Resistor – your biggest ally
Your strongest resistor in your change is often your most influential stakeholder — and your biggest adoption risk. How can you manage them so they don’t sabotage everything? The tactic isn’t more comms. Treat them like a key stakeholder with power, drivers, and needs. Here are a few things that work for me when I meet one of this kind… 1) Diagnose before you try to win Don’t start with persuasion. Start with curiosity. Meet 1:1 and ask questions that make it safe to tell the truth: What worries they have? What would make this workable for them? What is missing for them? What is that they see, that other don’t see? Why do they think it will fail? You might hear these answers Fear of loss – status, control, expertise, identity Workload reality – no time, no capacity, no backfill Scar tissue – last transformation burned them Distrust – of leaders, intent, or follow-through Different risk assessment – this will break operations 2) Map their influence (not just their attitude) Not all resistance is equal. Ask yourself: Do others follow their cues? If yes – this is not a difficult person problem. This is stakeholder strategy. Because informal leaders can create adoption… or kill it quietly. 3) Choose the right lever (don’t improvise) Education and communication (but tailored) Not more slides. Make the rationale relevant to their world – customers, risk, quality, team stability. Have them participating in design and involve them in key activities. If they feel change is a done deal, they’ll fight it. Shift them from recipient to co-designer Provide facilitation and support Sometimes resistance is a capability fear in disguise. Offer negotiation and agreement If they genuinely lose something, stop pretending they don’t. Name the trade-offs (role, decision influence, sequencing, recognition). Trust goes up when reality is spoken out loud. Include them into change ambassadors network. They get influenced by their peers. 4) Convert opposition into ownership with boundaries Give them a meaningful role — but keep it bounded. And with specific rules. What’s your experience: have you ever turned a strong resistor into a partner? What was the one move that shifted them?
What happens when you skip Change Management
Organizations pay hundreds of thousands—without blinking—for project managers and large project teams to deliver: Transformation.New systems.AI.A new operating model. But allocating a few percent of the budget so people actually adopt the change and use it? That’s… a problem. Companies sometimes have a strange relationship with what they’re willing to pay for. There’s always budget for the technical side of change:milestones, timeline, budget, vendors, integrations, testing. And then the human side of change shows up. And suddenly you hear:“We didn’t budget for that.”“That’s the people part—we can cut it first.”“The project manager can handle it.”“HR will send the communication.”“People will learn the new system as they go.” Paradox? No. Reality. Because you can’t tick “people” off as just another task in a project plan. You either do the people work intentionally… or you pay for it later:✨ in overtime and rework✨ in silent resistance (and public cynicism)✨ in shadow processes and workarounds✨ in firefighting chaos after go-live that “no one expected”✨ in losing key people because they’ve had enough And this isn’t just my opinion. Prosci shows that projects with excellent change management deliver nearly 1.5× more often on or under budget than projects with weak or no change management—so change management pays for itself. McKinsey described in a study of 40 change programs that the most successful companies achieved an average 143% ROI, when change management was part of implementation—while companies failing across organizational levels achieved only 35% ROI. Change management is not an extra cost.It’s how you protect an investment that’s already in the budget. How does your organization work with change management?
Change ambassadors network: The hidden infrastructure of successful change.
Change ambassadors. My favourite change management activity. Because it’s where change becomes real. Real relationships. Real people. Real-life friction — not hypothetical assumptions. And sometimes… a real resistor in the room. That’s the moment I love the most: when the energy shifts live — because someone finally feels heard, seen, and involved (instead of managed). Why do change ambassadors matter in every change initiative? Every transformation has a last-mile problem. Leadership can announce a change. But peers make it believable, doable, and sticky. If you skip ambassadors, you’re betting on adoption through: a slide deck a townhall a please read email Good luck with that. What do change ambassadors actually do? ✅ They turn broadcast into sensemaking. What does this mean for me?” is where adoption is decided. ✅ They bring social proof and reduce fear. People watch people — and follow trusted peers through networks, not org charts. ✅ They create a two-way channel. Ambassadors are early sensors: friction, confusion, training gaps, political landmines — caught early, not in week 10. ✅ They scale support without burning out the core team. Local coaching where the work happens beats central support any day. ✅ They make the change better, not just louder. The best ambassadors don’t repeat messages — they improve the rollout with reality checks. And finally, the help the business case (in plain terms) ✨ Faster adoption ✨ Better quality of usage (not just compliance) ✨ Lower hidden costs: rework, workarounds, delays, support overload Building an effective ambassador network takes more than selecting a few enthusiastic volunteers — it needs intention, structure, and the ability to work with real dynamics in real time. If you want to set yours up to actually drive adoption, I can partner with you to design the approach and run the first cycles through targeted facilitation and coaching.
Change management in the Czech Republic: Why is the full change management cycle still the exception, not the standard?
One year ago, I was sitting on the other side of the table. I was interviewing candidates for a Change Management Partner role to support me on the transformation I was involved in and I asked what I thought was a simple question: “Can you walk me through the full change management cycle — in your own words?” Not the textbook version. Not the buzzwords. Just their understanding of how change actually lives from idea to embedded reality. Most of them froze. Some started listing some steps. A few mentioned communication or training. Only a couple of candidates came close. No one covered it end-to-end. At the same time, the recruitment process took months. Not because the role was so exotic. But because there simply aren’t many change management professionals on the Czech market. These two signals hit me hard: Long recruitment cycle Inability to answer a basic, foundational question It told me that change management in the Czech Republic is still in its early stages. And that the journey ahead of us is long — but necessary. It also revealed something deeper: Many organisations here still don’t see WHY they need change management. Or they only see a small slice of what this profession actually covers. That’s when I decided: I don’t just want to do change management. I want to shine more light on it. Luckily, I’m not alone. There are a few other enlightened souls in our region, and platforms like Change Management Institute CZ & SK that are starting to move the needle. So how do I see the full change management cycle? For me, it’s this: ✨ Defining the WHY – Clarifying the vision and purpose of the change. Why does this matter now, for these people, in this context? ✨ Defining the WHO – Mapping stakeholders and impacted groups. Who will feel this change? Who decides? Who influences? Who delivers? ✨ Defining the WHAT – Doing a clear change impact assessment. What exactly is changing — and what is not? For which roles, processes, tools, behaviours? ✨ Defining the HOW – Designing the strategy and change plan. How will we bring people from today to tomorrow? Communication, training, leadership engagement, local ambassadors, adoption activities. ✨ Defining WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE – Setting adoption metrics. Not “how many emails we sent”, but how deeply the change is embedded in behaviours, performance, and mindset. That’s the cycle I wanted to hear about in those interviews — but I didn’t. And it’s the cycle I believe every organisation needs, whether they call it change management or not. As a Change Strategist and Change Facilitator, I guide organisations through complex transformations with clarity, structure, and heart. I bridge the analytical with the human — helping you define a meaningful WHY, map the WHO and WHAT, design the HOW, and hard-wire adoption so the change actually sticks. If you feel your organisation is doing change without a clear cycle, I can walk you through it — step by step, from vision to real, lived adoption.
5 Myths about Change Management Quietly Sabotaging Your Transformation
Change management is still one of the most misunderstood parts of any transformation. These are 5 myths I keep meeting in real projects – and what actually happens in reality. Myth 1: The project manager can cover change management. “I don’t need a change manager, the PM will handle it.” I recently received a job offer combining both roles in one position. I declined. Reality Project management and change management are two different disciplines – and usually require very different personalities and experience. Project management is about scope, timelines, budget, risks, deliverables. Change management is about people, mindset, behaviour, communication, adoption. If you want to save cost by merging both, try to calculate how much it will cost you when: the solution is delivered on time, but people don’t use it, don’t trust it, or actively avoid it. That’s not saving. That’s delayed loss. Myth 2: We don’t need change management after Go-Live. All is delivered. Go-Live is done. Change management is over. Reality After Go-Live, the *real* change starts for people. Project managers naturally focus on issues, tickets, defect lists. Stakeholders don’t care how many meetings you had to solve them. They care about: Post Go-Live, change management works as an interpreter between: Myth 3: Change management = communications and training. “We just need someone to send emails and organise training.” Reality Comms and training are only the visible tip of the iceberg. Effective change management starts much earlier with questions like: Change managers are trained and skilled to decipher the WHY and the impact, translate it into business language, and make sure communications and training are relevant – not generic noise. Without this, you’re not doing change management. You’re broadcasting. Myth 4: Stakeholder management = stakeholder mapping once and we’re done. “We have a stakeholder map in the deck. Tick.” Reality A stakeholder map is a starting point, not a strategy. Stakeholder management means: This is a continuous role – and it sits strongly in the change manager’s scope. Myth 5: People resist change by default – so why invest in change management? “Employees just don’t like change. Resistance will always be there. Let’s just deliver and move on.” Reality People don’t resist change as such. They resist loss, uncertainty, and lack of clarity. Most resistance comes from: Proper change management can: It’s not nice to have. It’s risk management for the people side of your transformation. If you recognise at least one of these myths in your organisation, that’s already a signal. The question is: do you want your next change to be delivered… or adopted?
What is change management – and why do companies that don’t use it fall behind those that work with it strategically?
“Another change? And we’re the last ones to find out about it…” Does that sound familiar?If yes, there’s a high chance your company is surviving change rather than leading it. What is change management in a nutshell Change management is an (un)structured approach to how you prepare, execute, and embed change with people, so that the new way of working becomes the standard – and so that your investment in change pays off. It’s not something nice-to-have or trendy. It’s the bridge between: Strategy – “what we want to change and why” and Reality – “how people actually work today.” Without this bridge, even the best projects land in a vacuum. Without people on board. What happens in companies that don’t address change management Companies without a systematic approach to change typically experience the same pattern: As a result, the company: And now the other side of the story: companies that work with change strategically Organisations that treat change management as part of their strategy do several things differently: They plan change for people as carefully as for systems The change has its own strategy and plan – communication, training, support, adoption metrics. They know who is impacted the most. They have an analysis of key stakeholders and personas impacted by the change.So they know how to talk to managers, how to talk to production, how to talk to a sales reps in the field. They give leaders a real role, not just a slide deck or an email to send. Managers are prepared for questions, have arguments, and know how to lead their team through the change. They measure adoption, not just go-live. They care about who has logged into the new system, who is using new features, who understands their new role, where things are stuck – and they adjust the plan accordingly. Such companies are able to: Why the gap will keep growing With the increasing pace of change, one thing is certain: Companies that can manage change repeatedly and in a structured way will have an advantage.Not because they have more sophisticated tools.But because they have prepared people. Those people: Do you want to be among those setting the pace – not just trying to catch up? If you feel your organisation has gone through several imperfect changes, or you’re facing a major transformation project, this is the ideal moment to look at it differently. How I can help I can help you: I invite you to an introductory consultation – we’ll look at your specific projects and identify where change management can bring you quick and visible value.