Change is inevitable. Our relationship with it is the problem.
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
I am a millennial, which means I sit in an interesting generational position.
I am old enough to remember a world before the internet reshaped almost everything. Old enough to have signed contracts with a pen, faxed them off (media and advertising bookings mainly), made plans without constant updates, and worked in environments where the pace of change felt possible to keep up with.
I am also young enough to have watched all of that shift faster than any generation before us was expected to absorb.
That vantage point has given me a particular perspective on change, and specifically on why so many people and organisations struggle with it, even when they know it is coming.
Change can be a contradiction at the heart of it
Here is something worth sitting with.
When life is good, the team is performing, the business is growing, and things feel stable, the mere suggestion of change can trigger genuine anxiety.
What will this affect? What if it does not work? Why fix what is not broken?
Yet when things are difficult, performance is declining, culture is suffering, and the team feels stuck, change is the very thing everyone is quietly craving.
Something has to shift. Something has to be different.
The same word. Two completely different responses. Both entirely human.
What this tells me is that our resistance often has very little to do with change itself. It has much more to do with our relationship with comfort, certainty and what we believe we stand to lose when the familiar is disrupted.
That is worth understanding because, in a business environment (and let's face it, more and more in a personal capacity) where change is no longer an occasional event but a permanent condition, leaders (read: humans being with any sense of responsibility and accountability) who have not made peace with that reality will continue to operate at a disadvantage.
What actually happens when change arrives
One of the most useful things for leaders and teams to understand is that the mind and body often process change through many of the same responses associated with loss.
Something familiar is ending. Something known is being left behind.
Even when the change is necessary and either positive or actively chosen, there can still be a sense of loss attached to what will no longer be the same.
The process usually begins with stability. The current state feels known, manageable and predictable. Then something disrupts it: a restructure, a new strategy, a market shift, a leadership change or a different way of working.
The first response is often some form of resistance: a pull towards what was familiar or a quiet, and sometimes not so quiet, push against what is being introduced.
When that resistance does not remove the disruption, confusion tends to follow. This is often the most uncomfortable part of the process. People may feel disoriented, uncertain about what is expected of them and tempted either to force a premature resolution or retreat into old patterns.
But there is something genuinely hopeful within that discomfort.
It does not necessarily mean something has gone wrong. It can be a sign that integration has begun.
The new information, the new expectations, the new way of operating - or even the new professional identity being asked of someone - is starting to be absorbed. On the other side of that discomfort is the possibility of a new stability: a new normal that, with time, can feel as natural as the one that came before it.
The process is predictable enough to be understood, which means change can be navigated rather than simply endured.
Why this matters for leaders
When leaders do not understand this process, they tend to make one of two mistakes:
The first is attempting to move through the uncomfortable middle as fast as possible. They push the team to adapt faster than people can process the change, then interpret resistance, uncertainty, or confusion as a performance problem rather than recognising it as a natural stage of transition. And no, we aren't accepting ongoing disengagement or removing accountability. But we should make an effort to distinguish between someone refusing to move and someone who is still working out how to move.
The second mistake is avoiding the change conversation altogether. Leaders delay the disruption in the hope that the need for change will somehow resolve itself. In most cases, this simply means the organisation reaches the same point later, with less runway, more urgency and far greater pressure on everyone involved.
Understanding that change follows a process, and that discomfort is often part of that process rather than evidence of failure, changes how a leader shows up during a transition.
They become steadier. More deliberate in their communication. More patient with the people around them, without forgetting what needs to be achieved. They become better equipped to hold the space a team needs to move through change, rather than becoming stuck inside it.
That steadiness can be a personality trait, but, thankfully (and more importantly), for most of us it's a leadership skill that can be developed.
The part most leaders want to skip over
Recently Vikki wrote about the importance of clarity, defining what success actually looks like before pursuing it.
The same principle applies to change.
Most leaders focus heavily on the destination: the new structure, the new strategy, the new systems or the new way of operating.
Meanwhile, the steps between here and there are treated as obstacles to manage rather than progress to recognise.
Yet every meaningful step through a change process is evidence that the team is moving.
That evidence matters.
Naming progress, recognising what has shifted and helping people see what is beginning to work keeps momentum alive when the middle of the process still feels uncertain.
It also gives people something real and tangible to build on. Without the recognition, teams could be making real progress while still believing they are failing simply because they have not yet reached the final outcome.
Change happens to organisations. Fact. It is something an organisation and the people within it must move through.
How well leaders are equipped to guide that movement will often determine whether the eventual outcome resembles what was originally intended.
Supporting the human side of change
Supporting leaders and teams through change, both the strategic and the human side of it, is a significant part of the work we do at Momentum Growth Coaching.
The Moment Method™ gives leaders a practical understanding of what is happening in their people's thinking, emotions, and behaviours during periods of transition. It also gives them the tools to lead through that transition with greater clarity, confidence and intention.
Because successful change is about equipping your people with the correct resources to move with it.
If your organisation is navigating change and the human side of the transition feels like the harder part to manage, I would be glad to discuss what kind of resources you can provide to support them.
Your other friend,
Jorge
Book a discovery call to explore what this could look like for your team.
I'm Jorge da Rocha, Co-Founder and Leadership Strategist at Momentum Growth Coaching. I work with leadership teams across Australia to strengthen performance, communication and leadership capability.
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