Change Signal: Modern Change Management that Works

Where is change already happening without you? Are you selling ideas before they’ve been tested? And what are we losing as AI makes work more efficient?

Michael Arena is a network scientist, former Chief Talent Officer at General Motors, and author of Adaptive Space and co-author of The New Social Code. We talk about what actually helps change and transformation take hold inside large organizations, and why so much of it happens outside the formal change process.

Michael argues that change is largely emergent: small groups experiment, build trust, find allies, and create enough momentum for leaders to notice. His advice for change leaders is wonderfully practical: don’t rush to pitch a promising idea upstairs. Find a friend, pressure-test it, and make it work before you try to sell it.

We also explore the changing role of human networks in the age of AI, why trusted relationships help bold ideas travel, and how leaders can balance exploration, execution, influence, and connection without becoming hostage to their own networks.

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.

***

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Here are three provocative questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation with Damon Centola: What are you mistaking for adoption? Who actually makes change feel normal? And are your change agents too scattered?

Damon Centola is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, director of the Network Dynamics Group, and author of Change: How to Make Big Things Happen and Goodthink: The New Science of Collective Intelligence. His research into networks reveals why information can spread quickly while actual behaviour stubbornly refuses to follow. Damon has spent years studying how change actually spreads through networks, and his work challenges some familiar assumptions about change leadership and transformation. Awareness is not adoption, influential people are often less important than the everyday networks around us, and behaviour change depends on repeated social reinforcement. 

We talk about why complex change behaves differently from information, why a critical mass matters, and why that critical mass has to be connected rather than scattered across the organization. Damon also explains why change agents may be more effective clustered together, and why scaling change across silos requires “wide bridges” — multiple reinforcing relationships between groups.

If you lead change in a large organization, this conversation offers a practical way to think about where change really starts, how it spreads, and why communication alone so often fails.

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.

***

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Here are three questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation with Amy Edmondson: Are we learning — or just performing success? When should a change project be allowed to fail? And what are we afraid to say when the stakes get high?

Amy Edmondson is best known for her work on psychological safety, and here she connects it directly to change leadership, experimentation, and the realities of transformation inside large organizations.

We talk about why psychological safety isn’t about making people comfortable — it’s about making learning possible when the work is uncertain, awkward, and risky. We explore her distinction between mistakes and intelligent failure, and why trying to eliminate failure can make meaningful change harder.

Amy also challenges the way organizations run pilots. A pilot designed to succeed may teach you almost nothing; a useful experiment should expose the edges before you scale.

Along the way, we cover hierarchy, false agreement, courage, cross-functional collaboration, and a useful idea for anyone leading change without a reliable playbook: treat change less like implementation and more like research.

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.

***

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Here are three questions this Change Signal conversation asks:

In this episode, I talk with Phill Agnew, host of the marketing podcast Nudge, about what change leaders can learn from behavioural science — and why people are so much less rational than our change plans assume.

We get into choice overload, loss aversion, social proof, defaults, friction, and reactance — the very human pushback that happens when people feel their autonomy is being squeezed. Phill brings terrific stories and studies, from jam counters to organ donation to bus stops in France, all pointing to a useful truth: if you want people to change, don’t just make the case harder. Design the conditions better.

For senior leaders working on transformation, change management, or culture change, this is a practical conversation about influence without the ick. Less “roll it out and hope.” More “make it easier, wiser, and more human to move.”

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

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Here’s the revised version with an opening sentence and the three questions bulleted.

This Change Signal conversation with Aidan McCullen asks three practical questions for anyone leading change in a large organization:

Aidan McCullen, host of The Innovation Show and author of Undisruptable, joins me to talk about what it really takes to lead change when reinvention is no longer occasional but permanent.

Aidan brings a useful dose of realism to change management, transformation, and innovation. He argues that the “change muscle” has atrophied, partly because many organizations still treat change like a project with a finish line rather than a capability to build.

We get into the unglamorous but essential work of change leadership: mapping power, understanding resisters, creating small wins, giving other people credit, and getting enough air cover to survive the corporate maze.

There’s also a memorable warning about chasing “chocolate teapots” — the easy wins that look like progress but don’t really move the dial.

For senior leaders responsible for transformation, this is a conversation about stamina, politics, allies, and the quiet discipline of making change real.

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.

***

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🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!)

The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly

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This Change Signal conversation with Alex M H Smith asks three sharp questions:

Alex is the author of No Bullsh*t Strategy, and he brings a gloriously skeptical eye to the foggy world of strategy, change management, and transformation. His central challenge is simple: most strategy isn’t strategy at all — it’s goals, optimization, or a vague wish wearing a business suit.

We explore why internal change teams need to understand their own “unique value” to the business, why change needs to be sold through a story people actually care about, and why exhausted organizations may need less addition and more sacrifice.

There’s also a useful poke at inclusive decision-making, charisma, mischief, and the problem of trying to lead change in an era when everyone is already overwhelmed.

If you’re leading transformation inside a large organization, this one may sharpen your thinking — and perhaps your courage.

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

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Here are three questions from this Change Signal conversation: 

In this episode, I talk with Clay Parker Jones, author of Hidden Patterns: A Playbook for More Human Workplaces, about why change management often gets stuck — and what might actually help.

Clay’s work is built around the idea of patterns: small, repeatable moves that can change how people work without requiring you to blow up the org chart. We talk about why old patterns are so seductive, how new ones spread, and why the geeks, nerds, and weird ones may be your best allies.

We also get into resistance — not as ignorance or stubbornness, but as useful information about what people are protecting. And Clay makes a sharp case that change leaders need to get closer to customer contact, business outcomes, and the places where the organization can feel the impact.

Change Signal is where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom.

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

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***

SAY THANKS

💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

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Here are three questions from this Change Signal conversation with Greg Satell: 

In this episode, I talk with Greg Satell about change management, transformation, and why large-scale change is less like a rollout and more like a cascade.

Greg’s argument is wonderfully useful: change spreads through small groups, loosely connected, united by shared purpose. That means the job of a change leader is not to launch bigger, shout louder, or persuade harder — it’s to find where energy already exists, build one concrete success, and let peer networks do their work.

We also dig into why shared purpose needs shared values underneath it, why resistance is often rational, and why identity is the hardest thing to ask people to change.

For senior leaders navigating change fatigue, transformation overload, and the endless pressure to “go big,” this conversation offers a more practical, human, and network-smart way to begin.

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

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Jennifer Garvey Berger’s three key insights: connectivity matters more than individual talent in complex systems; small experiments beat both over-planning and paralysis; and stories are legitimate measures of change before numbers shift.

If you've ever had a change plan that hasn't quite gone according to plan (and honestly, who hasn't?), this conversation with Jennifer Garvey Berger will shift how you think about leading transformation. She's spent three decades figuring out what actually works when everything feels unpredictable and out of control.

Jennifer challenges the "all-star team" approach most of us default to. Instead, she argues for building networks of diverse perspectives because you can't predict whose viewpoint will matter most until after the fact.

She also makes the case for experiments so small they feel almost trivial — like fancy lunches that generated $10 million in revenue. The key is making them smaller than you think, more fun than traditional initiatives, and designed specifically for learning rather than guaranteed success.

And here's something that might surprise you: Jennifer suggests that rumours and stories are often the first real indicators of change, long before your metrics show anything. In human systems, shifting narratives actually is real change.

This isn't about lighting incense and appreciating each other's light within. It's practical wisdom for navigating complexity without losing your mind.

Change Signal. Where ambitious leaders find modern change mastery. 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

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Three key insights from Anne Gotte: change management is as outdated as "personnel" organizations must diagnose their change allergies before attempting transformation; and leaders need to embrace clumsy imperfection while providing clear direction.

Anne Gotte is SVP Global Talent & Organization Effectiveness at Mondelēz and she brings refreshing honesty to the messy reality of organizational transformation. She's worked at Bumble, Ecolab, and General Mills, collecting scars and wisdom along the way.

This conversation challenges the traditional playbook. Anne argues that "decree change" — where executives design solutions in isolation, announce them broadly, then expect magic — as well and truly reached its expiration date.

Instead, she advocates for building ongoing change capacity rather than managing episodic projects. Her approach starts with uncomfortable questions: Who are we today? What makes any change difficult for us? How do our systems contradict our change story?

The discussion explores why change feels clumsy (spoiler: it's supposed to), how to honour uncertainty while providing clarity, and why slow can actually be fast. Anne's insights about getting comfortable being uncomfortable offer a different path forward for change leaders tired of pretending transformation should feel orderly and predictable.

This is change leadership for grown-ups who've learned that the mess is actually the work.

Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change and transformation.

***

WHEN YOU’RE READY

🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!)

The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly

***

CONNECT

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SAY THANKS

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