What Leaders Get Wrong About Change Fatigue

Brittney Simpson
3 days ago
5 min read

“We can’t make any more changes right now. The team has change fatigue.”

I hear this constantly. And every time, I want to ask one question.

Are you sure?

Because after years of watching companies navigate change, here’s what I’ve learned.

Most people aren’t tired of change. They’re tired of bad change management.

They’re tired of changes that get announced but never explained. Changes that start with enthusiasm and disappear in three weeks. Changes that contradict the change from two months ago. Changes that feel arbitrary, performative, or like leadership read a business book and decided to “try something.”

That isn’t change fatigue.

That’s whiplash.

And if you misdiagnose the problem, you’ll make it worse.

If you assume your team is too fragile for change, you’ll stop making necessary improvements. You’ll avoid hard decisions. You’ll let dysfunction linger because you don’t want to “burden the team.”

Meanwhile, your team isn’t exhausted by change.

They’re exhausted by chaos.

What Change Fatigue Actually Is

Real change fatigue exists. It’s just rarer than leaders think.

It tends to show up during long, sustained, high-impact transformation, like:

Mergers and acquisition integration
Full restructures
Major business model pivots
Enterprise-wide system overhauls
Multiple big shifts happening at once, for months or years

In those situations, people are learning new systems, adapting to new roles, navigating new leaders, and absorbing new strategies while still trying to do their day-to-day work.

That is exhausting.

But most companies aren’t dealing with that.

Most companies are dealing with normal operational evolution.

Clarifying roles. Updating a process. Improving onboarding. Adjusting meeting cadence.

Implementing a tool. Tightening priorities.

That’s not “fatigue territory.” That’s just running a business.

So why does it feel like people can’t take one more change?

Because what exhausts people isn’t change itself.

It’s change that doesn’t stick.

The Real Causes of “Change Fatigue” in Growing Companies

Here’s what actually drains a team.

Changes that don’t stick. People adapt, shift their workflow, reorganize their time… and then the change quietly dies. That effort gets wasted, and the team learns: don’t invest too much energy next time.

Changes without explanation. When leaders won’t name the “why,” people fill in the blanks. Uncertainty takes up mental space. And mental space is the real limited resource.

Changes that contradict each other. New process in March. New process in May that undermines it. In July, you’re back to the old way. That isn’t evolution. It’s instability.

Changes that solve the wrong problem. If leadership rolls out solutions to issues the team doesn’t experience, while ignoring what’s actually painful, people don’t feel supported. They feel unseen.

Changes without follow-through. Big announcement. No reinforcement. No accountability. No check on whether it’s working. People don’t resist change. They resist change theater.

This is why “change fatigue” is often the wrong diagnosis.

Your team may not be overwhelmed by change.

They may be tired of inconsistent leadership.

Why Leaders Misdiagnose It

Because “change fatigue” is an easier story to tell.

Change fatigue makes the problem external. The team is overwhelmed. The organization just can’t handle more right now.

Bad change management makes the problem internal. It forces leaders to confront something uncomfortable:

We’re announcing changes more than we’re implementing them.

And if you’re the founder or the senior leader, that’s a hard mirror.

The Part Most Leaders Miss

Announcing the change is about 10% of the work.

The other 90% is:

Explaining why it matters
Giving people what they need to do it
Reinforcing it consistently
Measuring whether it’s working
Adjusting without abandoning

Most leaders do the 10%.

They send the Slack message. They mention it in the meeting. They assume it will take hold.

It won’t.

People need repetition. They need clarity. They need proof this isn’t optional.

A Simple Example: Bad vs. Good Change Implementation

Bad implementation: “Hey team, we’re switching to a new project management tool. Please start using it by Friday.”

Three weeks later, half the team is still using the old system. Leadership calls it resistance. The team calls it confusion.

Good implementation: “We’re switching tools because our current approach makes it hard to see ownership and timelines, and it’s causing delays. This new tool gives us visibility.

Here’s the rollout: training next Tuesday. One pilot project this week to work out issues. All projects migrate by the end of the month. The old system shuts down on a specific date.

I’m using the new tool starting now. I’ll check in with each of you next week to remove barriers. We can adjust the approach, but we are not reverting.

Questions?

The second version creates stability. Not because it’s gentler, but because it’s clearer.

When You Should Actually Worry About Change Fatigue

If you’re wondering whether it’s real this time, look for these signs:

Multiple large-scale changes happening at once across different functions
Sustained transformation for 18+ months with little stability
Clear burnout signals: errors, disengagement, health issues, turnover
Ongoing role ambiguity (people genuinely don’t know what they own)
No visible end point or “settling period” in sight

If that’s your situation, slow down. Consolidate. Let changes stabilize. Give people time to catch up.

But be honest.

Most companies aren’t here.

The Most Dangerous Outcome of This Myth

The real risk of mislabeling everything as “change fatigue” is that it becomes a reason to avoid hard decisions.

“We can’t address that toxic manager right now.”

“We can’t fix this broken process.”

“We can’t clarify responsibilities.”

“We can’t hold people accountable.”

No.

If something is broken, fix it.

Your team doesn’t need protection from necessary change.

They need protection from sustained dysfunction.

And sometimes the fastest way to reduce exhaustion is to make the change you’ve been avoiding.

How to Make Change Without Exhausting Your Team

If you want change to land without burning people out:

Make fewer, more meaningful changes
Explain the why every time, more than once
Be clear about what’s changing and what’s staying stable
Provide training, time, and support
Follow through completely and consistently
Communicate progress and what you’re learning
Sequence major shifts instead of piling them up
Involve the people impacted early enough to shape the implementation

Most teams can handle a lot of change when it’s done well.

What they can’t handle is uncertainty disguised as leadership.

The Real Problem

If you think your team has change fatigue, you’re probably solving the wrong problem.

The problem might be:

inconsistent follow-through
unclear priorities
poor communication
change that isn’t rooted in real pain
leadership teams moving on too quickly

That’s harder to admit.

But it’s fixable.

And when you fix that, you’ll be surprised by how much change your team can actually absorb.

Because your team isn’t fragile.

They’re just tired of being jerked around.

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