08/23/2025

How to Successfully Drive Change When Everything Is Uncertain

Those who follow gradual change tactics risk underperformance

Traditional change management advice emphasizes gradual tactics like pursuing “small wins,” building coalitions and pitching pilots that require minimal investment. In stable times, these approaches have been shown to build momentum and buy-in from stakeholders and employees alike, softening the rigid status quo.

But in turbulent times—in a crisis or when market upheaval is under way, for example—leaders who follow gradual change tactics risk underperformance. In our research and experience working with organizations, we’ve observed that when tumult begins, there is a brief window—a temporary loosening of red tape and resistance—when change is actually easier, if leaders go about it well. For example, during the first months of COVID in 2020, one of us (Julia) and her colleague at Yale School of Management, Elisabeth Yang, were studying the difficulties facing hospital managers and their staffs. But these managers surprised us by reporting that there were silver linings to the crisis: Operational changes they had wanted to institute for years were suddenly being approved, such as a streamlined process to batch orders and labs, hand-held ultrasounds for patient exams, and the addition of a lead nurse role to support less-experienced nursing staff.

While change can be easier amid disruption, though, it is by no means guaranteed. Organizational scholarship suggests that under threat, organizations are at least as likely to grow rigid as to adapt. To take advantage of such moments to promote the changes they want to see, leaders need to be proactive and opportunistic. The adage “never waste a good crisis” is commonplace but often forgotten. Sometimes, this is because leaders fear change, are distracted or do not want to overwhelm their employees further during a time of upheaval. We have seen this in executive teams facing crises, among frontline managers during the pandemic and in multi-business companies during the financial crisis of 2008.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.