a process.

Perhaps the most dangerous myth is that culture integration can be “checked off” once the dust settles. In reality, culture work is never done. It’s a continuous process of alignment, reinforcement, assessment, and evolution.

Aarif knows how important the assessment part is. “If you have clear measurement, you are able to assess the progress toward integrated culture and business outcomes. Is it becoming better, not better? And why?

I think for me the measure of success is two things: how our people are feeling and our business results. We have ways to understand and see the pulse of our people, right? But the final measure of any of this is business success. Your goal: People are feeling great, and the strategy is clear. People know what they’re doing, and they’re focused on outcomes.

And continue to monitor and show progress and continued engagement. Otherwise, you end up losing after initial momentum.”

Especially in the months following a merger or acquisition, sustained attention is key:

• Use pulse surveys and feedback loops to measure how culture is taking hold.
• Revisit and refine your culture roadmap as the business evolves.
• Celebrate business outcome milestones but also acknowledge the messiness of change.

Think of culture like a garden. It requires planting, watering, pruning, and patience.

Culture can be your competitive edge.

Culture isn’t the soft stuff. It’s a hard differentiator. Companies that invest in deliberate culture integration post-merger are more likely to retain key talent, accelerate performance, and achieve strategic synergy.

Help your organization navigate these transitions with empathy, structure, and behavioral science.

Want to explore the topic in more detail? We’d love to chat: Book a meeting

How Professionals Stay Smart in the Artificial Intelligence Age.

A user once asked a generative AI tool to come up with an original idea for children using a Lego set. The tool’s answer: “Imagine a Lego set that allows you to build a fully functioning time machine with intricate details and moving parts. This set combines the fun of building with Legos with an educational twist, teaching kids about historical eras and famous landmarks as they embark on time-traveling adventures.” What? Imagine the health hazards, the lawsuits, the damage to our current timeline…

Ok, that’s a delightfully harmless example. (Well, until we invent time travel anyway.) But misinformation isn’t always so obvious.

And we need to know when AI gets things wrong, because the consequences can range from funny to embarrassing to catastrophic.

Inaccurate data, flawed guidance, or hallucinated case studies can erode trust, trigger poor decisions, and damage your relationship with your team or your customers.

Nowadays, we pretty much have to use artificial intelligence, right? From generating marketing content to summarizing research and writing code, AI is saving time and unlocking creativity. It feels like if you’re not using it, you’re a step behind.

The good news: you can harness AI’s power without falling victim to its little robot lies.

The Misinformation Problem

The term “hallucination” is often used to describe when generative AI tools produce information that sounds plausible but is oh so wrong. These tools are powerful language models, not search engines. They don’t take a skeptical view or verify sources. They predict language based on patterns, not validity.

In 2023, a New York attorney used ChatGPT to draft a legal filing that cited six entirely fabricated cases. The AI-generated cases didn’t exist, but they looked real enough to pass an initial glance. The result? Sanctions and professional embarrassment. (Source: NYT)

Think about the high-stakes situations you might confront:

• A strategy deck citing false data could mislead executives and derail decisions.
• An AI-written employee communication could spread confusion if it includes misquotes or outdated policy references.
• A government contract could be rejected if AI invents credentials or claims.

Misinformation doesn’t always look like fiction. It often seems credible.

Three Traps for Business Professionals

Overtrusting Output

AI sounds confident. Its tone is polished. But confidence is not accuracy. (We all know people who fit this profile, right?) Professionals pressed for time might generate, copy, paste, and trust without verifying.

A psychological dynamic called “authority bias” is to blame: we tend to trust information from sources that “sound” authoritative, even if they aren’t.

False Citations or “Source Laundering”

Some generative AI tools fabricate sources or mix real citations with fake ones. Even when sources are accurate, they may be out of context or misrepresented.

In one test, ChatGPT cited a Harvard Business Review article that didn’t exist, but with a title and author combination that seemed plausible.

The Chicago Sun-Times published a 2025 Summer Reading List recommending 15 titles. The problem: ten of them were not real. The journalist relied on a third-party source that had used AI to generate the list.

A separate news item found that if you ask Chat GPT for links to sources, and there aren’t any, it will simply make them up.

Context Collapse

AI lacks situational awareness. It may pull ideas from unrelated fields or fail to consider the unique regulatory, cultural, or industry context that matters in your decision-making.

Five Ways to Stay Smart and Safe with AI

Always verify sources.

If AI offers a citation, check it manually. Follow the link. Search for the document. If it doesn’t exist, that’s your first red flag.

Pro Tip: Use AI tools like Perplexity.ai or Consensus.app, which prioritize sourcing and transparency over polish.

Add a layer of human judgment.

AI can accelerate your thinking, but it should not replace it. Ask yourself:

• Does this make sense in our context?
• What’s missing?
• Who would be harmed if this were wrong?

Think of AI as your intern, not your expert advisor. Its job is to help you think, not to do your thinking for you.

Use AI transparency settings.

Tools like ChatGPT Enterprise or Copilot often offer audit trails or cite where their information came from. Use these features to assess credibility.

If you’re using AI inside your organization, push vendors to explain how their models generate outputs and what guardrails are in place.

Insist on a human in the loop.

In regulated or high-stakes industries (e.g., healthcare, finance, government), build processes that require human review before AI-generated content is published or decisions are made.

This aligns with the GROW coaching model: AI may help define the Goal and assess Reality, but Options and Will must come from human insight and accountability.

Train teams to spot and stop AI misinformation.

Embed AI literacy into onboarding, upskilling, and leadership development. Teach employees:

• How to question AI output
• What to verify (and how)
• When to escalate concerns

And remember what we change management pros preach: changing behavior requires awareness, engagement, action, and reinforcement.

The Enemy

It’s not generative AI. Complacency is the enemy.

Generative AI isn’t malicious. It’s simply not designed to be truthful. It’s designed to be useful. As business professionals, it’s on us to pair AI’s speed and creativity with our discernment and ethics.

The most dangerous misinformation isn’t always the most outrageous. It’s the quiet, almost-right statement that slips through our filters because we’re too rushed, too trusting, or too dazzled by the tech.

In the age of AI, wisdom isn’t knowing everything. It’s knowing what to double-check.