Lately, I’ve been thinking about what it’s like to successfully lead a change initiative.

The signs are unmistakable when you announce your latest transformation project. Your team’s eyes glaze over at the words “exciting new initiative.” That’s not resistance—it’s change fatigue, and it’s costing American businesses a staggering $450 billion annually.

For every transformation your executive team dreams up, there’s a team downstairs mentally calculating how many nights and weekends it will cost them.

Change fatigue shows up like an unwelcome but predictable guest.

• The once-enthusiastic manager now responds with “Sure, whatever you think is best” (translation: “I’ve given up fighting”)
• Your meetings grow eerily quiet when transformation topics appear
• The phrase “we tried something like this before” becomes your team’s protective incantation

This isn’t your team being difficult. It’s their emotional immune system working exactly as designed.

I witnessed this firsthand while leading a team updating our company’s core software platform. The C-suite celebrated the promised efficiencies while my team looked like I’d just announced we were switching to typewriters. One brave soul finally spoke up: “So we’re replacing the system that runs our entire business… with this?” His tone carried the weight of a dozen previous “improvements” that created more problems than they solved.

Here’s the truth leadership books rarely admit: Every change problem is fundamentally a trust problem. 

People’s livelihoods depend on doing their jobs well. Without trust, a massive change to how someone does their job can be perceived as a parallel threat to their wellbeing. If change fatigue has set in, rebuilding trust must be your first priority.

Three Approaches That Actually Work

1. Make the invisible visible 

Instead of surprising your team with a big reveal, create a “Change Forecast” in your workspace. Six months out: potential system changes. Three months out: specific options. One month out: transition timeline.

This isn’t just communication—it’s inoculation. Small doses of change awareness build immunity to shock and give people time to mentally prepare.

2. Listen when it feels least convenient 

When implementation hits turbulence, schedule “Friction Sessions” where teams can document specific workflow issues. The most valuable feedback often comes precisely when you’re most tempted to push through resistance.

This approach reveals critical functionality gaps that might otherwise surface only after full deployment, when fixes are exponentially more expensive and disruptive.

3. Celebrate the skeptics 

This might be the toughest and most counterintuitive part of the process. It’s natural to want to push back against people who voice skepticism, but the biggest gains often come from embracing the dialogue.

Try appointing your most outspoken critics as “Implementation Truth-Tellers.” Their insights can prevent major workflow disasters by elevating resistance from career liability to valuable input.

The Unexpected Twist

Here’s what leaders rarely anticipate: given proper support, the same teams that initially resist change often become its strongest defenders.

Months after a difficult transition, when new alternatives are proposed, you might hear those same skeptical voices saying, “We’ve just gotten this working smoothly! Why would we change it now?”

The once-terrifying change becomes their comfortable status quo.

Your change approach is either honoring the human adaptation curve or fighting against it. The most expensive change initiative isn’t the one that faces resistance—it’s the one that faces silence. Because silence isn’t acceptance; it’s surrender.