At the beginning of 2025, a company I work with decided to reshape its entire operational framework within 180 days. The market conditions demanded agility to survive, but the company didn’t have it. The legacy built seemed outdated. It did not give the necessary growth. Financial health could not be guaranteed while covering a range of expense categories. After the start of the change initiative, the next agenda was somewhere between partial control and surprising chaos. The situation resembled a masterclass in creating chaos and insecurity. It did not generate engagement or support from the team. Meanwhile, the local business general leader promoted change as necessary. This led to better positioning and less stress. The situation looked disastrous. Still, for those who wanted to learn, it was an opportunity. They could learn and train skills in leadership, change management, and resilience.
The experience created was thoughtful and supporting growth. Alternatively, it was destroying and creating insecurity, stress, conflicts, and burnout. The way each employee saw it was different and very diverse. The team took a positive approach to the change management initiative. They should have been prepared that speed and strategy aren’t always enemies. Still, they didn’t feel that way. From that initiative, a new model of working evolved. Yet, the effort was often exhausting. It led to setbacks in thinking and acting. It even affected believing in the strategy.
Much has been written about such change initiatives. Yet the leaders who start them still make the same mistakes they read about. They say to themselves, “I will avoid or minimize that.”
Educate yourself about potential setbacks. This is wise if you are a leader planning to execute a change management initiative. This will help you position the initiative at a better pace and with a better chance of smooth, rather than fluctuating, success.
Here are some of…
The Setbacks No One Warns You About
and some advice on how to navigate each of them
1. Institutional Memory Evaporates Overnight
The Pain: When you change something overnight, you actually disrupt processes that are already underway and established. You lose that invisible glue that connects them all, that unwritten way of how things are done. And suddenly, no one knows what to do. No one knows who approves critical steps. No one knows who confirms important documents or steps. Nobody knows where the bucket is that stores information on vital processes and documents. This is especially true for systems, but also works for building new ways of working with partners and between departments. And this is all because people can’t answer the question “why” for themselves.
Although this may look devastating from the outside, there is a simple way to manage it. You will need to start before the initiative knocks on your door. The first step is to assign a person. They will keep records of what is happening and how things are done in each department. This action isn’t about preserving the past, but about documenting and preserving the wisdom for the future.
2. Your Best People Question Their Place
The Pain: Most high-performing people constantly strive for clarity to ensure mastery of their work. With chaos at the front, they become less productive and disengaged within weeks of the change. They feel their experience and contribution may be irrelevant in the new situation. And that often leads to accepting calls from field recruiters, eventually leaving your team and company.
Solving this will need effort to put the individual in the right mood. Why is it so effort-consuming? Because you need to start by overcommunicating their value as an individual within the new structure. And this should start before you even think of communicating change in systems and structures. In one-to-one meetings, focus on communicating how the individual’s current value will contribute to the new structure. Explain how the individual will be supported in enhancing that value over time. There should be a clear personal-level plan. This plan should identify and value current expertise. It should also build the strength to meet future changes and opportunities. Your current stars need to understand their future roles as builders or architects of the future. They shouldn’t see themselves as relics of the past.
3. Pressure Cooker – the new role of your middle management
The Pain: Change is painful because executives and boards traditionally set the direction. As the next step, all frontline employees start executing the agenda. This agenda is set by someone distant who continues to push them hard. In this situation, middle managers occupy a unique role. They need to manage the clash between vision and execution. They must organize the resulting chaos to drive the change. The price of this is higher absenteeism and reduced productivity. There is also a declining quality of decisions. It leads to a deficit in emotional balance and massive burnout.
To fight this situation, there is no right or wrong way, because it often stems from different factors and depends on the environment. But what helps is to start building a support system for the mid-tier. It may consist of follow-up sessions. These sessions help mid-managers share their struggles, exchange experiences in dealing with challenges and setbacks, and get adequate support from the visioners. Creating a safe-to-share environment is crucial. People must trust that saying something like “I don’t know it yet” won’t have negative consequences. The roots of dealing with this disruption lie in understanding all elements. Building a challenge-free, protected environment helps mid-tier people feel stability. It also offers support.
4. The classy disruptor – Technology Adoption
The Struggle: Everything new causes discomfort. There is no change in this vision about technology. Every new model includes new technology in its toolset. The visionaries of the project often believe that people will embrace the change. They also think that the latest technology will be universally adopted from the first touch. Unfortunately, it does not work that way. Organizations have two groups of employees. Some are tech-savvy and confident. Others fear new technology and fall behind. They do not understand that specifics at first create fractures in team cohesion.
What works here is: Abandoning. Yes, you read it right—the abandonment of the myth that one-size-fits-all. Differentiation and segmentation of training, communication, and even manuals are crucial. Identifying early adopters of the technology may be highly needed. You will need to invest time with these early adopters. Turn them into coaches, trainers, mentors, and supporters. They will help others stay in the loop on change as followers. The other crucial element here is to learn to measure the technology’s true adoption. This refers not to activities done, but to the level of real adoption from the team. The more critical these analyses are, the more successful the project is. And here is where many visionaries fail.
5. Hidden strikes against customer service
The pain: Internal disturbances are often not captured by official reporting tools. But they bleed continuously, and the wound becomes bigger day after day. Some people in the organization may recognize these pains. Yet if the pain points are not seen by the right people, customer service erodes. Only those with the power and tools can solve them. Delayed processes in customer service are a reason. There is a lack of adequate solutions to different situations and customers’ needs. You name it. This often becomes obvious too late. A key customer expresses dissatisfaction and requests removal from the customer list.
The focus to solve this is to move through careful consideration of what is happening. The company should enlist the help of people who are not involved in the transformation. They should keep closer attention to what happens with the customers. Those dedicated to customer service representatives should be responsible only for protecting the client relationship. They must do what is necessary. Even if it means creating a path to resolve customer issues, they should work outside the traditional framework. The most potent element here should be building transparency with customers. It is crucial to provide enough information to help them understand what the company is doing. This will protect that relationship and deliver the best possible service.
Final Words
Energetic and rapid changes and transformations come and go. During these times, companies may face setbacks and challenges. But the main action agenda during such shouldn’t be avoidance, but conversion of what is a challenge now to an organizational capability for the future. Doing everything with the aim of repairing what is broken creates a different mindset. It also forms a new cultural framework across the organization. The less the organization panics and the more it focuses on transformation, the better and longer-lasting the outcome becomes.
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