How to sustain momentum when everything shifts

Change programmes are constant, overlapping, and increasingly difficult to prioritise – organisations can often make the required changes, but they can’t do it all at once. Drawing on experience spanning organisational psychology, major infrastructure programmes, and national-scale public sector transformation, our panel explored how leaders can shepherd their organisations through continuous change, competing priorities, and increasing complexity.

Sense-check your communication strategy

When faced with navigating multiple changes at once, endless communication to the workforce can increase confusion rather than provide clarity. Individuals are left to make sense of disparate communications that vie for their attention despite stemming from the same case for change.

Messages and updates need to be strategically coordinated before comms are pushed out so updates make sense in relation to each other, and support the wider case for change. Our panellists discussed a major infrastructure programme, where an unexpected shift in financing required a fundamental pivot. A simple, unified metaphor helped people process uncertainty – a ship preparing for and embarking on a voyage. This helped people understand where they were, where they were going, and to be ready for change along the way.

Clear messages resonate – and narratives are far more effective than broadcasts. Creating clarity means building a single, plausible story that provides people with a point of reference they can anchor to. Leaders can strengthen messages by investing personally in dialogue with their teams, and responding to what they hear. As panellists reflected, people may not remember exactly what leaders said during transformation, but they will remember how those leaders made them feel.

Embrace early challenge

Reactions to change will vary. The most robust change programmes learn the value of engaging with all responses, from enthusiasm to apathy to open dissent. Enthusiasm creates momentum, while scepticism provides useful challenge. Change programmes risk jeopardising their progress when challenge is dismissed as negativity rather than seen as an opportunity to course-correct.

Panellists reflected on the power of sceptics as critical friends. In one example, a subject matter expert who provided volumes of detailed feedback at every stage was initially seen as difficult. However, reconceptualising this as detailed input from someone who cared deeply about getting things right meant the team could constructively build upon the feedback. Similarly, panellists recognised the dangers of selectively listening to overly optimistic voices at the expense of more critical feedback.

Sceptics can surface risks that others miss, test whether plans will work on the ground, and prevent expensive mistakes. When welcomed, scepticism becomes a source of protection. But, when suppressed, it can reappear as passive resistance.

Make progress visible

Change fatigue is often viewed as a temporary dip in energy across the workforce. But, in reality, it’s a continuous state. And, while people might comply with change programmes on the surface, they might not genuinely believe in the programme. The risk is that the workforce distances themselves from change, and sees “we are changing” as “they are changing.”

Panellists reinforced the importance of course-correction when change fatigue manifests. Seeing real results is a strong motivator for engagement – especially critical when change fatigue begins to manifest. This goes hand-in-hand with clear, consolidated communication about the metrics that really matter. How will the change lead to success, and what improvements will it bring?

Lead with calm realism

Effective leadership in transformation isn’t about relentless positivity, but rather a calm realism that recognises the impact of change on the workforce. Leaders are emotional amplifiers: people pick up on their confidence, anxiety, or cynicism. In moments of ambiguity, people look to leaders for direction – but also for emotional signals about whether uncertainty represents threat or possibility.

Panellists discussed an example where leadership built teams’ belief that a seemingly unfixable problem could be solved, using data to understand whether interventions were working and shaping improvements. When those leaders moved on, performance backtracked. So, the right leadership behaviours need to be embedded to ensure momentum survives beyond one character or team.

Sustaining change momentum

In an era of transformation overload, the panel’s advice was clear: make change understandable, make progress visible, and make challenge useful. Above all, panellists recognised that leadership sets the tone – calm, grounded leaders help people stay focused through relentless change.