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Why Change Fails
The month-four collapse, resistance as information, change fatigue, and the difference between announcing a change and making one.
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01
Changing What You Should Have Left Alone
Some inefficiencies are load-bearing. A practice with no visible purpose has usually survived because it was solving something, and the cost of removing it appears months later in an unrelated place.
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02
The Announcement Fallacy
Communicating a change is not making one. The announcement is the cheapest part and it feels like the hardest, which is why leaders reliably mistake it for completion.
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03
Change Fatigue
The fifth initiative fails on arrival because of what happened to the first four. People are not tired of change; they have learned that waiting is the winning strategy.
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04
Resistance Is Usually Information
Most of what gets labelled resistance is an accurate objection from somebody closer to the work. The label is attractive because it converts a substantive problem into a personnel matter.
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05
The Month-Four Collapse
Every change programme has a point where the initial energy is spent and the results have not arrived. It is predictable, it is survivable, and almost nobody plans for it.