For leaders managing change today – which is all leaders – the job can more often feel like being a pilot flying through a thunderstorm. While trying to build a plane.
It requires navigating a relentless mix of challenges: economic pressure and hiring freezes. Political instability and global uncertainty. Constant restructuring and transformation fatigue. And of course, the rapid proliferation of AI technology.
And through it all, the message from the top is often the same: Do more with less. And, also: yesterday.
This isn’t just a tough quarter, it’s a new normal. The pace is unrelenting, the stakes are high, and the path forward is rarely clear. Teams are expected to move fast, stay resilient, and somehow remain inspired while the ground shifts beneath them.
Welcome to The Squeeze, where uncertainty and speed collide, and traditional change management starts to fall apart.
Why the Old Playbook Doesn’t Work Anymore
Most change models were built for a world that moved slower and made more sense. They assume you can map out a neat journey from “current state” to “future state,” with clear milestones and predictable outcomes.
But today’s reality is messier. Change is emotional, nonlinear, and deeply human. Leaders are making decisions with incomplete information, while their teams are still recovering from the last three transformations.
As one executive put it: “In a world where uncertainty is the only certainty, we’re still using change management like it’s a roadmap for a terrain that never shifts.”
Not All Change is Created Equal: Four Scenarios, Four Strategies
If change is messy, then the way we manage it should be flexible. Borrowing from high-stakes, mission critical environments such as space travel, it’s more important than ever to have a defined destination in mind, and be adaptable long the way. Not every mission – or transformation – moves at the same pace or carries the same level of uncertainty, so why treat them all the same?
Picture a matrix with two axes: Speed of change vs. Level of uncertainty.
Depending on where your initiative lands, you’ll need a different set of tools, priorities, and leadership behaviors. Here’s how that plays out across four common scenarios:
1. Real-Time Disruption (High Speed, High Uncertainty)
Think: AI adoption, crisis response. You’re building the plane mid-flight. Focus on piloting change, coaching in the moment, and engaging key employee groups.
Example: To drive gen AI adoption a global pharma company ditched the traditional From > To approach and focused on fostering a growth mindset using immersive gamified learning —resulting in a 63% increase in engagement.
2. Strategic Market Moves (Low Speed, High Uncertainty)
Think: M&A, long-term strategic shifts. Here, resilience is key. Help teams manage uncertainty fatigue, stay grounded in the present, and build hope for the future.
Example: A luxury retailer launching a new strategy and transformation overcame employee uncertainty and built leader accountability by creating space for emotional processing, leadership development, and community problem-solving, contributing to a rise in share price.
3. Operating Pivots (High Speed, Low Uncertainty)
Think: targeted org changes with clear direction. Use change sprints and rapid communication. Park the long-term plan until you’ve gathered feedback.
Example: A pharma medical team that needed to make change happen fast focused on the initial plan and cascade as a ‘sprint’ and used employee feedback to shape the ongoing change and communications plan, enabling real-time responsiveness and agility.
4. Enterprise Rollouts (Low Speed, Low Uncertainty)
Think: system implementations, process changes. These are more predictable and benefit from traditional change management approaches focused on coordination and alignment.
Example: A professional services company leveraged a traditional multi-phased approach to roll-out an enterprise business strategy, improving understanding of the shift and future expectations by team and region.
Understanding the type of change you’re facing goes beyond strategic exercise to leadership imperative. When you match your approach to the nature of the transformation, you reduce friction, build trust, and increase the odds of success.
What’s Next for Change Leaders?
The world isn’t getting simpler. AI will keep evolving. Markets will keep shifting. And teams will keep looking to their leaders for clarity in the chaos.
You can keep hoping for a clean, linear roadmap, or you can embrace the mess and lead with agility, empathy, and impact.
As Astronaut Sunita Williams said: ‘adaptability is essential for survival and success.’
At United Minds, we’re building tools that help leaders thrive in uncertainty—not despite it, but because of it.
