How to Recognize Signs of Change Fatigue

“They’re being difficult. They just don’t want to change.” Sound familiar? Let’s talk about what might really be going on: change fatigue, not resistance. And if that's the case, your org might be out of shape. Change fatigue isn’t resistance. It’s a warning sign. And it’s time we treated it like one. I recently hosted a session for our internal Change Management Community of Practice. When I introduced the idea of Change Fitness, most hadn’t heard the term, but instantly recognized its cousin: change fatigue. Change Fitness = an organization’s ability to sustain and absorb transformation over time. It’s not about the volume of change—it’s about the impact. Fatigue shows up as disengagement, silence, missed milestones, and cynicism. According to Prosci, change saturation happens when the disruption exceeds your organization’s capacity to absorb it. Imagine a bucket: The size = your change capacity The water = disruption When it spills = it burnout So what’s filling your org’s bucket? • Too many projects, not enough alignment • Communications that confuse instead of clarify • Leaders pushing isolated changes without visibility (or care) into other efforts • No structured CM plan—causing more chaos than calm Here’s what I often see: Leaders label fatigue as “resistance” and double down on “driving adoption” (usually more emails 🙃). But what’s really needed? Relief. Clarity. Focus. That’s where Change Fitness comes in. Just like physical fitness helps us meet physical demands, Change Fitness allows organizations and individuals to meet the demands of ongoing transformation. Instead of asking: “How do we drive adoption?” Try asking: 🔺 “Did we demonstrate the benefits of the last change?” 🔺“Have we responded to what’s draining our teams?” 🔺“Are we reducing friction—or adding more effort?” If you’ve built that trust, reinforced those muscles, and practiced good CM habits, your org will be more fit than most. Ways to build Change Fitness: • Use Prosci’s Change Saturation Assessment • Audit comms to simplify (less jargon, more showing) • Map your change portfolio to catch collision points • Equip managers as coaches, —not just messengers Because fatigue has a voice, it just speaks quietly...until it runs out of steam. Have you seen fatigue misread as pushback?

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

Lately, I've had to coach lots of executives and leaders on Change Fatigue and Change Saturation. 71% of employees feel overwhelmed by the amount of change at work. This overwhelming feeling leads to significant change fatigue. ➤It overwhelms employees. ➤Leads to burnout. ➤Reduces productivity. ➤Increases turnover. Right now, only 43% of employees intend to stay in their current jobs because of change fatigue. Surprisingly, most people haven't heard this term: Change Saturation. And most companies are already experiencing it. It's an organizational inability to absorb more change. It occurs when multiple changes exceed the organization’s capacity for change. This leads to failed initiatives and systemic inefficiencies. Here’s how to tackle change fatigue and saturation: 1. Recognize Change Fatigue: ➤Survey employees regularly. ➤Provide tailored support plans. 2. Prioritize and Stagger Initiatives: ➤Rank projects by importance. ➤Implement changes in phases. 3. Transparent Communication: ➤Keep employees informed. ➤Engage teams in the process. 4. Implement Change Freezes: ➤Introduce periods with no new initiatives. 5. Adopt an Open-Source Change Strategy: ➤Engage employees in designing and implementing changes. Addressing both change fatigue and change saturation creates a resilient workforce. If you're experiencing change fatigue and saturation, reach out, I have some strategies that work.