Managing Workload Changes During Organizational Shifts

Microchanges: The Hidden Amplifiers of Change Fatigue Last week, I shared metrics for measuring organizational capacity. Based on some of the great things shared, I wanted to explore a critical but often invisible contributor to that fatigue: microchanges. While we track major transformations, it's the cumulative impact of dozens of small changes that often pushes teams past their capacity limits. ❓ What Exactly Are "Microchanges"? Microchanges are those seemingly minor shifts that individually don't warrant formal change management: - A new field added to a customer form - Updated approval workflows - UI tweaks after system upgrades - Policy "clarifications" and exceptions - Revised meeting cadences Each seems negligible, but collectively they create significant cognitive load. According to research from London Business School, employees in digital-forward financial organizations navigate an average of 32 microchanges monthly—most completely unmanaged. ✨ The Fatigue Multiplier Effect Remember those fatigue metrics we discussed? Microchanges amplify them in predictable ways: 1. They consume the "recovery periods" between major changes that your dashboard might show as "low-intensity" zones 2. They disproportionately impact certain roles—usually those already handling the most formal change initiatives 3. They create "change noise" that makes communication about significant initiatives harder to distinguish In one financial services transformation I supported, we discovered a good portion of the reported change fatigue stemmed not from the core system/process implementation but from the constellation of small adjustments happening simultaneously. 🔎Practical Microchange Management To address this hidden fatigue driver: 1. Conduct a Microchange Audit: Have teams log ALL changes, regardless of size, for two weeks. The results are often shocking. 2. Implement "Change Bundling": Group small changes into periodic, predictable releases rather than continuous trickles. 3. Create Department Microchange Calendars: Visualize and manage the total change load, including the small stuff. 4. Assign "Microchange Coordination" Responsibility: Designate someone to track, bundle and communicate minor changes. ⛓️💥 Connecting to Your Change Capacity Dashboard Expand your fatigue metrics to include: - Microchange volume as a separate measure - "Change fragmentation" score (ratio of major to micro changes) - Department-level microchange exposure metrics Organizations that manage both major transformations AND the microchange environment consistently demonstrate greater change resilience and faster benefit realization! What microchanges create the most fatigue in your organization? Have you found effective ways to manage them alongside your major transformation initiatives? #ChangeManagement #OrganizationalChange #MicrochangeManagement #DigitalTransformation #ChangeFatigue

A major (& under-discussed) career transition: getting a new leader or a significant restructuring. Managing this kind of change is similar to starting a new job. You often have the same team and title, but tasks around you shift. One of my clients had six bosses in four years, & each boss brought a new direction to her team. Though extreme, this is becoming common. When I wrote the book New Job Success Guide, I didn't realize how many people would use it to cope with a change in their current job – since the first steps are nearly identical to starting a new job. If you're pivoting with a new boss or a significant change in company direction, here are three proven steps to increase your success. One: develop a learning plan. Your current processes & game plan may not work with a new boss or a significant change. Focus your learning plan on the knowledge gaps on the different ideas and methods being introduced. Two: establish new relationships. This may sound unnecessary because you're still working in the same group, but if the organization is making a change, you need to understand how that change impacts your work. One way to do this is to seek out other voices. If your boss is an internal transfer, talk to people who worked for them. If the company is starting a new initiative, research other people or orgs who've made similar changes. Three, and the most important: get crystal clear on your deliverables. Don't assume the expectations are the same. New leadership or a direction change can signal a shift in process and priorities. Get out in front of this and clearly define what you need to deliver & when as soon as possible. In general, over-communicate, be curious, don’t expect the status quo, and prepare to be resilient. It’s a bigger transition than you might realize, so prepare yourself accordingly.