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Rethinking Change Management:
What Employees Really Need During Change with Michael J. López

Organizations invest significant time and resources in helping employees navigate change through communications, training, town halls, leadership messages, and other traditional change management activities. But are those efforts providing what people actually need to adapt?

In this episode of the Change Management Review™ Podcast, Theresa Moulton speaks with Michael J. López, founder of Michael J. Lopez Consulting and lead researcher behind Rethinking Change Management 2026, about new national research examining what people on the receiving end of organizational change say they actually need.

Drawing on a census-weighted national study of 1,000 U.S. workers, Michael explores the gap between the resources organizations typically provide during change and the resources employees say help them adapt. One of the study’s most striking findings was zero overlap between the five resources organizations most often provide and the five resources workers say they need.

While organizations commonly rely on communications, training, town halls, and leadership messaging, employees pointed toward needs such as time, space, experience, experimentation, and the ability to fail. Their conversation examines what this disconnect means for change practitioners, which assumptions embedded in traditional change management practices may need to be reconsidered, and why the profession itself may need to adapt.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

  • What a national study of 1,000 U.S. workers reveals about the employee experience of organizational change.
  • Why there was zero overlap between the five resources organizations most often provide during change and the five resources workers say they need.
  • How traditional approaches such as communications, training, town halls, and leadership messaging may fall short of supporting adaptation.
  • Why employees value time, space, experience, experimentation, and opportunities to fail and learn.
  • What these findings suggest about assumptions embedded in traditional change management practices.
  • Why change practitioners may need to rethink how they measure and support successful change.
  • How focusing more closely on the individual experience can influence the way practitioners approach organizational transformation.
  • Why the change management profession may need to “take its own medicine” and continue adapting its practices.

Whether you’re leading organizational change, designing adoption strategies, or reconsidering how your organization supports people through transformation, this conversation offers a research-informed perspective on what employees may actually need—and what that could mean for the future of change management.

Learn More About the Research

Reuters: Michael Lopez National Study on Change Management and the Employee Adaptation Gap

USA Today: Michael J. Lopez’s National Study Reveals Why Many Workplace Transformations Fail

Guest Bio

Michael J. López is the founder of Michael J. Lopez Consulting and lead researcher behind Rethinking Change Management 2026, a census-weighted national study of 1,000 U.S. workers examining what people on the receiving end of change say they actually need. The study challenges foundational assumptions of change management practice, including its anchor finding of zero overlap between the five resources organizations most often provide during change and the five resources workers say they need.

López has more than 20 years of experience leading transformations, including senior roles at EY, KPMG, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Prophet. He is the author of CHANGE: Six Science-Backed Strategies to Transform Your Brain, Body, and Behavior, a LinkedIn Top Voice, and a former Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Intelligence Community.