"And where were you six months ago when we tried to tell everyone this wouldn't work?"

Mel tried not to flinch as Steve's voice rose across the meeting room. Around the table, his four team members sat with arms firmly crossed, nodding in agreement.

The air conditioning hummed in the background, doing nothing to cool the tension in the room.

She'd been warned this team was "resistant to change." But sitting here now, three weeks into her role as Change Manager, Mel was starting to see the real story.

This wasn't resistance - this was a group that had been trying to be heard for months.

If you're facing a group of stakeholders who've been burned by not being heard (and let's be real, who wants to deal with heated conversations right now - the weather’s already hot enough!), here are three ways to turn it around:

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"Oh great, another transformation project," muttered Chris, not even trying to hide his eye roll. "Because the last one worked out so well..."

Maya, the new Change Manager, felt the temperature in the room drop ten degrees (and not in a good, air-conditioned way).

She glanced at her predecessor's handover notes: "Stakeholders were promised X, Y, and Z. None delivered."

Scanning the room, she counted four crossed arms, three sceptical eyebrows, and enough emotional scar tissue to fill a change management textbook.

When the Australian cricket team faced their trust crisis after 'Sandpapergate', they rebuilt their reputation step by step.

As we watch this summer's cricket season unfold, there are some powerful lessons we can apply to change management.

Here's how:

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"This year, I'm going to be more organised", Ben thought, attempting his third poolside cocktail-in-one-hand, phone-notes-in-the-other juggle.

Like most New Year's resolutions, it felt both optimistic and slightly delusional.

His attempt at a January kickstart last year had involved three days of back-to-back workshops, seventeen coffee runs, and one major meltdown (his).

The change program eventually got moving... somewhere around March.

But now, watching his kids invent a game that seemed to involve minimal movement but maximum impact (something about using the pool noodle as a water cannon), Ben had an epiphany.

Maybe the secret wasn't working harder in January - it was working smarter.

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"Good luck! Hope nothing breaks while we're all at the beach hahahaha!"

Alex winced as Sarah from IT's parting words echoed in his head. She'd tossed them over her shoulder yesterday, heading off for three weeks of camping with a cheerful wave.

Now, at 2am, the day before Christmas Eve, he was still awake scrolling through his "Go-Live Readiness" checklist for the hundredth time.

Technical requirements? Check. User training? Check. Stakeholder sign-off? Check.

So why can't he shake the knot in his stomach about their January 1st go-live?

If you're staring down the barrel of a January 1st go-live, we’re sorry!

Here are two critical moves that we use (and that most Go Live Checklists forget):

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Emma looked at her calendar and grinned. Only a week until her well-earned beach break. Three glorious weeks of sun, surf, and definitely not thinking about the transformation program.

Then her smile faded slightly as she remembered last year's post-holiday pain: returning to find momentum had completely flatlined, stakeholders had forgotten key decisions, and getting the program moving again had taken until March.

"Not this time," she murmured, pulling up her Change Canvas. "What can I set up now to keep this alive while we're all living our best beach lives?"

Here are three smart moves you can make now to keep your change program cooking while you're enjoying that poolside cocktail:

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Noah, the change lead for the national standardisation project, stands in the Brisbane office, facing a visibly frustrated Will, the Branch Head.

Between them, a laptop showing an email from Canberra that practically radiated impatience.

"...expect full compliance with the new standardised processes by end of Q4..." the message demanded.

Will gestures to a whiteboard covered in everything they’ve talked about in the past hour.

"Seriously, Noah. Our localised approach has boosted customer satisfaction by 15%. Those idiots in the Canberra Office just don't get it."

Noah nodded, mind racing.

How can he harmonise National's drive for consistency with Brisbane's proven local success?

In our world of organisational change, this kind of conflict between the national office and state or regional offices is something that comes up all.the.time.

Here’s some cool ideas that have worked for us if you’re dealing with this conflict now:

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Jamie and Bri step into the lift, both worn out after another long day.

"Any word from Nathan?" Bri asks, her voice tinged with a little hope and a lot of frustration. Nathan is the change program’s Executive Sponsor and he’s been MIA for the past 3 months…

Jamie shakes his head, sighing. "Still nothing. We’ve submitted a bunch of reports and strategies that need his clearance, and we're just... stuck, still waiting."

Bri nods, understanding all too well.

As the lift doors closed, both fell silent, minds racing with the same thought: How can they break this cycle and finally move forward?

It’s beyond frustrating when the Exec Sponsor is the bottleneck for everything! If your Exec Sponsor’s MIA too, here’s what works for us:

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Alex leaned back in his chair, rubbing his tired eyes. The whiteboard in the CMO's meeting room was a chaotic mess of project timelines, all overlapping and bleeding into each other.

Five team restructures, two new Directors, and a constant influx of new initiatives had left the entire Change Management Office feeling like they were running on fumes.

"OMG another one?" groaned Priya, the engagement lead, as she squinted at the latest addition to their workload. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the last one."

"Tell me about it," chimed in Raj, one of the change managers. "I can't remember the last time I had a weekend without my laptop."

Alex nodded sympathetically. As a fellow change manager, he was struggling with the weight of constant flux too. It sucked.

And the irony wasn't lost on him - they were the ones supposed to be guiding others through change, yet here they were, struggling to keep their heads above water.

He glanced around at his colleagues. It was clear: the CMO itself needed their own kind of change strategy to combat their growing fatigue.

Sound like you? Here are some ideas that have worked well for us in similar situations:

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Josh stood before a room of blank faces, the silence deafening.

His carefully crafted presentation on the upcoming digital transformation hung in the air, met with a wall of indifference.

He could almost hear the collective eye-rolls and stifled yawns.

"Any questions?" he asked, his voice wavering slightly. The words seemed to evaporate in the dull conference room.

A single hand raised tentatively. "Um, when exactly is this happening?" came a hesitant voice from the back.

Josh's heart sank. After weeks of communication, was that really all they had to ask?

He could tell they didn’t give a sh*t.

As he packed up his laptop, the pit in his stomach growing, Josh couldn't shake the feeling that despite all their planning, this change initiative was already losing steam.

"How the hell can I get people more engaged?", he wondered, his mind racing for a solution.

Little did Josh know, the answer to his woes could be found in an unlikely pair: a Hollywood animation studio and an e-commerce giant.

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Sarah's heart raced as she stared at her computer screen, the cursor blinking accusingly in the empty email draft.

"How am I supposed to explain this when I barely understand it myself?" she muttered, running her hand through her hair.

Just yesterday, the Executive Board had announced a major digital transformation initiative.

The problem? The specifics were about as clear as a foggy morning in Melbourne.

Sarah's stomach churned. She glanced at the clock - 4:45 PM. In 15 minutes, she had a meeting with the Executive Sponsor, who was expecting a full communication plan.

She could almost hear his voice: "We need to get ahead of this, Sarah. People are talking."
She took a deep breath, trying to quell the rising panic. "Right," she said to herself, squaring her shoulders. "Time to make sense of the senseless."

Designing messaging and communication plans when there’s so much uncertainty can be so stressful.

If you’re feeling this pain right now, here are some ideas that have worked for us:

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