Skip to content

The Positive Resistance Trap: When Helpful Employees Sabotage Change

The Positive Resistance Trap: When Helpful Employees Sabotage Change Why your most helpful employees unintentionally sabotage transformation and how to channel good intentions into transformation success The Positive Resistance Trap Your most helpful, well-intentioned employees will sabotage your transformation—not maliciously, but because they’re trying to protect the organization from what they perceive as risk. This “helpful resistance” is harder to identify and address than outright opposition because it comes from good intentions. Maria is your best team player. She always…

The 5 Stages of Transformation Grief (And How to Navigate Each)

The 5 Stages of Transformation Grief (And How to Navigate Each) Why organizational change triggers grief responses and how leaders can navigate each stage to ensure transformation success Key Insight: Every transformation asks people to let go of something familiar—processes they’ve mastered, roles they’ve defined themselves by, relationships that gave them status. This creates a psychological grief cycle that 70% of transformation leaders either don’t recognize or actively resist acknowledging. When Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross identified the five stages of grief…

True Loyalty: The Best Last Experience Is Your Next Minimum Expectation

True Loyalty: The Best Last Experience Is Your Next Minimum Expectation How Does an Organization Create True Customer Loyalty? Issue 219, July 3, 2025 Sam Walton said, “Your best last experience is your next minimum expectation.” In 2025, these words of wisdom have become a double-edged sword as the greatest opportunity and biggest threat to customer loyalty. Based on Walmart’s longevity and performance, his motto seems to be proving out in the retail marketplace. But Walton’s business philosophy works both…

Unlearning: The Hidden Key to Organizational Transformation

Unlearning: The Hidden Key to Organizational Transformation Issue 206, April 3, 2025 Let us count the number of times we have heard this: “But we’ve always done it this way,” Or this: “It’s always worked in the past.” And this: “Why would we change? We’re good at what we do.” These aren’t cliches, they are tried and true working operational strategies for many organizations. At 2040 we are dedicated to meaningful change and transformation and we know how hard this…

Why Do Great Ideas Get Ignored?

Why Do Great Ideas Get Ignored? Issue 168, July 11, 2024 How great are you at getting your ideas understood and accepted?  You’ve  been mulling over how to solve a problem for a couple of weeks now. You’ve reviewed the facts, recognized the challenges and thought long and hard about how to ensure impressive results. It has been a struggle given so many distractions with the surface noise of meetings, emails and intermittent mental exhaustion. But yesterday you woke up…

Are You a Renaissance Leader?

Are You a Renaissance Leader? Issue 166, June 27, 2024 Just when you thought leaders have been disintermediated by demanding younger employees who want a seat at their bosses’ tables, these leaders are more important than ever. So much has been reported and written about working to live, life/work balance, and the quality-of-life fulfillment of remote work that managers and their roles have been shoved to the side. But in truth, leaders have their work cut out for them. The…

Whistleblowers and Trust: Revealing Courageous Leadership

Whistleblowers and Trust: Revealing Courageous Leadership Issue 164, June 13, 2024 Who do we trust in the public forum? It’s hard to judge with cascades of misinformation and intentional disinformation swirling around on the internet, in the courts and at the rallies. It’s also hard to identify any public heroes in a polarized society.  One person’s champion is another’s enemy. To say it’s confusing is an understatement. Psychology Today describes heroes as individuals who give us hope, energize us, heal…

The Importance of Language in Organizational Transformation

The Importance of Language in Organizational Transformation Issue 157, April 25, 2024 Think about this for a moment.  The English language we speak is referred to as Modern English dating back to 1450. It‘s related to the emergence of the printing press and was adopted through the expanded volume of printed materials including Shakespeare in the late 1500s and the King James Bible in 1611 (study.com). That was over 570 years ago.  If you’re following us here, it might dawn…

The Value of Reflective Decision-Making

The Value of Reflective Decision-Making Issue 155, April 11, 2024 Admit it, most of us are stressed out and often filled with anxiety.  We are time-pressed. Overbooked. Distracted. Confused. Dumbfounded. Surprised. And potentially even trending to pessimism. We are trying to make sense of events we can’t control that are hurtling toward us daily through our news feeds. A Moment in Time We’re also grappling with the speed of change in the digital economy and our connected society. The news…

Belonging Matters

Belonging Matters Issue 136, November 23, 2023 The most fundamental motivation among the human species is to belong.  Belonging is implicit in sharing trust, affinity and caring about someone or something bigger than yourself. Renown philosopher Dan Dennett in a TED talk in 2006 encouraged everyone to dedicate and devote themselves to something more important than themselves to find meaning and purpose in their lives. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions whether the audience of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and…

Back To Top