Change Fatigue Isn’t About Too Much Change

Every leader I talk to says the same thing: “Our people are tired of change.” The assumption is it’s the sheer amount - too many initiatives, too fast. But that’s not it.

People can handle a lot of change. They do it in their own lives every day. What wears them down isn’t quantity. It’s misfit.

What does misfit look like?

• Initiatives stacked on top of each other with no time to absorb.

• A new process that clashes with how work actually moves.

• Metrics that reward one behavior while leaders say they want another.

• A pace set by the project plan, not by the team’s real capacity.

What’s really going on.
Change fatigue is the system telling you: this doesn’t fit how we work, or how much we can carry right now. It’s not about resistance to change, it’s about the mismatch between design and reality.

What to do instead.
Stop measuring success by how much change you can stack. Start listening for signals: where are people improvising, slowing down, or going quiet? Those aren’t roadblocks; they’re data. Calibrate your pace to their actual absorption capacity. Cut what doesn’t fit. Sequence what does.

Because when change fits, people don’t get fatigued. They get momentum.