“I just don’t understand why they are making this so difficult!”
“The changes are not that significant!”
“We asked for their feedback on the strategy, and they should feel heard.”
I’ve heard statements like these in boardrooms, team meetings, and after-hour calls with leaders under pressure. And typically, the statements are spoken out of frustration, disappointment, or plain exasperation. As a leader, you are trying to meet the goals of your organization’s strategy plan, you may be feeling pressure from the board or community stakeholders, and you’re carrying stressors your people don’t even know about. You just want your people to change.
Giving voice to your frustrations about your team feels unprofessional and even undignified. So what do we do with our frustrations or resentments?
Patrice Dawkins-Jackson is facilitating session PC13 | The Human Side of Change at the Learning Forward 2025 Annual Conference on December 7, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Eastern. Preconference sessions include a midday break. Session selection is open online.
Facing the truth
We start by acknowledging that leading change is hard. Full stop. It doesn’t matter how small or large the shift may seem on paper. And it is especially difficult to change adult mindsets and behaviors because we all bring our own identities, lived experiences, and deeply ingrained mental models into the room. The question then becomes: Is it possible to drive change while still respecting those identities, lived experiences, and mental models? The answer: Absolutely. But only if you take a human-centered approach.
Now, I know some folks will roll their eyes here; they feel like this is real Pollyanna right now. For them, culture change and being human-centered sound like fluff. (How I know this is a story for another blog.) The truth is: what you give your time, resources, and focus to is what you value. So here’s the tough question I have for my leaders: how much time, energy, and focus have you really invested in creating a human-centered approach to change so that those “quiet part out loud” moments aren’t even a thought anymore? That can be a heavy question, because investing in change is hard.
What the research says
According to Hubbart (2023), when leaders recognize and address resistance early, they create the conditions for smoother transitions and more productive outcomes. When leaders also provide meaningful work and foster an inclusive, respectful, and empathetic culture, it encourages early commitment and greater openness to change, which strengthens long-term effectiveness.
The investment creates a space where people feel trusted, heard, given agency, and where leaders lean into resistance not to dismiss it but to understand it. In other words, the investment reshapes the culture of change from something done to people into something created with them.
And what does that look like, sound like, and feel like? It looks like change met with acceptance and commitment. It sounds like people using their voices and being heard. And it feels like resilience, energy, and growth—even in a constantly shifting environment (Hubbart, 2023). Can you imagine that?
Leaning into resistance
The good news is, you don’t have to imagine it. It’s possible. It just takes intentionality. And what does that look like in practice? It looks like creating conditions where people feel safe taking interpersonal risks, where they have real agency, and where leaders don’t run from resistance but lean in to understand what’s behind it. This is not easy work. But it is worthwhile work. I know this because I’ve lived it.
I once stewarded an organization through a major transformation using these exact principles. And let me tell you, it wasn’t quick and it wasn’t neat. But it worked. First, we focused on psychological safety. We needed to build a space where people could speak up, offer different perspectives, and share their ideas without fear of judgment. And I started with the leaders. It was vital that they modeled the mindsets and behaviors they wanted to see ripple through the organization. Then, we built agency. That meant more than just asking for feedback — it meant listening to it, showing what we were doing with it, and making visible changes that promoted autonomy. People were able to own the changes because they helped co-create them. Finally, we leaned into resistance. That meant creating space for real conversations, even when the feedback was hard to hear. It meant anticipating pushback and establishing mechanisms to address it — from transparent communication plans to structured listening sessions. At every step, we stayed human-centered. And that made the difference.
Being human-centered is what keeps you from getting stuck in negative thoughts about your team. It keeps you from resenting the very people you’re supposed to be leading. Because instead of pushing change on them, you’re walking through it with them. When leaders are thoughtful, when they create psychological safety, when they share ownership, and when they unpack the pushback with empathy, they don’t have to say the quiet part aloud anymore.
Reference
Hubbart, Jason. (2023). Organizational Change: The Challenge of Change Aversion. Administrative Sciences. 13. 1-9. 10.3390/admsci13070162.
