María Rodríguez will never forget the hush that swept through the agency auditorium. One by one, staffers closed their binders—not in protest, but in a kind of collective exhale. Months of budget rumors had finally become real, and the dominant emotions were fear and exhaustion.
“People weren’t mad,” María told us later. “They were scared that the work they’d devoted their lives to was losing its value.”
Her team’s first instinct was an information blitz (FAQs, slide decks, weekly emails), but the fatigue only deepened. The episode is a micro-lesson for HR leaders everywhere: relentless change without human connection breeds resignation, not resilience. And if you aren’t careful, resentment.
The Numbers Behind the Nerves
- A Gartner study shows employees’ willingness to support enterprise change plunged from 74 % in 2016 to 43 % in 2022, even as the average worker endured ten major changes a year, up from two a decade ago. hbr.org
- PwC’s 2024 Workforce Hopes & Fears survey found that more than half of workers feel “too much change at once,” and 44 % don’t understand why anything needs to change. pwc.com
- Neuroscience provides the mechanism: chronic uncertainty elevates cortisol, the stress hormone linked to impaired creativity and decision making. forbes.com
Taken together, the data confirm what María heard in that silent room: change fatigue is less about resistance and more about depleted capacity.
“Change is the only constant” but constant change is exhausting.
A Shorter, Sharper Playbook
1 | Map the J-Curve in Public
The J-Curve captures the reality that performance and morale usually drop sharply when change begins, then rebound and exceed the starting point once people have time to process, experiment, and adapt.
Leaders have had months to climb the upswing of the curve; employees are just entering the dip. Show the graphic, name the inevitable drop in morale, and you buy credibility. María added a single slide to her next briefing; the room nodded, feeling seen instead of freezing.
2 | Practice “Loss Literacy”
People don’t fear change, they fear loss. We must understand that change is experienced first as loss. This could be status, routines, relationships.
Start with: “What feels most at risk for you right now?”
Writing the answers on a whiteboard turned María’s update meeting into a dialogue and surfaced concerns she hadn’t considered.
3 | Coach by Conversational Dashboard States
Plot people on five stances—Resistor, Skeptic, Wait & See, Experimenter, Co-Creator—and tailor questions.
Conversational Dashboard State |
One Question |
Next MicroMove |
| Resistor | “What would success cost you personally?” | Capture the loss in writing |
| Skeptic | “What proof would make this less risky?” | Offer a 30-day pilot |
| Wait & See | “Where can we test safely?” | Grant small budget/time |
| Experimenter | “Who else needs your early data?” | Facilitate peer share |
| Co-Creator | “How would you lead version 2.0?” | Hand over ownership |
María updated the dashboard weekly as a personal reflection; within a quarter, the “Experimenter” group doubled, and frontline staff proposed a cost saving pilot that leadership adopted.
Start the Conversation This Week
Ask your executive team:
1. What are we doing well to support the normal experience of the J-Curve?
2. What are we doing that is in conflict of that support?
3. What will we do differently in the next 90 days to support people more fully?
Forward those prompts, along with this note, to frontline managers. Change moves fastest when the narrative is clear and shared.
Looking Ahead
This fall we launch “Leading Through Resistance” on Leader Campus +. Early registrants receive different tools this summer and short videos to help them support others and themselves through change more effectively.
Change fatigue is real, but it isn’t destiny. When HR reframes the job from convincing to partnering, even a quiet binder close can become the first beat of a better rhythm.
Sarah Noll Wilson is on a mission to help leaders build and rebuild teams. She aims to empower leaders to understand and honor the beautiful complexity of the humans they serve. Through her work as an Executive Coach, an in-demand Keynote Speaker, Researcher, Contributor to Harvard Business Review, and Bestselling Author of “Don’t Feed the Elephants”, Sarah helps leaders close the gap between what they intend to do and the actual impact they make. She hosts the podcast “Conversations on Conversations”, is certified in Co-Active Coaching and Conversational Intelligence, and is a frequent guest lecturer at universities. In addition to her work with organizations, Sarah is a passionate advocate for mental health.