Change Signal: Modern Change Management that Works

This Change Signal conversation with Alex M H Smith asks three sharp questions:  What unique value does your change work create? Who actually cares about it? What are you brave enough to remove? Alex is the author of No Bullsh*t Strategy, and he brings a gloriously skeptical eye to the foggy world of strategy, change management, and transformation. His central challenge is simple: most strategy isn’t strategy at all — it’s goals, optimization, or a vague wish wearing a business suit. We explore why internal change teams need to understand their own “unique value” to the business, why change needs to be sold through a story people actually care about, and why exhausted organizations may need less addition and more sacrifice. There’s also a useful poke at inclusive decision-making, charisma, mischief, and the problem of trying to lead change in an era when everyone is already overwhelmed. If you’re leading transformation inside a large organization, this one may sharpen your thinking — and perhaps your courage. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions from this Change Signal conversation:  What if resistance is right? Where does change spread without permission? How close is your transformation work to customers and money? In this episode, I talk with Clay Parker Jones, author of Hidden Patterns: A Playbook for More Human Workplaces, about why change management often gets stuck — and what might actually help. Clay’s work is built around the idea of patterns: small, repeatable moves that can change how people work without requiring you to blow up the org chart. We talk about why old patterns are so seductive, how new ones spread, and why the geeks, nerds, and weird ones may be your best allies. We also get into resistance — not as ignorance or stubbornness, but as useful information about what people are protecting. And Clay makes a sharp case that change leaders need to get closer to customer contact, business outcomes, and the places where the organization can feel the impact. Change Signal is where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions from this Change Signal conversation with Greg Satell:  What if change doesn’t move through hierarchy at all?  What if silos are not the problem, but part of the solution?  What if trying to persuade people is actually a warning sign? In this episode, I talk with Greg Satell about change management, transformation, and why large-scale change is less like a rollout and more like a cascade. Greg’s argument is wonderfully useful: change spreads through small groups, loosely connected, united by shared purpose. That means the job of a change leader is not to launch bigger, shout louder, or persuade harder — it’s to find where energy already exists, build one concrete success, and let peer networks do their work. We also dig into why shared purpose needs shared values underneath it, why resistance is often rational, and why identity is the hardest thing to ask people to change. For senior leaders navigating change fatigue, transformation overload, and the endless pressure to “go big,” this conversation offers a more practical, human, and network-smart way to begin. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Jennifer Garvey Berger’s three key insights: connectivity matters more than individual talent in complex systems; small experiments beat both over-planning and paralysis; and stories are legitimate measures of change before numbers shift. If you've ever had a change plan that hasn't quite gone according to plan (and honestly, who hasn't?), this conversation with Jennifer Garvey Berger will shift how you think about leading transformation. She's spent three decades figuring out what actually works when everything feels unpredictable and out of control. Jennifer challenges the "all-star team" approach most of us default to. Instead, she argues for building networks of diverse perspectives because you can't predict whose viewpoint will matter most until after the fact. She also makes the case for experiments so small they feel almost trivial — like fancy lunches that generated $10 million in revenue. The key is making them smaller than you think, more fun than traditional initiatives, and designed specifically for learning rather than guaranteed success. And here's something that might surprise you: Jennifer suggests that rumours and stories are often the first real indicators of change, long before your metrics show anything. In human systems, shifting narratives actually is real change. This isn't about lighting incense and appreciating each other's light within. It's practical wisdom for navigating complexity without losing your mind. Change Signal. Where ambitious leaders find modern change mastery. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Three key insights from Anne Gotte: change management is as outdated as "personnel" organizations must diagnose their change allergies before attempting transformation; and leaders need to embrace clumsy imperfection while providing clear direction. Anne Gotte is SVP Global Talent & Organization Effectiveness at Mondelēz and she brings refreshing honesty to the messy reality of organizational transformation. She's worked at Bumble, Ecolab, and General Mills, collecting scars and wisdom along the way. This conversation challenges the traditional playbook. Anne argues that "decree change" — where executives design solutions in isolation, announce them broadly, then expect magic — as well and truly reached its expiration date. Instead, she advocates for building ongoing change capacity rather than managing episodic projects. Her approach starts with uncomfortable questions: Who are we today? What makes any change difficult for us? How do our systems contradict our change story? The discussion explores why change feels clumsy (spoiler: it's supposed to), how to honour uncertainty while providing clarity, and why slow can actually be fast. Anne's insights about getting comfortable being uncomfortable offer a different path forward for change leaders tired of pretending transformation should feel orderly and predictable. This is change leadership for grown-ups who've learned that the mess is actually the work. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change and transformation. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three big insights that emerge from this Change Signal conversation with Hahrie Han: Are you creating value or just convenience?; Does belonging come before belief in your organization?; and Are you building agency or just compliance? Hahrie Han, political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and author of How Organizations Develop Activists and Undivided, has spent her career studying how people build power that lasts. She brings a sharp, human perspective on what drives genuine participation and why small, intentional acts often change systems more than sweeping plans. The conversation explores why engagement depends less on ease and more on meaning, how “radical belonging” can transform even divided communities, and how leaders can use small, safe failures to build confidence and agency across teams. You’ll also hear practical tools for turning involvement into influence — designing scaffolding that helps people learn from risk and own their results. If you’re leading transformation, culture, or change projects in a big organization, this conversation offers fresh, grounded insight into how participation turns into durable power. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. This is the podcast for transformational leaders seeking modern change mastery. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three provocative questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation with Helen Bevan:  Is your belonging actually just assimilation?  Are your relationships stronger than your strategy? And what fear is your system quietly running on? Helen Bevan has spent decades leading large-scale transformation inside the NHS, and she brings that rare blend of deep experience and fresh thinking. She makes a compelling case that the real levers of change aren’t the ones we normally obsess over—plans, resources, or methodologies—but the relational fabric that holds a system together. We talk about belonging as a core condition for change, and why the best leaders know how to help people both “belong” and “unbelong” as the system shifts. Helen also shares the surprising results of a major five-year transformation experiment, where social capital — not expertise or investment — predicted which organizations moved forward and which fell behind. And we explore agency: why you can’t give it, why people have to build it themselves, and how leaders can create the routines that make that possible. If you’re navigating complexity, leading transformation, or trying to spark change in a large organization, this conversation offers practical insight into how change actually travels through a system. Change Signal. Where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions this Change Signal conversation asks: What freedom are you not seeing yet? Where can you safely loosen control? When does agency become dangerous? In this episode, I talk with Cate Hall about agency — what it is, why it matters, and why it’s more complicated than simply telling people to “take ownership.” Cate defines agency as the ability to see and act on degrees of freedom other people overlook, which is a powerful idea for anyone leading change, transformation, or large-scale organizational work. We get into how leaders can become more agentic without becoming reckless, especially inside complex organizations where not everything can be an experiment. Cate offers the idea of “selective agency”: finding the places where iteration, risk, and movement are actually possible. And then things get especially interesting. If you want more agency from your people, you have to tolerate them doing things imperfectly. And if you want more agency in the system, you also have to ask: agency in service of what? Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions from this Change Signal conversation:  Are we chasing AI, or value?  What future are we actually building?  What would have to be true to get there? In this episode, I talk with Brian Evergreen, author of Autonomous Transformation, about what change leadership looks like when AI is moving faster than most organizations can think. Brian makes a wonderfully useful distinction: your job is probably not to become an AI expert. Your job is to understand value — for your customers, your organization, and the wider system — and then partner with the right expertise to create it. We explore why “AI-first” can be as silly as saying “hammer-first,” and why autonomous transformation needs a different playbook from digital transformation. The work starts with vision, not tools. Brian also shares a practical way to map change: put the vision at the top, ask “what would have to be true?”, and make the strategy visible enough for people to move with it. For senior leaders working on change, transformation, AI strategy, or large-scale organizational change, this is a grounded, clarifying conversation about building the future without drowning in the noise. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation:  What intelligence are you wasting? Who really owns the change? What needs to go first? In this episode, I talk with Jana Werner about why so much change management still feels like something done to people, rather than with them. Jana argues that large organizations often hire smart, capable people — and then design transformation in ways that sideline their judgment, curiosity, and ownership. We explore why top-down change may feel faster at first, but often becomes slower because it doesn’t stick. We also get into one of the trickier questions in change leadership: how do you build genuine agency? Jana’s view is that ownership has to be both given and taken — and many organizations have quietly trained people out of taking it. This conversation is practical, thoughtful, and nicely skeptical of the giant transformation program. If you lead change in a large organization, Jana offers a more human and more usable alternative: clarify purpose, remove friction, start smaller, and let change become a habit woven into the work. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation: Who gave you permission to lead? What if 25 percent is enough? Where have you become the hub? In this episode, I talk with Alex Budak, UC Berkeley faculty member and author of Becoming a Changemaker, about how change leadership actually spreads through an organization. We explore why people wait too long to claim the role of changemaker, and why permission often has to be taken rather than granted. Alex makes the case that change management is not a heroic solo act — it’s a team sport, built through values, courage, early champions, and the willingness to let other people shape the work. There’s practical wisdom here for anyone leading transformation in a large organization: find the 25 percent who can shift the norm, stay clear on the why while loosening your grip on the how, and stop making yourself the hub where every decision has to land. It’s a conversation about agency, courage, control, and what it takes to help more people step into change. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

This Change Signal conversation with Peter Schein asks three questions: • What doesn’t your change plan know? • Where is context quietly defeating content? • Are we building systems so perfect that people no longer need to be good? Peter, co-author with Ed Schein of Humble Inquiry, Humble Consulting, and Humble Leadership, brings a wonderfully useful challenge to change management and transformation work. He says humble leadership isn’t about being modest; it’s about being vulnerable to what you don’t know, and curious enough to discover what the room already knows. We talk about why change leaders get seduced by content — the strategy, the model, the deck, the eight steps — while missing the context that determines whether any of it will actually land. We also explore relationship mapping, “soak time” in meetings, and why trust is not some nice-to-have garnish sprinkled on top of organizational change. For senior leaders leading change in large, complex organizations, this is about clarity over certainty, context over content, and the practical, human work of being good to each other. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Three questions sit at the heart of this conversation: • Are you starting with the technology, or the purpose?• What harm are you creating by moving too fast — or too slowly?• Have you designed the change people actually experience? Kate O’Neill is a tech humanist, strategist, and author of What Matters Next. In this Change Signal episode, we talk about AI, digital transformation, and the choices change leaders face when the world keeps speeding up. Kate challenges one of the loudest instincts in organizations right now: “We need an AI strategy.” Maybe. But not first. First comes purpose: what the business is here to do, how it creates value, what kind of experience it wants to design, and what data helps leaders make better decisions. We also explore Kate’s useful distinction between the harms of action and the harms of inaction — the trouble we create by moving too fast, and the debt we create by waiting too long. If you lead change or transformation in a large organization, this is a practical conversation about pace, purpose, and making change more human. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Three questions sit at the heart of this conversation: Are you asking people to make real choices, or just comply? What past are you accidentally disrespecting? Is your change work actually part of the work? Roger Martin is one of the clearest thinkers I know on strategy, leadership, and transformation. In this Change Signal episode, we get into why so many change efforts stall, not because people are lazy or resistant, but because they’ve been given a vague or demeaning job: “go execute this.” Roger offers a better way: choice chartering. Give people the shape of the answer you need, not the answer itself. Help them understand the strategic choice, then ask them to make the next set of choices for their part of the organization. We also explore agency, psychological safety, vision, and why respecting the old system may be the key to changing it. If you lead change in a large organization, this is a practical, thoughtful conversation about how transformation really happens. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

This Change Signal conversation with BJ Fogg raises three interesting questions: Are you designing change, or just hoping for it? Where’s the overlap that actually works? What is your environment quietly shaping? Behaviour ch Change sits at the heart of every transformation effort, yet most leaders still rely on willpower, communication, and good intentions. BJ Fogg offers a more practical approach — one grounded in designing for behaviour rather than trying to persuade it. We explore his core model: behaviour happens when motivation, ability, and prompts come together. Miss one, and change struggles. Get the combination right, and change becomes far more predictable. BJ also reframes scale through a simple but demanding lens — finding the overlap between what the organization needs and what people are willing and able to do. Much of what looks like resistance is actually misalignment. And then there’s the environment. Not as context, but as a primary lever. Change what surrounds people — the cues, the ease, the friction — and behaviour often follows. Change Signal. Where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation with Tiziana Casciaro: Where does power really sit in your system? Why don’t people use your “open door”? When is resistance a skill gap — and when is it a coalition fight? Most change efforts in big organizations fail for a quiet reason: we pretend change is a plan, when it’s actually a power-and-relationships story. Tiziana helps make “power” discussable again — less as a dirty word, more as the energy that moves decisions, resources, and attention. We talk about power mapping as a practical discipline: noticing who’s influential, what the organization values, and how the informal network really works (because the org chart is only part of the truth). And we dig into the relational labour of leading change — how much listening, curiosity, and conversation it actually takes to create momentum. Finally, we get honest about resistance. Sometimes people need resources and a path to success; sometimes you have to build a coalition to move a transformation forward. Change Signal. Where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three tensions that emerge from this Change Signal conversation with Daniel Stillman: Who actually owns the change? What conversations are you avoiding? Are you inviting people — or forcing them? If you lead change in a large organization, you already know this: great strategy and clear comms aren’t enough. Daniel Stillman — author of Good Talk — makes the case that conversations are the real engine of change, and most of us are underpowered. We explore why one-to-many communication rarely shifts behavior, and why many-to-many conversations — messy, slower, harder — are where ownership and momentum actually build. Daniel brings a designer’s mindset to leadership, showing how conversations can be shaped with intention, not left to chance. We also get practical. How do you test new ways of working without waiting for permission? What does “minimum viable change” look like inside a constrained system? And how do you build trust when people have seen these efforts fail before? This is a conversation about change leadership that is grounded, slightly subversive, and immediately useful — especially if you’re trying to move something real, with people who don’t have to agree with you. Change Signal. Where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three provocative questions at the centre of this Change Signal conversation with Siobhán McHale: Are you trying to change a machine, a network, or an ecosystem? What patterns are quietly running your culture? How do you intervene without getting “organ rejected”? Siobhán has spent two decades as an “insider,” rolling up her sleeves inside organizations to make change actually happen. In this episode, she shares why most change leadership still leans too heavily on IQ and EQ — and why the next capability is what she calls group intelligence: the ability to see the system, not just the people in it. We talk about mapping the ecosystem through interviews and observation, so you can spot the hidden roles and agreements that drive behavior (and results). Siobhán explains how these patterns can be simple once you see them — and why the real work is helping the system reveal itself, without triggering the immune response of politics and defensiveness. If you lead transformation in a large organization, this is a practical, systemic conversation about change management that goes beyond slogans and into what works. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation with Ron Carucci: Are we still managing change as if it’s predictable? What unseen stories are really shaping how our organizations behave? And where might leaders themselves be quietly getting in the way? Change management, as most of us were taught it, assumes a linear path: a clear “from,” a clear “to,” and a plan to get there. In this conversation, Ron Carucci makes the case that those days are over. For leaders running complex change in large organizations, the real work now is less about managing transitions and more about building readiness for constant uncertainty. Ron and I explore why so many well-designed transformations stall — not because the strategy was wrong, but because the leader’s inner patterns were never examined. He introduces the idea of “origin stories”: early narratives that shape how leaders set standards, respond to resistance, and tolerate risk, often without realizing it. We also unpack Ron’s three-domain model of transformation: work within the leader, between people and teams, and among the systems of culture, strategy, and governance. Miss one, and change quietly unravels. This is a practical, humane, and slightly uncomfortable conversation for experienced change leaders who want results that actually stick. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions that sit at the heart of this Change Signal conversation with Bryan Walker: What are you changing too early? Where are you too far away? And what real issue are you avoiding? Bryan Walker, longtime IDEO partner, joins me to explore a different way of thinking about change and transformation in large organizations. We talk about why so many change efforts stall—not because of bad strategy, but because they’re designed too linearly, too distantly, and too separate from the work itself. Bryan challenges the instinct to start with structure and big plans. Instead, he makes the case for starting small, learning through action, and letting the work itself reveal what needs to shift. It’s a move from abstract programs to practical experimentation—and it changes how leaders show up. We also explore what it takes to make change actually land. Not just belief in the idea, but confidence in the doing, and ultimately a shift in identity: this is who we are now. If you lead change in a complex organization, this is a grounded, human, and quietly challenging conversation about what it really takes to make transformation stick. Change Signal. Where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify