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🔥 Change Management is Overrated—Here’s What We Should Be Talking About Instead

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Amanda Harris Leonardo DRS Space Coast, FL, United States

When people hear "change management," they often think of checklists, resistance logs, and communication plans. And while those are valuable tools, I’d argue that we’re missing the bigger picture.



In my experience leading transformation initiatives across IT, supply chain, and e-commerce, the real game-changer hasn’t been the process. It’s been the people. More specifically:



How we engage them early



How we empower them to co-create the future state



How we embed ownership into every layer of the organization



At Venus Fashion, we turned around a three-year-stalled project in months—not because of better templates, but because we aligned teams, listened deeply, and made change personal and collaborative.



So here’s my question to you all:



👉 What has made change truly stick in your organization?
Is it the framework, the culture—or something else entirely?



Let’s get into it. 👇

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Laura Schofield
PMI Team Member
Community Specialist| Project Management Institute Newtown Square, PA, United States
Thanks for posting, Amanda! This is a really interesting topic. Highlighting your question for visibility to fellow community members:

What has made change truly stick in your organization?
Is it the framework, the culture—or something else entirely?

Looking forward to hearing everyone's experiences!

You may also be interested in previous discussions on the people side of change management:

https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi...nd-in-prince-ii
...
1 reply by Amanda Harris
Apr 15, 2025 10:12 AM
Amanda Harris
...
In my experience, changes really stick when people are engaged early on and have the opportunity to provide input. Folks are more likely to adopt a solution that they contributed to.
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Zakaria Botros
Community Champion
Project Manager | Driving Clean Energy Innovations for a Sustainable Future| Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ontario, Canada

Thanks for sharing this—it really made me think, especially the part about making change personal and involving people early.



To be honest, in my own experience, I haven’t really seen any organization fully apply change management in a real and consistent way. A few times, it came up when there was a new process or tool being rolled out, but it felt more like a formality. People seemed open to the idea of change inside the change management activity, but outside of it, they stayed just as resistant as before.



And I think that’s a big part of the problem. Change management is often treated like a temporary project, not something that’s part of the culture. It ends up being about templates and checklists instead of how we lead, communicate, and involve people in the process.



So to your question—what makes change stick? For me, it’s not really about the framework. It has to be something deeper, something that shapes how people think and act every day. Otherwise, the change fades as soon as the project ends.



Would really like to hear how others have seen it work better in the long run.

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1 reply by Amanda Harris
Apr 15, 2025 10:13 AM
Amanda Harris
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Absolutely! The transformation must be personal, not just organizational.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
For me it is something "simple" to address if what is in charge to lead a new initiative explain to everybody that organizations are open and adaptable systems then everything you introduce in the system will transform it moving from two states. Business Analyst is in charge of this type of things.
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Amanda Harris Leonardo DRS Space Coast, FL, United States
Apr 09, 2025 4:28 PM
Replying to Laura Schofield
...
Thanks for posting, Amanda! This is a really interesting topic. Highlighting your question for visibility to fellow community members:

What has made change truly stick in your organization?
Is it the framework, the culture—or something else entirely?

Looking forward to hearing everyone's experiences!

You may also be interested in previous discussions on the people side of change management:

https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi...nd-in-prince-ii
In my experience, changes really stick when people are engaged early on and have the opportunity to provide input. Folks are more likely to adopt a solution that they contributed to.
avatar
Amanda Harris Leonardo DRS Space Coast, FL, United States
Apr 10, 2025 7:53 PM
Replying to Zakaria Botros
...

Thanks for sharing this—it really made me think, especially the part about making change personal and involving people early.



To be honest, in my own experience, I haven’t really seen any organization fully apply change management in a real and consistent way. A few times, it came up when there was a new process or tool being rolled out, but it felt more like a formality. People seemed open to the idea of change inside the change management activity, but outside of it, they stayed just as resistant as before.



And I think that’s a big part of the problem. Change management is often treated like a temporary project, not something that’s part of the culture. It ends up being about templates and checklists instead of how we lead, communicate, and involve people in the process.



So to your question—what makes change stick? For me, it’s not really about the framework. It has to be something deeper, something that shapes how people think and act every day. Otherwise, the change fades as soon as the project ends.



Would really like to hear how others have seen it work better in the long run.

Absolutely! The transformation must be personal, not just organizational.
avatar
Oliver Schneidemann Transformation Professional New York, NY, United States
I think what you are referring to is delivering continuous change as part of the organization’s cultural fabric (adaptability). One leadership aspect I’ve seen done well, and not so well, is alignment across departments and functions starting at the top. A question to ask then is: what executive-level oversight function is tasked with managing enterprise change, and how effective is it?

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