The "No-Change-Manager": Rethinking the Pace of Change to Protect People and Purpose

As a change manager, my passion is to guide and facilitate change. I'm convinced, after all, that change is what drives progress, growth, and innovation. But lately, I find myself facing a different kind of challenge—one that sometimes goes against the grain of my role: I started advising against too much change.

It might seem counterintuitive, but I am increasingly seeing the pace of change dialed up to an unsustainable speed, with multiple parallel initiatives overwhelming employees and threatening their mental health.

The Unrelenting Pace of Change...

In many of the organizations I’ve supported recently, I've witnessed firsthand how dozens of players across departments and initiatives are all imposing their own change agendas, often without any internal coordination or prioritization. The result is a chaotic environment where employees are bombarded with conflicting priorities, trying to navigate through a sea of clashing expectations—all while attempting to manage their core responsibilities.

... its Dramatic Impact on Employees...

A recent World Health Organization (WHO) study on mental health in the workplace paints a vivid picture of the impact this can have. Poor working environments—defined by a high pace of change with unsustainably high workloads, job insecurity, and a lack of control—pose serious risks to mental health. And what are we creating when we impose a non-stop stream of overlapping change initiatives? Exactly that kind of working environment.

For the average employee, the constant change pressure is taking a devastating toll. Employees are asked to embrace change after change, often without the time or space needed to genuinely adapt and absorb the new ways of working. The result is not only burnout and disengagement but also a decline in productivity and innovation—the very things that these changes were intended to boost.

Employees are caught between trying to follow new priorities, meet shifting targets, and balance their day-to-day tasks. With each new change, they lose a little more clarity on what is actually important. In many cases, it’s not resistance that’s causing problems—it’s exhaustion.

... and its Devastating Long-term Effect on (Change) Culture

The relentless pace of overlapping change initiatives doesn’t just impact individual employees—it can have a crippling effect on company culture as a whole. When employees are continually overwhelmed and disengaged, the credibility of those leading the change begins to erode. Over time, a culture of cynicism and distrust can develop, with employees viewing each new change as yet another burden rather than an opportunity for improvement and growth. This skepticism leads to a situation where even the most well-intentioned and well-designed change initiatives are met with resistance or indifference, as employees expect little benefit from what they perceive as more disruption. The result? A company culture where genuine enthusiasm for change is replaced by fatigue and skepticism, leaving future initiatives with a high probability of failure before they even begin. Without trust and credibility, change becomes an uphill battle—one that’s increasingly difficult to win.

The Case for Slowing Down

In today’s world, there are indeed countless pressures and opportunities for change. But as change leaders, we have a responsibility to recognize when the pace is unsustainable. The WHO concludes that to protect employee's mental health companies need to create a more enabling environment for change. If I reflect on the last 12 or so months, there are a few ways in which we as change leaders can have a direct positive impact:

1. Map Change Initiatives: This is the absolute base for more sustainable change. Mapping all ongoing and planned initiatives within teams but - even more importantly - across the whole organization is becoming a MUST, and it enables:
2. Prioritize Change Initiatives: Not all changes can or should be pursued at once. By evaluating which initiatives are truly critical and which can be paused or postponed, organizations can prevent change fatigue and ensure that efforts are focused on the most impactful projects. To be credible and strategic, the responsibility for the prioritization needs to be elevated out of the specific expert departments to the CEO or strategy office, and involve operational business representatives.
3. Coordinate Across Departments: Cross-functional coordination is key to managing the pace of change. When different departments run their own unaligned change agendas, the cumulative effect on employees can be overwhelming. A centralized approach that considers all ongoing changes can help prevent unnecessary overlap and reduce pressure on teams. In a first step, departments need to understand the unhealthy effect of running uncoordinated, individual change agendas.
4. Involve Employees to Safeguard their Well-being: Organizations need to recognize the mental health implications of relentless change. This implies a more contemporary and flexible approach to change management. Offering employees flexibility, involving them in decision-making, and providing proper support can help mitigate the negative effects. But more than that, sometimes the best way to support employees is to simply say, "This change can wait."

So as change managers, our job isn’t just to push through as many changes as possible. It’s to ensure that the changes we pursue are meaningful, sustainable, and beneficial for everyone involved. This sometimes means taking a step back, evaluating the current environment, and making the difficult decision to slow down. Only then can we create an environment where employees are not only willing but genuinely able to embrace change. We need to carefully (and constantly) rethink how we balance opportunity with capacity and how we manage not just the change itself, but the people living through it.

How do you feel reading the above? Did you start noticing too, that the pace of change in your organization was simply too much? How can we strike a balance between embracing necessary changes and protecting the well-being of our employees? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

#ChangeManagement #MentalHealth #Leadership #OrganizationalChange #Wellbeing