Organizational Trust During Disruption
with Kim Bohr

What happens to trust when an organization is navigating layoffs, leadership turnover, AI adoption, or other significant disruption?

In this episode of the Change Management Review™ Podcast, Theresa Moulton speaks with Kim Bohr, Chief Executive Officer of SparkEffect, about why trust should be treated as a strategic organizational capability—not simply a cultural aspiration.

Drawing on her experience advising executive teams and SparkEffect’s research into Trust Elasticity™, Kim explores what happens to trust under pressure, why disruption does not automatically destroy it, and how leaders can strengthen trust through the way they communicate, make decisions, and navigate uncertainty.

The conversation also examines the accelerating pace of organizational change, the challenges surrounding AI adoption, and why organizations need greater clarity about where they are going before asking employees to continuously adapt.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why trust is not a “soft” issue, but something organizations can evaluate and intentionally strengthen.
• What happens to organizational trust during layoffs, leadership transitions, restructuring, and other disruptions.
• How disruption can actually strengthen trust when organizations navigate it well.
• Why transparency, communication, and leadership behavior become especially important during periods of uncertainty.
• How the accelerating pace of change is affecting employees’ ability to absorb and adapt to disruption.
• Why asking employees to simply “adopt AI and figure it out” is not a sufficient organizational strategy.
• How leaders and change professionals can approach AI adoption with greater strategic clarity and attention to the human experience.
• Why organizations may sometimes need to slow down enough to be thoughtful about trust while moving through change.

Guest Bio

Kim Bohr is Chief Executive Officer of SparkEffect, where she helps executive teams navigate complex disruption without fracturing organizational trust.

With more than 25 years of cross-functional leadership experience, Kim advises leaders on aligning strategy with human-centered practices that support organizational performance. Her work includes SparkEffect Trust Elasticity™, a research-based framework designed to evaluate and strengthen trust during periods of change, including AI integration, leadership turnover, and restructuring.

Kim’s perspective draws on her experience as a business executive, board advisor, adjunct lecturer, public speaker, and host of the Courage to Advance podcast. She is also the author of Successes, Failures & Lessons Learned.