By Sally Pritchett
CEO
Change programmes rarely fail because the idea is wrong. They fail because behaviour doesn’t shift.
Before the pandemic, the average employee experienced around two major organisational changes a year. Whether it’s new strategic priorities, changes in leadership or different ways of working, research from McKinsey suggests that number is closer to ten today.
And yet, most change communications programmes still start from the same place: “Here’s the strategy, here’s the plan, here’s why this matters.” But narratives alone won’t change behaviour.
If organisations are launching new strategies, transforming technology and expecting multiple generations to work harmoniously side-by-side, then we need to design and communicate change around how humans actually behave, not how we wish they behaved.
McKinsey has also reported for years that around 70% of change programmes don’t fully achieve their intended outcomes. Right now, employees are tired and worn down by constant adjustment. On the surface they might seem compliant and engaged, but as a communicator or business leader, you might be wondering why their habits don’t shift day-to-day.
Which raises an interesting question: how do we design communication that shifts behaviour at work?
Here are seven psychological principles we draw on when helping organisations design change communications that shift behaviour:
1. Show me people like me
We are far more influenced by what our peers are doing than by what senior leaders tell us to do. If you want adoption of an AI tool or a new way of working, don’t just showcase the executive sponsor. Show the operations manager who’s using it weekly. The frontline team who’ve found a smarter way of working or the sceptic who changed their mind.
Research consistently shows that peer influence is one of the strongest drivers of behaviour change. When people see “people like me” already doing something, they are much more likely to adapt their own behaviours.
2. Make the new behaviour easier than the old one
We often tend to view hesitation as resistance. Sometimes it is, but often the new way simply feels harder.
Behavioural science has shown repeatedly how effective defaults are. From pension enrolment to software settings, as humans, we tend to go with what’s already pre-selected. Not because we’ve evaluated all the options, but simply because we’re busy.
In organisations going through big changes, the cognitive load on employees is already high, so if a new process requires extra steps, new logins or additional admin, people will naturally revert to what they know.
3. Reduce cognitive overload
When employees are navigating so much change, overwhelm may be a genuine barrier to anything new. Chunking – the concept of breaking change down into clear, manageable steps – is well known to reduce cognitive strain and overwhelm.
Instead of launching a five-year strategy as one narrative, think about communicating what changes this quarter, what changes this month and what changes tomorrow.
That way people can see where they are in the journey, what they can expect in the near term and their confidence in the change improves. Without that, even the most exciting changes can feel too big to take on.
4. Communicate what’s at stake
Understandably it’s easy for organisations to lean into the opportunity of change and underplay the risk. The upside of AI. The growth potential of a new market. The efficiencies of a restructure.
Of course, those things still matter, but emotionally, humans are naturally more sensitive to loss than gain. The discomfort of losing something familiar often far outweighs the appeal of something new.
Handled thoughtfully, it can be powerful to acknowledge what’s genuinely at stake. Not in a dramatic, scaremongering way, but in an honest one. What happens if we don’t adapt? What might we fall behind on? What could become harder for our customers?
Being clear about what’s genuinely at stake helps people understand the trade-offs and adds some urgency to why behaviour change is needed.
5. Language shapes reaction more than we realise
Is AI replacing roles? Or is it removing repetitive tasks so people can focus on higher-value work? Is a restructure a cost-cutting exercise? Or is it an investment in long-term capability?
The underlying message may not change, but our inbuilt emotional responses mean the message can land very differently. Particularly when employees are fatigued, the nuance of tone becomes even more important. Remember that people aren’t just taking on board a message, but also looking for reassurance, safety and stability in a volatile world.
These small shifts in language can significantly alter how a new programme or initiative lands.
6. Choice matters
Another insight that is consistently true is that people are more likely to support a change when they feel some level of ownership over it.
But that’s not crowdsourcing opinion and strategy, it’s about helping employees understand that change isn’t always happening to them. Even modest degrees of perceived choice can increase engagement. For example – options around how training is accessed, opportunities to feed into local implementation, or being part of a pilot group can all help employees feel involved in the shift. People are much more likely to commit when they feel part of it.
7. Is progress tangible enough?
One of the biggest reasons change or transformation loses energy is that progress is hard to see or track. Our brains naturally seek reward and the dopamine that comes with it, which is why elements of gamification in the context of change can be so effective.
Immediate feedback, visible progress and a little healthy competition can make even the most mundane tasks feel more engaging. Time-bound initiatives, recognition for experimentation, team challenges or leaderboards that show how teams are moving forward can all help. Used thoughtfully, these kinds of initiatives help create momentum and encourage employees to adopt new habits.
What role does communication play?
The most important thing we’ve learned supporting organisations through change is this: communication cannot carry behaviour change alone. But there are things we can build into communication programmes that make behaviour change far more likely.
Our role isn’t just to craft compelling narratives. It’s to think about the human response – how people feel when they read a message, what they hear from their leaders and what a new change might genuinely mean for their day-to-day work.
It may sound obvious, but when employees are navigating constant transformation, AI acceleration and some of the challenges that come with multiple generations working side by side, logic alone rarely shifts behaviour.
Instead, we need to think about change with the lens of how people actually operate:
- how we compare ourselves to others
- how we respond to potential loss
- how we process complexity
- and how much autonomy we feel we have
That’s where thoughtful, creative people and culture communication – grounded in human psychology – becomes a necessity.
We specialise in Strategic People & Culture Communications, helping organisations connect strategy, culture and everyday behaviour. By combining behavioural insight with brand-level creativity, we turn messages into momentum and help change take hold in the reality of everyday work. If you’d like to explore how these ideas might apply in your organisation, we’d love to talk.