Understanding Change Management Success Factors

I keep returning to Damon Centola’s research on how #change spreads. Not because it’s clever. Because it’s true. Centola found that change doesn’t move like information. You can’t push it through announcements or clever messaging. It spreads through behavior, #trust, and networks. He calls it complex contagion, and it tracks with what I see inside organizations every day. People don’t change because someone at the top says so. They change when they see people they trust doing something new. Then they see it again. Then maybe one more time. That’s when it starts to feel real. That’s when it moves. Here’s what Centola’s research shows actually makes change stick: - Multiple exposures. Once isn’t enough. People need to encounter the new behavior several times from different people. - Trusted messengers. It’s not about role or rank. It’s about credibility in the day-to-day. - Strong ties. Close, high-trust relationships are where change actually moves. - Visible behavior. People need to see it being done, not just hear about it. - Reinforcement over time. Real change takes repetition. One wave won’t do it. This flips most #ChangeManagement upside down. It’s not about the rollout or coms plan. It’s about reinforcing new behaviors inside the real social structure of the organization. So, if you are a part of change, ask your team and self: 1. Who are the people others watch? 2. Where are the trusted connections? 3. Is the behavior visible and repeated? 4. Are you designing for reinforcement or just awareness? Change isn’t a #communication problem. It’s a network pattern. That’s the shift. That’s the work. And that’s what I help teams build.

Too often, I see organizations treat change management like a box to check. A big announcement, a training session, and then done. But real change doesn’t work that way. True transformation requires: – Ongoing assessment – Adaptation – Reinforcement Without continuous effort, old habits creep back in, resistance builds, and the change fades. Here’s what effective change management looks like: ✅ 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 → People need clarity, not just at the start but throughout the process. ✅ 𝐎𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 → Training once isn’t enough. Reinforcement helps teams adapt and sustain new behaviors. ✅ 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐬 → Success isn’t set in stone. Organizations must listen, measure progress, and adjust as needed. ✅ 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 → Real change becomes part of how a company operates, not just a project with an end date. If you want change to last, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭. The best organizations don’t just manage change. They embrace it as a way of working.

Lesson from 15+ years of change work: Tech projects don’t fail because the system breaks they fail because adoption breaks. 👉 I’ve watched it happen again and again: 💸 Millions invested. ⚙️ The system goes live. 😬 And then… resistance sets in. People log in, but they hesitate. Old habits creep back. Frustration bubbles under the surface. Not because the technology didn’t work. But because the people weren’t ready to work with it. And here’s what many forget -> AI isn’t just innovation, it’s a technology rollout. And like any rollout, it needs to follow the same change management protocols that ensure people adapt, adopt, and thrive with it. That’s why Change Management isn’t optional. It’s the missing piece. And the ADKAR model shows us exactly where adoption breaks: A- Awareness: ☑️ Do people truly know why AI is being introduced? ↳ Awareness means leaders explain how AI connects to strategy, purpose, and people. Not just efficiency metrics. D- Desire: ☑️ Do they actually want to use it, or do they fear it? ↳ Desire grows when organizations emphasize partnership. AI as a tool to amplify human work, not erase it. K- Knowledge: ☑️ Do they know how to use AI in their day-to-day? ↳Training isn’t a one-time webinar. It’s real-world, role-specific, hands-on guidance. Without this, AI sits idle. Knowledge is about building confidence, not just checking a compliance box. A- Ability: ☑️ Can they actually apply what they’ve learned? ↳It’s one thing to sit through training. It’s another to open your laptop Monday morning and use AI in your workflow. Ability grows when people get coaching, safe spaces to experiment, and reinforcement to move from theory to practice. R- Reinforcement: ☑️ Will the change stick when it gets hard? ↳The real test comes months later, when stress rises and habits try to return. Reinforcement means leaders recognize wins, reward adoption, and keep the momentum alive so AI becomes part of culture and not just a short-term experiment. Ignore change management, and AI becomes another tool people resist. Embrace it, and AI becomes the spark that transforms how we work, lead, and grow. The difference isn’t the tech—> it’s the people. ♻️ Repost if you’re investing in people, not just tech. For More on AI + Future of Work→ Janet Perez

70% of change initiatives fail. But yours doesn’t have to. I’ve led 35+ corporations through change with a 100% success rate over 30 years. Here’s one of the biggest reasons why. Success in change isn’t about having the perfect plan. It’s about avoiding the traps that cause failure. 🔵 My 2 Biggest Discoveries: 1️⃣ Companies Fail for the Same Reasons At the start of each project, I ask the management team to list the causes of failure from past change projects. When we review the lists, we always see the same problems repeated. The first few times, I was surprised. But after seeing it in every organization, the conclusion was clear: ➨ Organizations are not learning from their past mistakes. 2️⃣ The “Inhibitors of Change” When I analyzed the failure lists from over 100 change projects, the same issues appeared again and again: resistance, derailment factors, misalignment, lack of momentum, etc. This leads to my second discovery: ➨ There are a limited number of Inhibitors that consistently cause change efforts to fail. I spent two years identifying and classifying these Inhibitors and developing counterstrategies to overcome them. I call this the Inhibitors Strategy. Since then, every change project I lead includes an Inhibitors Strategy. With 35+ corporations transformed and a 100% success rate, I believe this is the key to successful change in large organizations. 🔵 3 Components of an Inhibitors' Strategy Identify Past Inhibitors ↳ Spot specific derailment factors ↳ Document forms of resistance ↳ Analyze where momentum was lost Plan Countermeasures ↳ Create a countermeasure for each Inhibitor ↳ Build feedback loops into your action plan ↳ Include safeguards from the start Overcoming Inhibitors ↳ Design strategies that counter derailment factors ↳ Build systems to spot Inhibitors during implementation ↳ Add countermeasures to your 3-month action plan Remember: your strategies are created by the best minds in your organization. Yet 70% of change projects still fail. I can’t say the Inhibitors Strategy is the only reason for our 100% success rate. But it’s a big part of it. 👉 The secret to success in organizational change isn’t better project management. It’s removing the Inhibitors of Change. Make the reasons for your past failures the foundation for success in your next change effort. What Inhibitors have you seen derail change in your organization? _____________   ♻️ 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 to help other organizations succeed in their change effort 🔔 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 Jacques Fischer for strategies to  ↳ Manage change  ↳ Evolve the culture  ↳ Improve leadership  ↳ Develop high-performance organizations 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑵𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝑺𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 #humanresources #hr #culturechange #changemanagement