In the News
Leaders Expect 3-4 Major Changes a Year. Employees Can Absorb 1-2. That Gap Is Costing You.
New research from The Grossman Group, built on a Harris Poll of business leaders, puts a specific number on a problem most organizations have felt without being able to name: the average company pushed through nearly three major changes in the last two years alone, and 83 percent of business leaders say they’re navigating more change than ever before.
Here’s the mismatch driving the strain. Leaders expect their people to absorb three to four major changes a year. Employees can realistically handle one to two. That’s not a motivation problem or an attitude problem. It’s a capacity gap, and it’s been quietly defining workplace culture for the past two years, according to David Grossman, the researcher behind the study, who calls it “the change tipping point.”
Why This Gap Keeps Getting Missed
AI adoption is both the biggest driver of this pressure and, according to the same research, the hardest change for organizations to execute well. That’s a difficult combination: the change creating the most disruption is also the one leadership teams are least equipped to roll out carefully, which is exactly how a genuinely valuable initiative ends up landing as one more thing dumped on an already-maxed-out team.
The fix isn’t slowing down to one change a year, which usually isn’t realistic given the pace most industries are moving at. It’s sequencing and honest communication about what’s actually landing on people’s plates at once, rather than treating each initiative as if it’s happening in isolation. Organizations that name the real capacity limit out loud tend to get far less resistance than the ones that pretend the limit doesn’t exist.
Related reading: Dr. Mark DeVolder on why change is no longer an event, from the author of Perpetual Pivot.
Speakers on Leading Through Constant Change
Navigating your own change tipping point?
Tell us what’s actually landing on your team this year. We’ll match you with a speaker who addresses the real capacity gap, not just the motivational version of “embrace change.”