"Look at this - every milestone’s ticked off!" said Minh, waving the latest project dashboard at Aisha.

Aisha raised an eyebrow. "Impressive, but… have you noticed people are still using the old process? I sat in on a team meeting yesterday - no one mentioned the new system once."

Minh frowned. "But this is showing all green?"

Aisha leant over, looked at Minh’s iPad and shook her head. "Nah, that dashboard is all about tracking deliverables and making the project look good to the exec. It’s not showing whether or not the change has actually landed with folks..."

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"Do you think this will land well with everyone?" asked Mia, glancing at the draft communication plan.

Her colleague Jamal paused. "It’s a start, but have we thought about how this change impacts our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders? Or whether it reflects their experiences?"

Mia frowned. "Good point. We’ve consulted the leadership team, but… not those communities."

Jamal nodded. "If we want this change to work for everyone, we need to make sure it’s culturally safe. Otherwise, we risk causing harm - and excluding the very people we should be centring."

Mia grabbed her notebook. "Yeah, you're right! Ok, let’s rethink this approach..."

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"Can we push the workshop to next month?" asked Riya, barely looking up from her laptop. "We’ve got a major report due, and I just can’t spare the team right now."

Alan leaned back in his chair, trying not to let his frustration show.

It wasn’t the first time he’d heard this excuse, and it probably wouldn’t be the last.

Every time he tried to prioritise the change initiative, something more ‘urgent’ seemed to pop up.

He couldn’t blame them—everyone was juggling competing priorities.

But if the change kept getting bumped, it would never get the momentum it needed.

"Alright," he thought, flipping open his notebook. "Time to cut through the noise and make this change stick."

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"How’s the rollout going?" asked Amir, leaning against the break room counter.

"Depends who you ask," said Priya, pouring her coffee. "Some teams are flying ahead, and others... well, let’s just say adoption isn’t exactly their priority."

Amir nodded knowingly. "Let me guess—the teams with engaged managers are the ones driving adoption, right?"

Priya sighed. "Exactly. But a lot of managers are already stretched thin. If we want them to support the change, we need to make it as easy as possible for them."

Amir smiled. "Alright, let’s figure out how to make that happen."

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"Another workshop rescheduled," said Arjun, glancing at his calendar. "That’s the third one this month."

Leila sighed. "I sent out a survey last week—only two people responded. And one of them just wrote, ‘Too busy.’"

Arjun leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples. "Feels like everyone’s just over it. But we’re not even halfway through the rollout."

Leila nodded. "They don’t hate us - it’s change fatigue. They’re exhausted. And honestly? I don’t blame them. When the effort feels bigger than the benefits, it’s hard to stay motivated."

Arjun frowned, staring at his empty workshop calendar. "Alright," he said, sitting up. "Let’s figure out how to make this easier—and maybe even fun—before we lose them completely."

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"Wait, what do you mean onboarding and leave requests won’t be included?" Ruby asked, staring at the project update email in disbelief. "That’s what the rollout plan promised."

Her colleague shrugged. "It was in the original plan, but IT hasn’t even started on that part yet. There’s no way it’ll be done this financial year—maybe not even this calendar year."

Ruby sighed, glancing at the project’s original pitch deck. The glossy slides had sold a vision of seamless HR workflows integrated into the ServiceNow rollout.

Now, as the project progressed, it was clear that Corporate’s expectations weren’t going to match reality anytime soon—and now Rubes was left to manage the fallout.

"Great," she muttered, closing the email. "Now I have to explain why we’re not delivering what we promised."

When the business case oversells the benefits and reality doesn’t match the promise, here’s how to manage expectations without losing trust:

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"Out of office until May. Try Sibylla for urgent matters."

Jordan sighed as another auto-reply popped up in his inbox. It was the third one so far today, and he was running out of people to escalate to.

The project timeline was already tight, and now half the decision-makers seemed to be camping somewhere or soaking up the vibes at Bluesfest.

April was always like this. What with Easter, school holidays and ANZAC Day, it felt like the whole country pressed pause.

And with most people not back until the 28th, Jordan knew he had to keep things moving without the usual decision-makers in the room.

"Alright," he muttered, opening his stakeholder tracker. "Time to work some magic before this whole thing grinds to a halt."

When holiday season leaves your stakeholders out of reach, here are a couple of ideas to help keep momentum without losing your mind:

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"Hey Alex!" Tom stuck his head around the office door, grinning. "Just wanted to let you know there’s no need for change management for this rollout.

The product owner will send a heads-up email next week, and we've pencilled in a training session for June.

That should do it, yeah?"

Alex looked up from her screen and laughed.

She genuinely liked Tom - his enthusiasm for the project was infectious, even if his idea of change management was... endearing.

"Come here for a sec," she said, gesturing to the chair near her desk.

"I've been mapping out what our teams will need to make this work, and I reckon you'll find this interesting.

You know how Finance always gets slammed at end of quarter...?"

When the project team has a ‘different’ view of what change management involves, here's how to keep adding value while maintaining great relationships:

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"Everyone seems on board with the change," Zara reported to her project team. "Lots of head-nodding in the briefings."

But something felt off.

The same stakeholders who'd enthusiastically agreed to be change champions hadn't shown up to a single meeting.

Her inbox was full of "Sorry, crazy busy!" responses, and whenever she dropped by their desks for a chat, they were mysteriously "just heading to a meeting."

"Time to face facts," she said to her empty office, opening her stakeholder engagement tracker. "All these polite 'yes' responses are actually silent nos."

When your stakeholders are masters of the polite dodge and every 'yes' sounds suspiciously like 'not a chance,' here's how to cut through the courtesy:

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Remember how the Executive said they were happy with a phased rollout?" Priya's colleague messaged her on Teams. "Yeah, now they want to go big bang. By end of June."

Priya stared at her change timeline, covered in carefully planned engagement activities stretching over nine months. Nine months that had just turned into three.

Her laptop pinged again. "Oh, and they want everyone trained before go-live now, not just the pilot groups."

"Fantastic," Priya rolled her eyes in her empty office, pulling up her stakeholder matrix on her screen. "Three months of planning down the drain, and about 2,000 more people to train than we'd planned for."

When your executive's vision changes faster than Melbourne weather and your carefully crafted change approach is falling apart, here's how to stay sane:

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"Just heard from the Program Manager. Go-live's pushed back. Again."

Maya stared at her change impact assessment, now covered in crossed-out dates and question marks. Third delay this quarter.

Her stakeholders had been patient with the first shift, sceptical about the second, and now...

The Change Champs slack channel she’d set up told the story.

Where stakeholders once fired back immediate responses and jumped at workshop invites, now every message felt like shouting into the void.

That early energy about the change was slipping away, one unanswered message at a time.

"Here we go," she said to her empty office, pulling up the stakeholder matrix on her screen. "Need to stop the eye-rolling before it becomes contagious."

When your go-live date feels like a moving target and your stakeholders are losing faith, here's how to keep your change program from unravelling:

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"So Corporate wants everyone using the new digital approval workflow, but the regional teams are pushing back hard," said Jordan from Finance.

"They reckon their assessors are on the road 90% of the time and need a different process."

Lisa nodded, adding another sticky note to her change impact canvas.

IT wanted a single, standardised process for cyber security. HR needed flexible options for their part-time managers. And the field teams? They were adamant their 5:00 am starts in remote areas meant any system requiring a laptop was a deal-breaker.

Through her home office window, Lisa watched autumn leaves scattering in different directions.

Five different business units, five different ways of working, and one enterprise-wide change that needed to land by July.

"Well, this is fun," she sighed, reaching for her notebook. "Another 'one size fits nobody' situation to sort out."

When your business units are as aligned as cats at bath time, here's how to navigate the "but we're different!" conversations without losing your mind:

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"Sorry, I know I said I'd help with stuff, but I've got three reports due by Friday, two team members off sick, and my inbox is exploding."

Kai stared at the message from Nina, one of his most enthusiastic change champions.

Through the open-plan office window, he could see the late afternoon autumn sun casting long shadows - a bit like his change network lately, showing up briefly and then disappearing into the chaos of their day jobs.

He glanced at his change champion meeting attendance sheet.

Last month: 15 people. This month: 4 people and a sad plate of untouched Tim Tams.

"Right," he said, grabbing his notebook. "Time to stop pretending BAU isn't eating them alive."

Let's get real - your change champions aren't ghosting you because they don't care.

They're drowning in their day jobs, and those "quick tasks" you’ve asked them to do are just one more thing on their endless to-do list.

Here's how to keep your network alive when BAU is going bonkers:

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"So the staff numbers I gave you last week... they're not quite right," said Nathan from Corporate, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

"And that whole end-of-financial-year impact we discussed? It's actually going to affect different teams than what I originally said."

Mel felt her stomach drop as she looked at her change impact assessment - the one she'd spent weeks crafting based on Nathan's initial input about team structures and business cycles.

The one that was shaping her entire stakeholder engagement approach and training schedule.

Through the window, she could see the first autumn leaves starting to fall. Just like her carefully planned change approach, everything was up in the air again…

"Plus," Nathan added, clearing his throat, "remember how I said the regional teams would be minimally impacted? Well..."

"Okay, wait, I need a coffee," Mel said, pulling out KeepCup. "Time to figure out what's really going on here."

If your SMEs keep shifting the goalposts about who's impacted and how, don't stress.

Here's a practical, step-by-step approach to getting to the real story (inspired by Lean Change Management principles):

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"I need to reschedule our catch-up," says the message from Aisha's Executive Sponsor.

Through her office window, the February sun blazed as Aisha tried to make sense of her calendar - already a Tetris game of moving pieces and shifting priorities.

Her Exec Sponsor was absolutely lovely and one of the organisation's most effective executives - always delivering, always across the detail, just... incredibly time-poor.

With three major program decisions needing sign-off this week, Aisha needed to find a better way to work with her Sponsor's packed schedule.

"New year, new approach," she said, opening her notebook with fresh determination. "Time to level up how we do this."

As Peter Drucker famously said, "Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed."

If you're working with a time-poor Exec Sponsor (and let's face it, who isn't these days?), here are three strategies to keep your change program moving:

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"Everyone was so enthusiastic in the workshop though!"

Maya scrolled through her photos from the co-design sessions she'd held back in early December - sticky notes everywhere, energetic discussions, genuine excitement about the new ways of working. Yet here she was, watching people steadfastly ignore everything they'd agreed to.

The new workflow dashboard? Untouched.

The weekly case review meetings? Dropped after the first attempt.

The feedback loop they'd all championed? Crickets.

She opened her workshop summary document, filled with photos of smiling participants and dot-voted priorities.

"What happened between then and now?" she wondered.

If your workshop enthusiasm isn't translating into real change (and you're wondering why great sessions aren't leading to actual behaviour change), here are three strategies to bridge that gap:

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"Wait, what do you mean Finance is also implementing a workflow tool?"

Rachel stared at her coffee cup, trying to process what she'd just heard.

Apparently, the Finance team had secured funding for their own automation project. With striking similarities to the one her team was already six months into delivering.

Her mind raced through the implications.

Two different tools. Two different vendors. Same core problem they were trying to solve.

"And how long has this been in play?" she asked carefully.

"Oh, about three months now. We're actually looking at going live around the same time as your project."

If you've just discovered your project has an unexpected twin, here are three change management strategies to help your stakeholders navigate this situation:

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"Hope you had a great break! Quick update - I caught up with Jane (CIO) over the holidays. We've agreed to include the Policy Division's workflow in the new system. Shouldn't be a big deal to add this now. Can you update the change approach accordingly?

Thanks, Mark

Executive Sponsor, XYZ Change Program"

Amy stared at her screen, her coffee suddenly tasting very bitter.

The email thread that followed showed a series of enthusiastic messages between the Sponsor and CIO, casually expanding what was already a complex change program.

She glanced at the project poster still hanging on her wall from December - the one with the carefully negotiated scope, timeline, and resource plan. The one that had taken three months to get signed off. The one that definitely didn't include the Policy Division's notoriously complicated workflow.

"Happy freaking new year to me," she groaned, reaching for the emergency Tim Tams she kept in her desk.

If you've just discovered the change program has... expanded (because apparently scope creep doesn't take holidays), here are three ways to handle it without losing that post-vacation zen:

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"Welcome back! Can we catch up this week? Need to discuss some changes we're thinking about..."

Tegan stared at her inbox, watching similar meeting requests pile up. After three blissful weeks of not thinking about the transformation program, her calendar was rapidly filling with stakeholders wanting to "grab a coffee and catch up."

She glanced at her notebook from December, trying to decipher her pre-holiday handwriting. Something about a steering committee decision? And what was that arrow pointing to?

"Right," she sighed, reaching for her third coffee of the morning. "Time to pretend I remember where we were up to."

If you're facing the back-to-work blur (and wondering how to get your change program moving again without overwhelming everyone), here are three ways to make your first week back actually productive:

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"I've been offered another role. My last day is Friday."

Jess stared at her screen, reading and re-reading the email from Michael, her star change champion in Finance.

The one who'd spent months building support for the new system. The one who actually understood how the new system worked. The one who...was now leaving in four days.

She glanced at the calendar - late January, half her stakeholders still on leave, and now this. Perfect.

"Well sh*t, what do I do now?"

If you're dealing with an unexpected departure (and let's be real, January is prime time for job changes), here are three things you can actually control:

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