Change Resilience 101
By Ali Lalieu
June 2025
The world of work is changing fast.
As AI reshapes industries, budgets tighten, geopolitical events shake systems, the most valuable skills today and tomorrow aren’t technical; they’re human.
The organizations that thrive will be the ones that:
Build psychological safety
Foster adaptability
Harness Resilience
Create human-centered workplaces where people can think, feel and collaborate in the midst of the pressure of uncertainty.
As a certified Dare to Lead ™ facilitator, and Emotional Intelligence Coach (EQCC Six Seconds), I’ve had the privilege of working with teams and senior Executives leading change for over a decade.
And from what I observe (and hear), leaders and managers at all levels are experiencing workplaces they could never have imagined! Just as the dust settles on one significant change, another change disrupts.
The relentless pace. The brittle volatility. The extreme uncertainty. The complex emotional exposure.
The hard news here is that the demands of this spiral will only increase over time.
Change is the ‘new normal’, and we have no choice other than to accept and make friends with this extraordinary level of disruption (which Dr Brené Brown so aptly calls ‘Beyond Human Scale’!)
As my understanding of what people are experiencing has deepened, I created a Change Resilience map, called The Spiral of Change.
Thinking of Change as a spiral highlights the continuous energy of emotion (energy in motion!), expanding and contracting, driving acceptance, resilience and buy-in (getting on board); or driving a resistance, a fatigue, a pull-away (jumping off board).
In any change process, we find ourselves in all positions (sometimes in the same minute, hour or day!)
Trust (a primary emotion itself), is the invisible glue that binds all relationships, and holds the central space, grounding the process.
Trust is fragile ~ some say ‘it arrives on foot and leaves in a ferrari’!
In times of significant change, trust is often a casualty, and leaders who are able to lean into vulnerability, share honestly and role model Change resilience have a better chance of holding trust intact.
At every point throughout change, it’s helpful to develop a set of AGILE leadership behaviours for yourself, and across your teams and culture.
I encourage you to take this self-assessment, to grow your own awareness of the leadership behaviours that support Change resilience.
In the Spiral of Change, you’ll notice the different emotions circling trust:
In the Cycle of Change resilience, we see emotions like curiosity, excitement, belonging, empathy, courage and compassion.
Curiosity stands out as a vital skill set of the future.
Joshua Freedman (CEO Six Seconds) names Empathy as the key differentiator for leadership in the future.
In the Cycle of Change resistance, there’s a different set of emotions, fear, blame, frustration, judgement, scarcity and shame.
These are not ‘bad emotions’ to experience. They just give us important messages, and drive us to challenge ourselves, widen our perspective and look for alternative options/ways to move forward.
Joshua Freedman reminds us that emotions are not positive or negative, they’re just data. They give us powerful information to help us grow in awareness, make sense of our challenges and support better decision making.
If you want change to thrive at scale and grow resilient leaders and cultures, emotional intelligence (EQ) is the missing link.
Change is a process: partly logical, but mostly emotional.
People feel their way through change.
Emotions come first ~ it’s the way our brains are wired!
Change resilience is about CONNECTING with the harder emotions (naming and navigating them, harnessing their energy and courageously stepping into unknown territory).
Change resilience demands that we COMMUNICATE differently: that we’re clear what kind of conversation is needed at any point in time.
Most often it’s a Coaching approach (in the moment, on the go conversations) that sparks new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.
A Coaching approach grows curiosity, along with the kind of Radical Listening that unlocks human potential through genuine trust-building conversations.
Finally, Change Resilience grows when leaders CLARIFY the change process for people.
In the absence of information, when uncertainty reigns, people will make up a story about what’s going on, and it’s usually a story worse than the reality of the change!
Keep people informed.
Help them understand the context of the change, and why it’s necessary. Especially in those times when the change feels values misaligned, or unfair.
Manage expectations as best you can.
Support people to reality check the stories they’re telling themselves. Listen empathically to their stories. Listen for the messages behind the words they’re using.
James Clear reminds us that “We don’t rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems”!
Give your leaders the opportunity to co-create a Resilience Plan that focuses on building Connect, Communicate and Clarify into a system.
Keep the Spiral of Change alive daily by prioritising in-the-moment conversations, capturing of stories and lessons learned.
Organisational life offers many opportunities where habits can be built around strengthening the Spiral of Change.
Where trust and psychological safety can grow, and people can feel safe to connect with how they and others are feeling.
Where people can Communicate intentionally and meaningfully.
Where a set of behaviours (supporting physical, emotional and mental wellbeing) can be clarified and embedded into work flow/systems (meetings, town halls, performance conversations, role transitions etc).
Change resilience is not about avoiding difficult experiences, but rather developing the capacity to lean in (a vulnerable thing to do) and maintain psychological wellbeing to more effectively cope with challenges.
Change resilience is a skillset that can be developed and strengthened over time.
Paying attention to the Spiral of Change and embedding a Resilience Plan will help you and your teams do just that!
Ali xo