The People Side of National Renewal:

Why Change Management Must Be at the Core of Crisis and Reconstruction

Beyond Bricks and Policies

When we think of national crises (pandemics, conflicts, regime-change, economic collapse, natural disasters), the images that come to mind are often physical: destroyed bridges, empty shelves, overwhelmed hospitals, governments in chaos, etc… And when we think of reconstruction, the focus usually turns to logistics, finance, and politics: rebuilding infrastructure, balancing budgets, drafting new laws, etc…

If history has taught us anything, it is this: a country is not rebuilt by bricks or policies alone. True renewal is only possible when people themselves (citizens, leaders, civil servants, and communities) adopt, embrace, and sustain the new ways of living, governing, and working that emerge from the crisis. And that is the domain of Change Management (CM).

For many years, CM has been applied mainly inside organizations for projects such as guiding corporate mergers, IT implementations, or cultural transformations. But the principles are just as critical when the “organization” in question is a nation, and the “stakeholders” are millions of citizens with diverse needs, fears, and hopes.

This article argues that in any serious framework for crisis and reconstruction, Change Management must be treated as the central discipline of adoption and sustainability. Without it, reforms collapse under resistance, trust declines, and nations risk reverting to fragility. With it, crises can become turning points for long-term renewal.

Why Change Management Matters in Crisis Contexts

The ACMP Standard for Change Management© defines CM as the application of a structured approach to move individuals and organizations from a current state to a future state to achieve expected benefits. In other words, CM ensures that change is not only designed or announced but also adopted and sustained.

In times of national crisis, this role becomes even more vital. Crises disrupt routines, beliefs, and systems. They may shake the confidence of citizens and institutions alike. Reconstruction efforts may introduce new laws, structures, or services. However, if citizens don’t understand or trust those reforms, adoption fails, resistance grows, mistrust deepens, and recovery is delayed.

Three examples:

1. A banking reform after economic collapse:  If the public does not believe the new system protects their savings, they won’t deposit money.
2. A healthcare restructuring after a pandemic:  If patients and health professionals don’t understand new protocols, they will go back to old practices, undermining efficiency.
3. A governance reset after conflict:  If citizens don’t feel engaged or don’t see “what’s in it for me,” legitimacy is fragile.

In each case, the missing link is not policy design or technical expertise, but the people side of change. That is precisely what Change Management offers.

The Five Process Groups as a National Roadmap

The ACMP Standard organizes CM into five process groups, each of which has several associated processes. In summary, these are the process groups:

Evaluate, Strategy, Plan, Execute, and Complete.

We need to apply them at the national level to ensure reforms become successful.

1. Evaluate: Readiness and Impact

In an organizational environment, this includes processes such as assessing culture, stakeholder readiness, and potential resistance. At the national level, the questions are broader:

• Do citizens trust the government enough to believe new reforms?
• Which groups will benefit immediately, and which may feel threatened or left behind?
• What is the level of “change saturation”? Are people already overwhelmed?

For example, after years of crisis, populations may be exhausted by broken promises. Conducting a national readiness assessment (through surveys and/or diaspora engagement) provides necessary intelligence before reforms are launched.

2. Strategy: Designing the People Side

A reconstruction blueprint without a CM strategy can be like a house without a foundation. A strong strategy includes:

• Governance: Who sponsors the change? Which ministries, NGOs, or citizen groups hold accountability?
• Sponsorship alignment: Are leaders visibly and actively supporting the change, or just signing off on it?
• Risk intelligence: What resistance root causes are likely (fear of loss, trauma, mistrust), and how can they be minimized?

A national CM strategy ensures that adoption is designed into the heart of the reconstruction roadmap.

3. Plan: Tactics for Adoption

In this process group, we translate the strategy into actions. The plan must include elements such as:

• Communication plan should include tailored messaging for different groups, built around WIIFM (“What’s in it for me?”). Citizens must be informed about what is changing and why it’s beneficial to them.
• Engagement must be implemented from town halls to digital platforms, and stakeholders should be heard and involved.
• Civil servants and leaders need new skills to operate in the future state.

4. Execute: Leading Through Transition

Execution means implementing the CM plan. This includes:

• Transparent communication (Frequent, consistent, and honest).
• Visible sponsorship by the leaders.
• Resistance management (acknowledging fears, addressing root causes, reframing the benefits, and eliminating misinformation). The key is to diagnose it and address it constructively.

5. Complete: Sustaining the Future State

The last process group of CM ensures reforms do not fade once attention shifts. Sustainment activities (reinforcement, recognition, and embedding changes into laws or policies) help institutionalize the new realities and ensure the new norms stick. Without this phase, even successful reforms risk backsliding.

Practical CM Considerations for National Contexts

To make this concrete, let’s highlight several tools and practices that can be scaled from organizational to national use:

Answering WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?)

Perhaps one of the most powerful questions in CM. Public asks: Why should I support this reform or journey? What do I gain? For example:

• For healthcare reforms: The answer can be “You will have faster access to doctors.”
• For governance changes: “You will have a transparent channel to voice complaints.”
• For economic stabilization: “Your wages will be better protected from inflation.”

WIIFM reframes reforms from abstract policy to personal relevance.

Resistance Identification

In crises, resistance often stems from fear of losing limited available resources, mistrust of mid-level leaders, or trauma from past failures. Identifying these root causes early allows for targeted responses or mitigation tactics such as listening sessions, mobilizing advocates, and trauma-informed communication.

Stakeholder Mapping

Every nation has complex networks of stakeholders, including civil servants, businesses and organizations, youth, diaspora, religious groups, unions, professional associations, media, and many others. Mapping their influence, interests, and likely reactions enables the development of targeted engagement strategies.

Sustainment

Sustainment means ensuring adoption becomes permanent, and can include:

• Recognition programs, for example, celebrating local communities that adopt reforms.
• Feedback loops, for example, public dashboards showing progress.
• Legal reinforcement, which is about embedding new norms into laws or regulations.

Integrating CM with Crisis Leadership

Some might argue that this is just “good leadership.” However, Crisis leadership and Change Management are complementary but distinct disciplines.

• Crisis leadership is about urgent decision-making under uncertainty, emotional regulation, and agility.
• Change Management is about ensuring those decisions are adopted, understood, and sustained by people.

Example: Announcing a subsidy program in a crisis is a Crisis Leadership act. Ensuring citizens understand, trust, and use it is a key act of CM. Both are needed.

Lessons from Organizational CM Applied to Nations

Many of the lessons from organizational change management (OCM) can scale well to the national level:

• Culture matters: Just as a company’s culture can support or delay change, a national culture (values, trust levels, norms) can shape adoption.
• Change fatigue is real: Organizations that overload employees with changes see burnout. Nations that pile reform plans on top of one another very quickly, without pacing, often face public distrust.
• Sponsorship is crucial: In organizations, sponsors drive adoption of the future state. At the national level, leaders must endorse reforms and demonstrate to the public that some communities are visibly modelling them.

A Human-Centered Vision of Renewal

Ultimately, embedding CM into crisis and reconstruction ensures that we do not treat citizens as passive recipients of aid. We see them as active participants in their nation’s renewal.

• CM invites them to adopt and co-create, instead of asking citizens to simply comply.
• CM builds understanding, alignment, and trust, instead of imposing reforms.
• CM acknowledges it and provides pathways for healing and commitment, instead of letting trauma drive resistance.

This is a fundamentally more human, and ultimately more sustainable, approach to rebuilding.

Conclusion

Crises will continue to come. Nations will continue to face shocks. But whether those shocks lead to collapse or renewal depends not only on technical solutions but also on the people side of change.

By embedding Change Management as the backbone of crisis and reconstruction strategy and plans, the leaders and nations can ensure reforms are adopted, sustained, and institutionalized.  Every framework for crisis and reconstruction should carry this truth: without effective Change Management, there is no success.

Important Note: The opinions expressed here are solely the author’s personal perspectives, based on his expertise, and do not represent the views or positions of any organization with which he is affiliated.

Resource: Association of Change Management Professionals. (2025). Standard for Change Management© (2^nd edition) https://www.acmpglobal.org/page/the_standard