10 Change Management Best Practices for Business Leaders

Key Takeaways

• Change management best practices include building a clear case for change, securing visible leadership support, involving employees, and communicating throughout implementation.
• Change is more likely to stick when managers are prepared, employees receive practical training, and leaders track adoption instead of stopping at launch.
• Change leadership skills develop through hands-on experience, direct feedback, exposure to different leadership styles, and structured business education.
• Frameworks such as ADKAR, Kotter's 8-Step Model, and the three-stage model commonly associated with Lewin give leaders a structured way to plan and sustain change.

Change has become a regular part of working life, but employees are not necessarily becoming more willing to accept it. In a 2025 Gartner survey of more than 2,850 employees, 79% reported low trust in organizational change. Only 32% of business leaders said the most recent change they led achieved "healthy change adoption," meaning employees adopted it on time without harming performance, engagement, or well-being. 

That puts more responsibility on the people leading the change. A new system may work technically. A restructuring may make sense on paper. Neither will deliver the intended result if employees do not understand the change, know what they need to do differently, or receive enough support to adopt it.

10 Change Management Best Practices for Leading Successful Change

The following change management best practices focus on that gap between announcing a change and getting it to work successfully:

1. Build a clear and compelling case for change

Before explaining what will change, explain why the organization needs to change at all. Employees should understand the problem being addressed, why action is needed now, what could happen if the organization does nothing, and how the organization will judge success.

Research on organizational readiness supports this approach. Across the development and testing of a readiness-for-change scale, more than 900 organizational members participated. The researchers found that readiness depends in part on whether employees believe the change is appropriate, leaders support it, they are capable of implementing it, and the change offers some benefit to them.

That makes the order of communication important. An announcement that begins with a new reporting structure or software rollout asks people to absorb the mechanics before they understand the reason. Start with the business case, then connect it to the practical changes employees will experience.

2. Secure active and visible executive sponsorship

A sponsor's role does not end when the project is approved. Employees need to see senior leaders continue to support the change when implementation becomes difficult.

Prosci has studied change management practices since 1998, and active, visible sponsorship has ranked as the leading contributor to successful change in every edition of its benchmarking research. Effective sponsors remain involved throughout implementation, build support among other leaders, and communicate directly with employees about why the change is necessary.

Make that involvement concrete. Put sponsor activities on the project calendar. Decide which milestones require the sponsor to communicate personally, where they need to remove an obstacle, and when employees need to hear from them again. A name on a project charter is not the same as sponsorship.

3. Involve employees early enough for their input to matter

Employee participation is most useful when people have a genuine opportunity to influence how a change is implemented. Ask the people who do the work where the proposed process is likely to break, what support they will need, and which parts of the plan create unnecessary friction.

That does not mean every decision has to be made collectively. It means being clear about which decisions are fixed and where employee input can still affect the outcome.

Research also suggests that participation works poorly when it is offered only in appearance. A 2024 qualitative study of nurses and change implementers at a medical center found that participation did not automatically reduce resistance. Employees saw some of the mechanisms for providing feedback as too restrictive, while implementers sometimes interpreted employee concerns as resistance. The findings show why participation needs to give employees a meaningful voice rather than simply creating the appearance of consultation.

Pilots are useful for this reason. Give a smaller group enough authority to identify problems before the wider rollout, then tell the rest of the organization what changed because of that feedback.

4. Communicate throughout the change, not only at launch

A company-wide announcement is a starting point. As implementation progresses, employees will have different questions because the consequences of the change become more concrete.

Communication should therefore continue throughout the rollout. Senior leaders should explain the organizational reason for the change, while managers address how it affects specific teams and roles. Prosci's latest benchmarking research identifies engaging and supporting people managers as a key contributor to successful change, and 58% of employees in its latest study preferred their direct supervisor or people manager for communications about the personal impact of a change. 

Communication also needs to leave room for response. In a study of 608 employees who had recently experienced workplace change, communication factors including involvement, participation, and appreciation explained the largest share of variance in employees' attitudes toward, resistance to, and support for the change.

Be clear about what has been decided and what is still being worked out. Uncertainty that is acknowledged is easier to deal with than certainty that later proves false.

5. Choose a change management framework that fits the change

A framework gives everyone involved a common way to plan the work and identify where progress is getting stuck. The goal is not to use as many models as possible. Choose one primary approach and bring in other tools only when they solve a specific problem.

Three widely used models take different approaches:

• ADKAR focuses on individual adoption. It identifies five outcomes a person needs to reach: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. It is particularly useful when leaders need to diagnose why employees are struggling to adopt a new process, system, or behavior.
• Kotter's 8-Step Model focuses on organization-wide change. It covers areas such as creating urgency, building a coalition, developing a vision, removing barriers, generating early wins, and making the new behaviors part of the organization. Kotter's current methodology treats these activities as iterative rather than a rigid sequence.
• The three-stage approach commonly associated with Kurt Lewin offers a broader lens for thinking about preparing for change, moving toward a new way of working, and stabilizing new practices afterward.

The framework should simplify the work. If teams are spending more time translating between models than solving adoption problems, the approach has become too complicated.

6. Prepare managers before they have to lead the change

For many employees, their direct manager is the person who turns an organization-wide decision into an answer to a much more immediate question: "What does this mean for my work?"

Prosci has identified people managers as important contributors to change success since 2011, and its research consistently finds that employees prefer their direct manager to explain personal impacts. Yet managers are often expected to lead these conversations before they have had enough time to process the change themselves.

Brief managers before broader employee communication whenever possible. Give them the information they need to explain what is changing and what remains undecided. They should also know where to take questions they cannot answer.

The same skills that make someone a stronger everyday leader become especially important during change. Communication, judgment, adaptability, and the ability to listen help managers give employees direction without pretending to have every answer.

7. Treat resistance as information

Labeling every negative response as "resistance" makes it easy to miss why someone is concerned. An employee may understand the business case and still disagree with the implementation. Another may support the goal but worry that they do not have the skills to work in the new system.

Leavey Teaching Professor Sandy Piderit's influential research on resistance to organizational change offers a useful way to think about employee reactions. In a widely cited 2000 Academy of Management Review article, Piderit argued against treating responses to change as a simple choice between support and opposition. Instead, employees may hold mixed or ambivalent views, and those responses can develop over time.

So listen for the reason behind the response. Concerns about workload may expose an implementation problem. Questions about job security require a different response from frustration caused by a previous failed initiative.

Empathy does not mean accepting every objection or abandoning the change. It means understanding the concern well enough to decide what action, if any, is needed.

8. Give employees the training and support needed to work differently

Awareness is not ability. Employees may understand and support a change and still lack the knowledge or practice required to carry it out.

Training should match the employee's role and arrive close enough to implementation that there is an opportunity to use it. People using a new system may need hands-on practice. Managers need preparation for employee conversations. Employees taking on new responsibilities may need coaching after go-live as questions begin to surface.

Research also points to the importance of continued support. In a study of 129 employees across eight residential aged care facilities in Australia, change-readiness training improved several dimensions of readiness after the intervention, but some of those gains declined at six- and 12-month follow-ups. The researchers suggested that booster training may help sustain readiness over time.

Plan for the first weeks after implementation as carefully as the training itself. Give employees a clear place to ask questions and refresh the training when recurring problems show that people need more support.

9. Measure adoption, not only project completion

A project can launch on schedule and still fail to change how people work. That is why implementation milestones need to be paired with adoption measures.

Prosci recommends looking at three dimensions of individual adoption: speed of adoption, ultimate utilization, and proficiency. In practical terms, leaders need to know how quickly employees are moving to the new way of working, how many are actually using it, and how well they can perform once they do.

The specific measures depend on the change. A technology rollout might track active usage and task completion. A new process might look at compliance, error rates, or cycle time. Employee feedback can then help explain why a particular group is falling behind.

Review these measures on a regular cadence after launch. A team that begins reverting to the old process is easier to support when the pattern appears early.

10. Reinforce the change until it becomes normal work

The work does not stop once employees have demonstrated that they can use the new process. Systems around them have to support the same behavior.

Update onboarding, role expectations, performance measures, and procedures that still point employees toward the old way of working. Managers should reinforce the new expectations in regular conversations and recognize progress when teams begin producing the intended results.

Prosci's benchmarking research found a strong association between reinforcement planning and project outcomes. Among respondents who planned reinforcement and sustainment activities, 81% reported meeting or exceeding project objectives, compared with 15% of those who did not.

Kotter's final step similarly focuses on making new behaviors part of how the organization operates, while the final stage of the model commonly associated with Lewin is concerned with stabilizing the new state. A change is much more secure once employees no longer experience it as a separate initiative.

Strong change management brings the business decision and the employee experience together. Leaders need a clear reason for the change, but they also need the communication, management practices, and follow-through that allow people to work differently after the announcement.

At Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business, organizational change is treated as a leadership capability. The Management and Entrepreneurship curriculum includes Change Management: The Practice of Leadership, while the Leading Innovative Organizations MBA concentration includes developing strategies for organizational change as one of its learning objectives. That connection between leadership and implementation is important because successful change depends on what leaders do throughout the process, not only on the decision that starts it.

How to Build Your Change Leadership Skills

Change leadership improves through practice. Start by leading a smaller initiative from beginning to end, then review your decisions against the 10 practices above. Look at where people understood the change quickly, where questions or resistance appeared, and what you would handle differently next time.

Ask the people involved for direct feedback as well. Find out what helped them understand and adopt the change, and what they needed from you but did not receive.

It also helps to understand how different types of leadership styles affect people under pressure. A collaborative approach may work when input is important, while a more directive approach may be necessary when decisions are time-sensitive. Practice approaches outside your usual style so you have more options when circumstances change.

Structured education gives you another place to develop these skills. MBA candidates study leadership alongside strategy, ethics, organizational behavior, and business decision-making while learning with professionals facing similar challenges at work. At the Leavey School of Business, the Evening MBA allows working professionals to build these capabilities without leaving their careers. The Executive MBA is designed for experienced leaders who are already making high-level decisions and leading organizational change. Both place that learning in Silicon Valley, where new technologies and business models continually test how organizations respond to change.

Change Is Constant - Leading It Well Is a Choice

Change often breaks down when the business plan moves faster than the people expected to carry it out. The 10 practices above help leaders close that gap through clearer communication, stronger sponsorship, meaningful participation, practical support, and continued reinforcement.

Change leadership: It develops through experience, feedback, education, and repeated practice. Explore the Leavey School of Business MBA programs to build those skills while strengthening the broader business judgment behind them. As AI continues to accelerate the pace of change, leaders who know how to bring people with them will be better prepared for what comes next.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 7 R's of change management?

The 7 R's are a checklist for evaluating a change request: who Raised it, the Reason, the Return expected, the Risks, the Resources required, who is Responsible, and the Relationship to other changes. They originated in IT service management but work as a sanity check for any organizational change.

Why does change management fail?

Most change efforts fail on the people side: unclear reasons for the change, absent sponsors, poor communication, and unaddressed resistance, rather than on strategy or technology itself.

What is the difference between change management and change leadership?

Change management focuses on the processes and practices used to implement a specific change and help people adopt it. Change leadership focuses more broadly on setting direction, building support, and guiding people through uncertainty. Leaders often need both to move an organization from deciding on a change to making it work in practice.

How do you deal with change fatigue on a team?

Start by reducing unnecessary overlap between initiatives and being clear about which changes matter most. Explain why each change is needed, give employees meaningful input into how it is implemented, and pay attention to workload as the change progresses. When possible, allow teams time to stabilize after one major change before introducing another.