Why Organisations Pay the Price When People Come Last During Change
Updated: Aug 14
Priyanka Ayodele is a leadership and organisational development specialist and the founder of The Leadership Method. As a Chartered Manager and Associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), she supports organisations through leadership development, coaching, and culture-focused work with managers and teams.
Organisational change is a part of working life. Whether it’s a restructure, a merger, a new system or a completely different way of working, every organisation will experience change at some point. The problem isn’t usually the change itself, it’s how people experience it.
For many people, work is a huge part of their lives. It’s how they pay their bills, where they spend most of their week, and where they build relationships. We all want to feel secure at work and know where we stand. When that suddenly changes, whether it’s in our control or not, it’s only natural that people start to feel unsettled.
This is where organisations can create more costs for themselves. They spend months planning the logistics of change but don’t give the same attention to the people expected to carry it through. The timeline is mapped out, the project plan is signed off, and the meetings are booked, but the people affected by those decisions can sometimes feel like they’ve been left behind.
Communication is probably one of the best examples. Leaders sometimes wait until they have all the answers before saying anything, but people don’t stop wondering just because information hasn’t been shared. That’s actually where rumours begin. Sometimes the best update you can give is simply to say “there’s nothing new to share yet, but we’ll keep you updated.” It might not feel like much, but it reassures people that they haven’t been forgotten.
I have always found that trust is one of the biggest challenges organisations face during periods of change. People don’t expect leaders to have every answer straightaway, but they do expect honesty. If a decision hasn’t been made, you can say that. Most people can cope with uncertainty a lot better than they cope with feeling like they’re being kept in the dark.
Giving people a voice matters too. That doesn’t mean everyone gets to make a decision, but it does mean creating opportunities for people to ask questions, raise concerns and feel like they’ve been heard. Even when the outcome doesn’t change, being listened to changes how people experience the process.
Over the years, I have seen organisations go through major redesigns where sickness absence increases, employee relations cases become more frequent and experienced staff decide to leave. The financial cost of replacing people, managing absence and dealing with formal cases can be significant.
The interesting thing is that many of the things that help reduce those costs don’t require a budget at all. Consistent communication, honesty, listening and involving people wherever possible are completely free, yet they’re the first things to be out of the picture when organisations are under pressure.
Change is unavoidable sometimes, but how people experience it isn’t. Organisations can’t control the change itself, but they can control how they communicate it, how they involve people, and how they build trust throughout the process.
Read more from Priyanka Ayodele
Priyanka Ayodele, Leadership and Business Specialist
Priyanka Ayodele, Chartered Manager (CMgr), Member of the Chartered Management Institute (MCMI), and Associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Assoc. CIPD), is the founder of The Leadership Method. Her work focuses on leadership, team culture, and organisational development. Earlier in her career, she studied psychology and worked in mental health, which shaped her interest in how people experience leadership at work. Having experienced both poor management and the kind of leadership that helps people grow, she saw firsthand how much impact managers can have on someone's confidence and development. The managers who recognised her potential played a big part in shaping the leader she is today. That experience now influences the work she does at The Leadership Method
