Change Signal: Modern Change Management that Works

Michael Bungay Stanier | Modern Change Management Practitioner
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Change management is harder than ever. Organizations face more complexity, more uncertainty, and more pressure to deliver successful change than at any point in recent memory. Most leaders respond by pushing harder. Others search for the latest model, framework, or methodology and hope the tool will solve the problem. Neither guarantees change adoption. Successful change happens when people are ready, stakeholders are engaged, leaders show up effectively, and change approaches fit the reality of the work. That's what Change Signal explores. Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit and a student of organizational change for more than thirty years, talks with leading thinkers, experienced practitioners, and senior leaders to uncover what works, what doesn't, and what modern change management looks like in practice. Each episode explores the challenges behind leading successful change, building change readiness, strengthening stakeholder engagement, improving change adoption, applying change frameworks, refining change methodology, and measuring change effectiveness. Whether you're leading a change project, supporting organizational change, or helping teams navigate uncertainty, you'll find practical ideas, tested approaches, and evidence-based insights you can put to work immediately. The goal is simple: help change practitioners and change leaders make change more successful, more sustainable, and less overwhelming. New episodes regularly. Join the conversation at TheChangeSignal.com. Popular Episode Topics Include: Change Management, Modern Change Management, Leading Change, Change Adoption, Adoption Strategy, Change Readiness, Organizational Readiness, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Buy-In, Executive Sponsorship, Change Methodology, Change Frameworks, Change Management Frameworks, Change Leadership, Change Measurement, Measuring Change Success, Change Effectiveness, Change Projects, Change Planning, Change Outcomes

  1. Clarity>Certainty. Context>Content | Peter Schein | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    1 day ago

    Clarity>Certainty. Context>Content | Peter Schein | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    This Change Signal conversation with Peter Schein asks three questions: • What doesn’t your change plan know? • Where is context quietly defeating content? • Are we building systems so perfect that people no longer need to be good? Peter, co-author with Ed Schein of Humble Inquiry, Humble Consulting, and Humble Leadership, brings a wonderfully useful challenge to change management and transformation work. He says humble leadership isn’t about being modest; it’s about being vulnerable to what you don’t know, and curious enough to discover what the room already knows. We talk about why change leaders get seduced by content — the strategy, the model, the deck, the eight steps — while missing the context that determines whether any of it will actually land. We also explore relationship mapping, “soak time” in meetings, and why trust is not some nice-to-have garnish sprinkled on top of organizational change. For senior leaders leading change in large, complex organizations, this is about clarity over certainty, context over content, and the practical, human work of being good to each other. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

    29 min
  2. Two Types of Change Harm | Kate O'Neill | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    24 Jun

    Two Types of Change Harm | Kate O'Neill | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    Three questions sit at the heart of this conversation: • Are you starting with the technology, or the purpose?• What harm are you creating by moving too fast — or too slowly?• Have you designed the change people actually experience? Kate O’Neill is a tech humanist, strategist, and author of What Matters Next. In this Change Signal episode, we talk about AI, digital transformation, and the choices change leaders face when the world keeps speeding up. Kate challenges one of the loudest instincts in organizations right now: “We need an AI strategy.” Maybe. But not first. First comes purpose: what the business is here to do, how it creates value, what kind of experience it wants to design, and what data helps leaders make better decisions. We also explore Kate’s useful distinction between the harms of action and the harms of inaction — the trouble we create by moving too fast, and the debt we create by waiting too long. If you lead change or transformation in a large organization, this is a practical conversation about pace, purpose, and making change more human. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

    29 min
  3. How to Make Change Real | Roger Martin | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    17 Jun

    How to Make Change Real | Roger Martin | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    Three questions sit at the heart of this conversation:  Are you asking people to make real choices, or just comply? What past are you accidentally disrespecting? Is your change work actually part of the work? Roger Martin is one of the clearest thinkers I know on strategy, leadership, and transformation. In this Change Signal episode, we get into why so many change efforts stall, not because people are lazy or resistant, but because they’ve been given a vague or demeaning job: “go execute this.” Roger offers a better way: choice chartering. Give people the shape of the answer you need, not the answer itself. Help them understand the strategic choice, then ask them to make the next set of choices for their part of the organization. We also explore agency, psychological safety, vision, and why respecting the old system may be the key to changing it. If you lead change in a large organization, this is a practical, thoughtful conversation about how transformation really happens. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

    28 min
  4. Designing Behavior Change That Sticks | BJ Fogg | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    10 Jun

    Designing Behavior Change That Sticks | BJ Fogg | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    This Change Signal conversation with BJ Fogg raises three interesting questions: Are you designing change, or just hoping for it?  Where’s the overlap that actually works?  What is your environment quietly shaping? Behaviour ch Change sits at the heart of every transformation effort, yet most leaders still rely on willpower, communication, and good intentions. BJ Fogg offers a more practical approach — one grounded in designing for behaviour rather than trying to persuade it. We explore his core model: behaviour happens when motivation, ability, and prompts come together. Miss one, and change struggles. Get the combination right, and change becomes far more predictable. BJ also reframes scale through a simple but demanding lens — finding the overlap between what the organization needs and what people are willing and able to do. Much of what looks like resistance is actually misalignment. And then there’s the environment. Not as context, but as a primary lever. Change what surrounds people — the cues, the ease, the friction — and behaviour often follows. Change Signal. Where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

    29 min
  5. Power Mapping for Change Practitioners & Leaders | Tiziana Casciaro | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    3 Jun

    Power Mapping for Change Practitioners & Leaders | Tiziana Casciaro | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    Here are three questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation with Tiziana Casciaro:  Where does power really sit in your system? Why don’t people use your “open door”?  When is resistance a skill gap — and when is it a coalition fight? Most change efforts in big organizations fail for a quiet reason: we pretend change is a plan, when it’s actually a power-and-relationships story. Tiziana helps make “power” discussable again — less as a dirty word, more as the energy that moves decisions, resources, and attention. We talk about power mapping as a practical discipline: noticing who’s influential, what the organization values, and how the informal network really works (because the org chart is only part of the truth). And we dig into the relational labour of leading change — how much listening, curiosity, and conversation it actually takes to create momentum. Finally, we get honest about resistance. Sometimes people need resources and a path to success; sometimes you have to build a coalition to move a transformation forward. Change Signal. Where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

    37 min
  6. Conversations: The Atomic Unit of Change | Daniel Stillman | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    27 May

    Conversations: The Atomic Unit of Change | Daniel Stillman | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    Here are three tensions that emerge from this Change Signal conversation with Daniel Stillman:  Who actually owns the change?  What conversations are you avoiding?  Are you inviting people — or forcing them? If you lead change in a large organization, you already know this: great strategy and clear comms aren’t enough. Daniel Stillman — author of Good Talk — makes the case that conversations are the real engine of change, and most of us are underpowered. We explore why one-to-many communication rarely shifts behavior, and why many-to-many conversations — messy, slower, harder — are where ownership and momentum actually build. Daniel brings a designer’s mindset to leadership, showing how conversations can be shaped with intention, not left to chance. We also get practical. How do you test new ways of working without waiting for permission? What does “minimum viable change” look like inside a constrained system? And how do you build trust when people have seen these efforts fail before? This is a conversation about change leadership that is grounded, slightly subversive, and immediately useful — especially if you’re trying to move something real, with people who don’t have to agree with you. Change Signal. Where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

    33 min
  7. Map Your Culture’s Hidden System | Siobhán McHale | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    20 May

    Map Your Culture’s Hidden System | Siobhán McHale | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    Here are three provocative questions at the centre of this Change Signal conversation with Siobhán McHale: Are you trying to change a machine, a network, or an ecosystem? What patterns are quietly running your culture? How do you intervene without getting “organ rejected”? Siobhán has spent two decades as an “insider,” rolling up her sleeves inside organizations to make change actually happen. In this episode, she shares why most change leadership still leans too heavily on IQ and EQ — and why the next capability is what she calls group intelligence: the ability to see the system, not just the people in it. We talk about mapping the ecosystem through interviews and observation, so you can spot the hidden roles and agreements that drive behavior (and results). Siobhán explains how these patterns can be simple once you see them — and why the real work is helping the system reveal itself, without triggering the immune response of politics and defensiveness. If you lead transformation in a large organization, this is a practical, systemic conversation about change management that goes beyond slogans and into what works. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

    26 min
  8. How Your Origin Story Runs Your Change Program | Ron Carucci | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    13 May

    How Your Origin Story Runs Your Change Program | Ron Carucci | Modern Change Management & Leading Change

    Here are three questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation with Ron Carucci: Are we still managing change as if it’s predictable? What unseen stories are really shaping how our organizations behave? And where might leaders themselves be quietly getting in the way? Change management, as most of us were taught it, assumes a linear path: a clear “from,” a clear “to,” and a plan to get there. In this conversation, Ron Carucci makes the case that those days are over. For leaders running complex change in large organizations, the real work now is less about managing transitions and more about building readiness for constant uncertainty. Ron and I explore why so many well-designed transformations stall — not because the strategy was wrong, but because the leader’s inner patterns were never examined. He introduces the idea of “origin stories”: early narratives that shape how leaders set standards, respond to resistance, and tolerate risk, often without realizing it. We also unpack Ron’s three-domain model of transformation: work within the leader, between people and teams, and among the systems of culture, strategy, and governance. Miss one, and change quietly unravels. This is a practical, humane, and slightly uncomfortable conversation for experienced change leaders who want results that actually stick. Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place. *** WHEN YOU’RE READY 🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!) The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly *** CONNECT 💼Connect on LinkedIn *** SAY THANKS 💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚Leave a review on Spotify

    28 min
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Change management is harder than ever. Organizations face more complexity, more uncertainty, and more pressure to deliver successful change than at any point in recent memory. Most leaders respond by pushing harder. Others search for the latest model, framework, or methodology and hope the tool will solve the problem. Neither guarantees change adoption. Successful change happens when people are ready, stakeholders are engaged, leaders show up effectively, and change approaches fit the reality of the work. That's what Change Signal explores. Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit and a student of organizational change for more than thirty years, talks with leading thinkers, experienced practitioners, and senior leaders to uncover what works, what doesn't, and what modern change management looks like in practice. Each episode explores the challenges behind leading successful change, building change readiness, strengthening stakeholder engagement, improving change adoption, applying change frameworks, refining change methodology, and measuring change effectiveness. Whether you're leading a change project, supporting organizational change, or helping teams navigate uncertainty, you'll find practical ideas, tested approaches, and evidence-based insights you can put to work immediately. The goal is simple: help change practitioners and change leaders make change more successful, more sustainable, and less overwhelming. New episodes regularly. Join the conversation at TheChangeSignal.com. Popular Episode Topics Include: Change Management, Modern Change Management, Leading Change, Change Adoption, Adoption Strategy, Change Readiness, Organizational Readiness, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Buy-In, Executive Sponsorship, Change Methodology, Change Frameworks, Change Management Frameworks, Change Leadership, Change Measurement, Measuring Change Success, Change Effectiveness, Change Projects, Change Planning, Change Outcomes

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