How to Beat Change Fatigue in Your Organization

Your employees are exhausted. They show up to work, do the minimum required tasks, and resist new initiatives. When you announce changes, you hear complaints and pushback. What you're seeing is change fatigue, and it's becoming a major problem for businesses everywhere.

What Is Change Fatigue?

Change fatigue happens when people become exhausted from dealing with too much change too quickly. Jeff Kaplan, CEO of Leading With Heart, explains it simply: "Change fatigue is just being exhausted from the amount of change that we're having to deal with that seems to be exponential."

Think about your own life over the past three years. You've likely dealt with personal changes, workplace shifts, new technology, and major events affecting everyone. Now multiply that by the changes happening inside your company. The result is employees who are simply worn out.

Recent research from Gallup shows just how serious this problem has become. They interviewed over 18,000 employees and found something alarming. In 2016, companies had an average of two major enterprise-wide changes happening. By 2022, that number jumped to 10 changes per company.

The impact on your workforce is huge. In 2016, 74% of employees felt engaged and wanted to stay with their companies. By 2022, only 43% felt the same way. That's a drop of 31 percentage points in just six years.

How to Spot Change Fatigue in Your Team

You might not always recognize change fatigue when you see it. After all, constant change has become normal for many of us. But there are clear signs you can watch for.

In yourself, you might notice that you get tired earlier in the day. You might love your work but find yourself wanting to watch TV and eat dinner at 5 or 6 o'clock instead of working late like you used to.

In your team, change fatigue shows up in several ways:

●      Employees do only the minimum required work

●      People resist new changes and complain about why things won't work

●      You see less creativity and innovation from your staff

●      Team members focus on protecting themselves instead of helping the company

●      More conflict happens between coworkers

●      Communication and teamwork get worse

●      Problem-solving and decision-making become harder

●      HR receives more complaints

Common Mistakes in Change Management Communication

When you need to communicate changes to your team, you face two types of problems: issues with the messenger and issues with the message itself.

Problems with the Messenger

Effective change management communication requires what Kaplan calls "heart-centered leadership." Leaders need to be purposeful, engaged, empathetic, understanding, and humble. Many leaders fail in these areas.

Some leaders talk about changes without connecting them to the bigger picture or company mission. Others lack engagement with their employees, so when they announce changes, people have already stopped listening. Many leaders fail to show empathy by not acknowledging that change is hard for people.

Leaders also sometimes don't understand the real impact changes have on their teams. Finally, some show up with arrogance instead of humility when discussing major shifts.

Problems with the Message

Your change management communication can also fail because of message problems. Common issues include:

Lack of clarity: Messages are vague, inconsistent, or too complex for people to understand and repeat.

Poor timing: One client found out her entire team was being fired the next day when she saw it on TV. Information spreading through rumors instead of official channels creates serious trust problems.

One-way communication: You craft a great message and push it down to employees, but you don't collect feedback or let people raise concerns.

Trust issues: A USC study found that 50% of employees don't trust their middle managers. If people don't trust the person delivering the message, your communication will fail.

Misaligned behavior: Your message doesn't match your actions. For example, cutting positions and salaries while senior management gets raises sends the wrong signal.

Building Effective Change Management Communication

To fix these problems, you need both global and local messaging strategies. You also need to use multiple communication channels.

People already communicate through email, text apps like WhatsApp, phone calls, regular meetings, and informal conversations. When managing change, use these different channels because people receive information differently. Some prefer email while others need face-to-face conversations.

Your overarching message might be the same company-wide, but what a front-line manager needs to hear differs from what a senior manager needs to know. Work with communication experts to understand your company culture and how different groups receive information best.

Managing Capacity for Change

The key word for leaders dealing with change fatigue is capacity. As Kaplan puts it: "Too much change too quickly equals resistance." Even good changes create stress for your team.

Remember that people and organizations have limits on how much change they can handle. The pandemic forced everyone to increase their change capacity, but asking people to keep operating at that level forever will cause problems.

Here's how to manage change capacity better:

Prioritize your changes: You might want to change 20 things, but focus on the three most important ones first. Don't overwhelm people.

Be purposeful, not reactive: Connect changes to your strategy and make sure they align with company values and mission. Look ahead five years and ask if these changes will still make sense.

Be measured: Avoid being like "bulls in a China shop." Make changes thoughtfully and ensure everyone understands and supports them.

Supporting Your Team Through Change

Change takes an emotional toll that business school doesn't teach you how to handle. As a leader, you need to manage your own emotions first. Start with basic health habits like exercise, sleep, and good nutrition. These often slip when you're stressed, but they're exactly what you need most.

When helping others deal with emotions during change, Kaplan suggests using the LAVAF framework:

Listen: Try to understand rather than just respond. Hear what they're saying, trying to say, and not saying.

Acknowledge: Show that you understand how they feel. Say something like "You're worried and not sure what the future holds."

Validate: Normalize their experience. "These are scary times and we're all a little unsure."

Assure: Give confidence they can handle this. "I know you can get through this. We will handle this together."

Ask: Find out what they need. "What do you need right now? What can I do to help?"

Follow up: Check in proactively after a few days. "How are you doing today?"

Setting Ground Rules for Team Communication

Ground rules help clarify how your team will work together during change. Think about playing Monopoly without instructions - you'd be confused and frustrated. Ground rules work the same way for teams.

You can create ground rules three ways:

1. You decide and announce them

2. Ask the team to create them together

3. Draft rules and ask for team feedback

For things like camera policies in virtual meetings, be flexible. If 100 people attend a large meeting where not everyone contributes, requiring all cameras might be unrealistic. But for training sessions where engagement matters, cameras should be on.

Work with your group to figure out what works best, and review these rules regularly as needs change.

Take Action Against Change Fatigue

Change fatigue is real and affects your best employees. But you don't need perfect solutions to help your team. As Kaplan reminds us: "When all else fails, lead with your heart. When your heart leads, your mind will know what to do."

Your role is to support and guide your team, not fix them. Like a caring parent during difficult times, you need to be there for your employees regardless of how you feel personally.

Start by recognizing change fatigue in yourself and your team. Then improve your change management communication by being more purposeful, empathetic, and clear. Set realistic expectations about change capacity and provide emotional support when people struggle.

The companies that handle change fatigue well will keep their best people and stay competitive. Those that ignore it will continue losing engaged employees and struggle with resistance to necessary changes.

Your team is counting on you to lead them through this period of constant change. With the right approach, you can reduce change fatigue and build a stronger, more resilient organization.