How Do You Keep People With You During Change?

The question beneath the plan

A transformation plan can be detailed and still leave the people who must carry it out unsure of the destination. Dr. Tom DePaoli tells Jayson and the Corporate Argonauts as a business fable, using a voyage to make that human problem easier to discuss. The video introducing the book speaks about trust, a capable crew, and the need to explain the course. The question is not simply how to announce change. It is how to keep colleagues informed and involved when a plan meets real obstacles. A message sent once from the top cannot do that work. People need to know what is expected, why it matters, and how concerns will be heard.

Build trust in repeated acts

Tom places integrity and compassion ahead of a leader’s demand for loyalty. A team watches whether meetings start on time, whether commitments are recorded, and whether difficult information is shared. Face-to-face conversation can reveal confusion that an email thread hides. The book’s voyage metaphor is useful here: people are more willing to join a crew when they can see who is navigating, which risks have been considered, and what will happen if the course changes. That does not require pretending the leader has every answer. It requires making uncertainty discussable. A colleague who raises a problem may be protecting the project from a preventable failure.

Give the crew real work

Assemble people who understand different parts of the organization, including those with expertise the leader does not have. Give them a role in choosing and testing the next step. Tom recommends cross-functional teams and visible measures of progress. A measure is most helpful when the team knows what it means and can challenge it when reality differs. Explain decisions in plain language and share setbacks along with gains. When resistance appears, answer with reasons and evidence rather than treating every objection as disloyalty. Some objections will be based on incomplete information; others will reveal a genuine cost that the plan must address. Both deserve a hearing.

Keep learning after the milestone

A rollout date is not the end of change. Return to the teams affected and ask what became easier, what became harder, and which promised support never arrived. The fable argues for adaptation rather than a rigid march through a project chart. Make room to correct the course without hiding the correction. A leader can begin with one honest conversation: what does this change ask of your team, and what would you need to make it workable? Record the answer, assign an owner, and come back with a response. That follow-through gives the next communication more credibility. People stay with a difficult journey when they can see both a purpose and a leader willing to listen while moving toward it.

Choose a regular rhythm for answering questions while the plan is underway. A weekly update is only useful if it names a decision, an unresolved issue, or a change in course. Invite questions from the teams carrying the work, and show how their answers shape the next step. Even a decision to keep the original plan becomes easier to understand when the reason is visible. That is how a crew learns to navigate together.

Hear Dr. Tom explain the idea in the book presentation, then explore the book for the full account.