You can also read this along with other resources in issue 360 of my Talent Edge Weekly newsletter.
I recently shared a post on organizational capacity to absorb change, drawing on research showing employees can realistically take on only one or two major changes per year, even though leaders are planning three or four by 2027. That post focused on the volume of change across an organization. This HBR article picks up a different thread: even when the volume of change is reasonable, a single initiative can still fail if the right conditions were never built before launch. The author calls this the Readiness Triad: appetite (are people genuinely committed to the outcome and do they see it as theirs to shape), capacity (does the organization have the bandwidth, focus, and resilience to sustain the work), and skillset (the degree to which current capabilities match the actual demands of the work). McKinsey and BCG research cited in the article finds roughly 30% of large-scale change programs deliver expected value, with execution failures tracing to one of these gaps, not a flawed strategy. A few tactics proposed for each: for appetite, explicitly connect the work to something people value. For skillset, create low-stakes practice before the real stakes get high. For capacity, postpone one initiative so another can succeed, or shift resources to what matters most. On that last point, I am resharing my one-page template that helps leaders see all organizational changes in one view, so they can make strategic choices about resource allocation, timing, pacing, and other decisions that determine the success of change efforts.
