Most organizations are good at managing resistance to a single change and poor at building the capacity to absorb disruption as a constant. Here’s how to shift from resistance management to organizational resilience as a standing competency.

Most organizations are good at managing resistance to a single change and poor at building the capacity to absorb disruption as a constant. Here’s how to shift from resistance management to organizational resilience as a standing competency.
Most leaders I work with are proud of their “no drama” cultures. Meetings run on time. People nod. Decisions get made without much friction. Disagreements get resolved offline, if at all. We tend to interpret that as success. I’d argue it’s often the opposite. When people stop speaking up, it’s rarely because they’re fully on […]
A chief transformation officer had what she called her “cascade problem.” Every major transformation update followed the same path: she briefed the executive committee, the executive committee briefed their direct reports, the direct reports held team meetings, and by the time the message reached the people actually doing the work, it bore almost no resemblance […]
Software engineers have a concept called technical debt: the accumulated cost of shortcuts and quick fixes that look manageable in the short run but quietly make future work harder, slower, and riskier. Technical debt is invisible on the balance sheet. It shows up instead as systems that break under pressure, developers who can’t move fast, […]
Every transformation has a blueprint. Executive sponsors set the vision. Change management teams build the communication plan. Frontline employees receive the training. But somewhere between the boardroom and the shop floor, there’s a layer of the organization that gets neither the strategic context nor the operational support it needs — and it happens to be […]
Succession-Proofing Change Narratives Executive turnover is no longer an episodic disruption. Boards rotate sponsors mid-flight, new leaders arrive with new mandates, and large transformations often outlast the executives who launched them. The real vulnerability isn’t just decision latency—it’s narrative whiplash. When the story behind the change collapses, so does trust. Succession-proofing the narrative means treating […]
As a Johns Hopkins University alumnus, I’ve always appreciated the institution’s commitment to rigorous research that challenges conventional wisdom. So when I came across this recent study from Johns Hopkins that revealed doctors who use AI are viewed as less competent by their peers, I wasn’t just intrigued—I was concerned. This finding should serve as […]
In any organization, the success of a long-term strategic initiative depends not only on vision and execution, but also on communication. Particularly when the initiative spans a year or more—as major transformations, technology deployments, or organizational redesigns often do—leaders must embrace a proactive approach to keeping stakeholders informed. It’s not just a matter of courtesy. […]